Workforce development offers opportunities for workers, companies

Jane Addams Resource Corp. (JARC) specializes in workforce development and supports healthy communities and economies by teaching low-income adults and workers the skills they need to earn a living wage.

By Danielle Hoske May 9, 2022

Courtesy: JARC

Learning Objectives

Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) specializes in workforce development.
They help low-skilled workers build technical skills and facilitate upward mobility in their careers.
Developing their skills improves manufacturers’ ability to retain qualified employees.

An aging workforce, emerging new technologies and continuing decline of trades in high schools and community colleges will result in an estimated 2 million unfilled manufacturing jobs in the U.S. over the next 10 years. This is a tragedy when so many people struggle to pay bills, find a job with a livable wage and support their families in cities like Chicago, which have a high cost of living.

Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) is a 501c3 organization specializing in workforce development, including workplace safety, metrology, statistical process control, G-code programming and welding processes. They support healthy communities and economies by teaching low-income adults and workers the skills they need to earn a living wage. JARC goes beyond basic skills training and connects job seekers with good jobs in the manufacturing sector. By providing integrated services, JARC trainees can develop life skills that can help create a pathway out of poverty.

JARC has sites and offers programs in the cities of Chicago and Baltimore and is currently scaling up to offer services in Rhode Island and Indiana within the next 5 years. The goal of JARC’s Careers in Manufacturing Programs (CMP) is preparing job seekers for careers in the metalworking and advanced manufacturing industries.

Training CNC operators, welders; financial coaching

JARC has a dual-strategy approach to poverty alleviation. The Sector strategy prepares low-income jobseekers for middle-skill positions employers need to fill today such as computer numerical control (CNC) operator and welder. The Center for Working Families strategy helps families move past financial distress to financial stability through comprehensive support services like financial coaching and public benefits screening.

It is the long-term focus and intersection of these two strategies that leads to the strongest outcomes for disadvantaged jobseekers and their families. The combination has proven to be effective in propelling low-income individuals to middle-class status.

Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) customizes training curricula for each incumbent worker training class to address a company’s needs and training gaps. Courtesy: JARC

Incumbent worker training advances skills, job retention

In addition to providing alternative pathways to careers and mobilizing low-income adults, JARC’s Business and Workforce Services (BWS) provides customized incumbent worker training for manufacturing employer partners. The goal of the BWS training is to elevate the incumbent workers’ skill levels to ensure job retention and future wage increases.

The classes help low-skilled workers build technical skills and facilitate upward career mobility. These also optimize the employers’ ability to develop and retain qualified employees and increase their competitiveness.

Develop a training plan with employer partners

Over the last 25 years, JARC has developed a model of customized, employer-driven programs that weave together coursework, demonstration of hands-on competencies, and relevant industry credentials. JARC works with its employer partners to understand their manufacturing processes, technologies and cultures. JARC then develops high-quality workforce training to align with employer partner business goals. JARC develops customized training curricula for each incumbent worker training class to address that company’s needs and training gaps. High-demand incumbent worker classes include workplace safety, print reading, metrology, statistical process control, geometric dimensioning and tolerances, G-code programming and welding processes.

Danielle Hoske, director of development, data and communications, Jane Addams Resource Center (JARC). Edited by Chris Vavra, web content manager, Control Engineering, CFE Media and Technology, cvavra@cfemedia.com.