Gathered in rooms X, Y, and Z of the city’s Municipal Services Building last week, 69 City of Philadelphia workers got a leg up on their future.

That’s because the group graduated from the College and Career Advancement Program, an initiative that helps municipal workers improve their reading, writing and mathematics.

Funded by the Mayor’s Commission on Literacy, and with instructors from the School of Social Administration’s Center for Social Policy and Community Development, the Center for Literacy, and municipal union 1199C’s Training Fund, the program is designed to provide the necessary skills for those seeking to advance in their jobs, take the civil service examination or pursue further education.

For Altermease Holmes, a collection customer representative for the Water Revenue Bureau, the graduation represented the first step toward fulfilling a lifelong goal.

“I needed to go back to school,” she said. “I want to do something different. I had gone to college before my son was born and I kept putting off going back. Once I got past all of the obstacles that you put in front of yourself, I was fine. I began looking forward to it.”

About 200 city workers will participate in the program this fiscal year, said Ulicia Lawrence, assistant program coordinator for the CSPCD. The program was made possible through a Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Network grant.

“This was done in collaboration with supervisors in different departments,” Lawrence said. “Those accepted in the program shared the cost of five hour per week class time.  Each contributed two and one half hours, for the department and participant. There has been a lot of success with this.”

Prior to receiving their certificates, the group was congratulated by Sharon Tucker, deputy chief education officer for the Mayor’s Office of Education, Siobhan Reardon, president and director of the Free Library of Philadelphia and Monique Gilchrist of Graduate Philadelphia, a program that encourages Philadelphians with college credits to go back and complete their degrees. Temple is one of Graduate! Philadelphia’s 15 partner schools.

Taking the step toward college can pay very real dividends, Gilchrist said.

“A bachelor’s degree is worth more than $1 million over your lifetime,” she said. “Right now is the best time to get a little extra education.”

The beaming graduates were given their certificates of completion in a ceremony that featured all of the elements of any graduation: raucous applause, happy family snapping pictures and lots and lots of hugs.

But for Holmes, the celebration was only a beginning. On June 26, her road to a bachelor’s degree in Business and Organizational Management begins.

“My birthday is on June 20, and this was a birthday present to myself,” she said.

The city program continues through June 2010.