2015 Career Connections

Career Connections

February 25, 2015

COMMUNITY COMMITMENT

CHANDLER WEST/Staff Photographer

Valerie Galvan, 38, works on a weld at Freedman Seating Company, located in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. Galvan is a former student of Jane Addams Resource Corporation.

PUTTING PEOPLE BACK TO WORK IN AUSTIN PAGE 3 JOB READY AND READY TO WORK PAGE 5 | MAKING ADVANCED MANUFACTURING WORK IN AUSTIN PAGE 6

Austin Coming Together

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The Advanced Manufacturing The Advanced Manufacturing CAREER CONNECTIONS The Industry Advanced Manufacturing Industry is Now Hiring! is Now Hiring!

Industry is Now Hiring!

The Advanced Manufacturing Industry is Now Hiring!

Austin Weekly News, February 25, 2015

Austin Career Connect Austin Career Connect

Austin Career Connect

your gateway to careers in your gateway to careers in Advanced Manufacturing Austin Career Connect

your gateway to a career in Advanced Manufacturing The Advanced Manufacturin your gateway to careers in Advanced Manufacturing Industry is Now Hiring!

Advanced Manufacturing

Austin Career Connect is an initiative of the Austin Workforce Collaborative dedicated to engaging career development professionals Austin Careerand Connect is an initiative of the recruiting community members for enrollment Austin Career Connect is an initiative of the Austin Workforce Austin Workforce Collaborative dedicated to in advanced manufacturing training programs.

Austin Career C

engaging development professionals and Austin Career Connect is anto initiative ofcareer the Collaborative dedicated engaging career development recruiting community members for enrollment Austin Workforce Collaborative dedicated to professionals and recruiting community members for enrollment in advanced manufacturing training programs. engaging career development professionals and inPlease advanced manufacturing training recruiting community members for enrollment call Austin Coming Together atprograms.

(773) 417-8610, or Austin Career Connect is an initiative of the in email advanced training programs. us atmanufacturing ACT@austincomingtogether, to sign up for our Austin Workforce Collaborative dedicated to engaging career development professionals and next Austin Career Connect Orientation: recruiting community members for enrollment

your gateway to car Advanced Manufac

Please Austin Together at (773) 417-8610, or MONDAY, JANUARY 26TH FROMcall 5PM-7PM ATComing 231 N. PINE

in advanced manufacturing training programs.

Please call Austin Coming Together at (773) 417-8610 email us at ACT@austincomingtogether, to sign up for our or pre-register for our next Austin Connect orientation Please call Austin Coming Together atCareer (773) 417-8610, or next Austin Career Connect Orientation: Please call Austin Coming Together at (773) 417-8610, or email us at ACT@austincomingtogether, to sign up for our email us at ACT@austincomingtogether, to sign up for our at austincomingtogether.org/austin-career-connect-rsvp MONDAY, JANUARY 26TH FROM 5PM-7PM 231 N. PINE next AustinAT Career Connect Orientation: next Austin Career Connect Orientation: MONDAY, JANUARY 26TH FROM 5PM-7PM AT 231 N. PINE

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CAREER CONNECTIONS I N T ROD U CT ION

Welcome to Austin

F

or most jobseekers in challenged communities, lack of employment opportunities is a reality they face on a daily basis, as they wait to be placed in a low skill or low wage job at their local employment center. While these jobs can greatly help alleviate an individual’s immediate economic needs and circumstances, in many cases this stability is short lived. Community members need greater support in attaining a career to achieve longlived sustainability.

In Austin, community leaders—career training and social service providers-- are coming together to ensure low income adults have the prospect of obtaining further education and credentials to improve their lives; help young people develop the basic skills which will lead to long-term employment and economic self-sufficiency; and assist those re-entering society to acquire the life and job skills to become productive citizens.

Throughout this publication are instances of these leaders’ commitment to creating pathways to living wage careers for the under and unemployed. I hope you will be inspired to join their efforts in developing a career-ready Austin workforce!

Darnell Shields Director of Operations Austin Coming Together

Austin Weekly News, February 25, 2015

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Putting people back to work in Austin

By Deb Quantock McCarey Within a 5-mile radius of Austin Polytechnical Academy are about 700 small to mid-size, family-owned manufacturing companies, many of which are ongoing partners to two job-readiness training programs -- Manufacturing Connect for students and Austin Manufacturing Training Center (AMTC) for adults.

Erica Swinney, program director for Manufacturing Renaissance, says these employers are eager to hire her next cohort of highly skilled, advanced manufacturing job seekers.

Even so, Swinney says she cannot crank out job candidates quickly enough to meet employers’ needs. That’s why, in collaboration with Austin Coming Together (ACT), and with a small but powerful collective of social service providers and job readiness training pros, she participates in ACT’s Austin Workforce Collaborative.

The Collaborative’s aim, she says, is to make a collective impact in the Austin area by leveraging the nonprofit groups’ skills and resources.

For Swinney, and the group as a whole, it is a proactive and strategic way to move the needle on a workforce issue she says is too big to tackle alone.

“We knew that if we could ‘un-silo’ ourselves, and work collectively with nonprofits that have overlapping services, we could increase the number of Austin residents who could take advantage of the job readiness training and bridge programming now in place,” says Darnell Shields, Director of Operations at ACT. “We want to create transparency and avenues for coordination among employers and workforce development agencies in the high-skilled manufacturing sector.”

The effort has been funded by JP Morgan Chase Foundation, and includes participation by the Safer Foundation, St. Joseph Services, Prevail and other stakeholders.

Agents of change…

ACT’s Austin Workforce Collaborative sought to bridge accessible job-training opportunities with the City Colleges’ ongoing basic skills pro-

Photo by William Camargo

James Cox, 32, a Bronzeville welder at Dudek & Bock, welds parts together during his shift. (Below) Makalani Akinshiju programs a Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) milling machine at the Austin Manufacturing Training Center, an adult-training program on the Austin High School Campus. Makalani completed the program earning five nationally-recognized credentials from the National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS). gramming in literacy and math. This initiative, called the Austin Empowerment Project, was housed at Spencer Academy and served more than 60 participants in 2013.

These efforts attracted the attention of the Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC), a north-side-based job training provider that serves Austin residents. “JARC has a good track record and is known for its performance in getting individuals trained, then placed in jobs,” Shields explains. Soon after JARC’s Associate Director of Programs-Regan Brewer joined, the Collaborative began Photo by Erica Swinney to intensify its focus on increasing the number of individuals who can qualify for highly skilled careers in advanced manufacturing.

“We know we are filling a need because currently the companies cannot find skilled people with specific training, and when a candidate comes from a service provider such as JARC or Manufacturing Renaissance, the company

knows that they are going to have the thresholdlevel and high-tech skills needed to get onto the production floor pretty quickly,” Brewer says.

Last year, researchers at Dominican University were tapped to survey the status of advanced manufacturing training programs serving Austin’s residents and manufacturers.

“We were excited to be able to harness and use the data and research to build collaboration among the providers,” said Jacob Lesniewski, Assistant Professor at Dominican University’s Graduate School of Social Work.

Still, post-survey, one of the big questions remaining unaddressed is “How can we boost interest in these programs?” says Kathleen Odell, Associate Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Center for Global Peace through Commerce at Dominican University.

“When you go into some of these manufacturing companies on the West Side of Chicago, there are not a lot of people from the West Side, community residents, working there,” Brewer says. “I think that was and is the connection for ACT: trying to get more local people into those companies.”

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Austin Weekly News, February 25, 2015

CAREER CONNECTIONS

Job ready and ready to work

By Deb Quantock McCarey

A

t age 20, Torres Hughes, a 2012 graduate of Austin Polytechnical Academy (APA) in Chicago, started a career in advanced manufacturing at Freedman Seating Company, a long-time employer that has been based on the West Side of Chicago for over 120 years.

Since January 2014, on the production floor of this mid-size, multi-generational manufacturer, Hughes says he has been operating a Five Axis Tube Bender. With it, and on a good day, he says he can crank out between 600 and 1,000 coach bus seats.

His aim, he says, is to learn the coding to program the machine.

Nearby, 34-year-old Bianca Tilmon is 8 months on the job, and enjoying the physicality of her new job as a certified welder.

Her 4 P.M. to 12:30 A.M. shift begins in the employee locker room, where she puts on her protective gear: a helmet, earplugs, leggings, welding jacket and tool belt.

Two days a week, Tilmon is bettering her on-the-job skillset by attending an incumbent employee welding apprentice program.

Once completed, Tilmon says she will have earned a certification in TIG Welding, an arc welding process, a practice that uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode to produce the weld.

It is a step up from the certification she earned at Jane Addams Resource Corporation’s (JARC) Fast Track Welding program, the

one that enabled her to shift from the service industry to this, she says.

Welding, as well as knowing how to operate a computer numeric controlled (CNC) machine, says Craig Freedman, president

Photos by William Camargo go

(Above) Tawnee McCluskey 28, lead welder at Dudek & Bock, gets ready to start her morning shift. (Inset) Close-up view of James Cox welding parts together during his shift. Dudek & Bock is a family business but also strives to give jobs to the communities around and in Austin. (Below left) Counter balance springs lie on a table.

Dudek & Bock is located in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago’s west side. The company has been in Chicago since 1946.

of Freedman Seating, are among a full spectrum of high tech skills needed to enter into this industry now.

Still, even though the opportunity to create a career doing this labor is promising for a widening

population of prospects, the pool of skilled workers qualified to step in isn’t even ankle deep.

In February, Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel joined Freedman Seating’s president, and Alderman Emma Mitts, to cut the ribbon to officially open the West Side plant’s expansion. This event was held in recognition of Freedman being selected to manufacture seats for a new fleet of CTA buses.

In all, just under 300 new jobs on the West Side of Chicago will be created by Freedman, said a City of Chicago press release.

“We are moving the dial in the right direction, even if it is at the micro level,” says Freedman, “because of the next generation of advanced manufacturing workers who already have a handle on the world of technology, and are eager to learn more. There are also a vast

number of unfilled jobs, even in my company, mpany, for positions ons that require the he operation and programming mming of CNC machinery. APA and Jane Addams, and all of them do a great job, but these places need to be replicated to provide a larger pipeline to fill the thousands of unfilled jobs that are out there.”

Training generation next…

Regan Brewer, the Associate Director of Programs at JARC, adds that bridging the skills gap in advanced manufacturing is critical and challenging. Companies that are located in and near the West Side of Chicago are affording new job opportunities for a wide assortment of displaced workers, including a population Kathleen Dudek of Dudek and Bock believes de-

serve a second chance.

“Whirlpool is our largest customer, and for them we make the augers that spit out the ice,” Dudek says, adding that her company also manufactures parts for all the American cars, as well as Toyota and Honda. “So, we have positions open with all the tool making, but no one is out there. We need more critical thinkers, people who are fast, smart and can think on their own.”

One such person has been 28-year-old Tawnee McCluskey.

She is also a graduate of JARC’s welding program, and recently has become a welding instructor for the nonprofit, she says.

CAREER CONNECTIONS

Austin Weekly News, February 25, 2015

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CHANDLER WEST/Staff Photographer

Counting on this career…

Before this, though, McCluskey Brewer adds that for people who says she was a methamphetamine addict who ended up serving a may be facing significant barriers nearly 4-year sentence at the fed- to employment, including having eral prison in Greenville. While a prison record, there is an auincarcerated, she was introduced thentic career path in advanced manufacturing, as most employers to the world of welding.

“We didn’t have any welder on in manufacturing are going to be staff before Tawnee. We started more lenient than perhaps an emto go into robotics, and she does ployer in another field.

“I have a 23-year-old who is makrobotic welding.

She learned ing $35 an hour,” that from Jane Brewer says. “He Addams,” says was able to marry Dudek, adding his girlfriend. They that when a clihave a child togethent wanted a part requiring er and he was able a robotic weldto get an apartment. ing machine, He was homeless her company when he first came Tawnee McCluskey purchased it, to us; to go from Dudek and Bock welder training Mcbeing homeless, Cluskey on the to in about a year new technology and a half, making and promoting her to a lead welder enough money to settle down and position. start raising a family, that is the “I never imagined it would be appeal.” such a success for me, with me beUpon release from prison in ing a lead person, overseeing other August 2012 Ervin Freeman, 45, people’s jobs and production,” decided, “this time, I am giving says McCluskey. “That is just so myself a chance. I am right now far out there that even thinking sitting here as a transformed and talking about it out loud now, man,” he says. it’s hard to believe that I’m talking That resolve drove Freeman into about me.” gathering the courage to take the Over his lunch break, James qualifying literacy and math apCox, 32, is saying how as a former titude test. After passing that, he felon, he appreciated the chance entered the job readiness course to qualify for and undergo JARC’s work at Austin Manufacturing rigorous job training regimen.

Training Center (AMTC) at Austin Earning that certification, he Polytechnical Academy. says, gave him the qualifications to He says it wasn’t easy, but he land an entry-level welding job at did earn his National Institute of Dudek and Bock, where he spends Metal Workers Skills (NIMS) certihis day welding together parts for fication, and now holds a job as a cameras used in the plumbing in- machine operator at Kay Manufacdustry. turing in Calumet City.

“When you bring a kid [or an adult] into our machine shop, right away, you see their eyes get large when they realize that ‘I can learn to program that machine, and I can make these things with it…a fancy belt buckle, an airplane in the sky, or the Lexus sitting outside, because a skilled workforce is the lifeblood of these products being made,” says Erica Swinney, program director for the

Valerie Galvan, 38, a welder at Freedman Seating Company, located in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, shows off some of her work on Friday, February 6, 2015. Galvan is a former student of Jane Addams Resource Corporation. (Left) Evaristo Alvarez and a coworker piece together a set of chairs slated for a CTA Bus, at Freedman Seating Company, located in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. student and adult job readiness training program for Manufacturing Renaissance at APA. Meanwhile, Hughes feels his future may already be in view.

“Who’s going to keep these companies going when the people working

in them, or running them now, age out? It’s going to be me,” he says. “I don’t get $25 or $27 an hour yet, but hey, a couple of years down the line, I may be in one of those lead positions. At Freedman, there is lots of room, and opportunities, to grow.”

“I never imagined it would be such a success for me.”

Photo by William Camargo

A view of the work area at Dudek & Bock, a springs and wire forms company located in Chicago’s West Side neighborhood of Austin.

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CAREER CONNECTIONS

Austin Weekly News, February 25, 2015

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CAREER CONNECTIONS

Austin Weekly News, February 25, 2015

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Making Advanced Manufacturing work in Austin A Q&A with Dan Swinney of Manufacturing Renaissance

I

by Deb Quantock McCarey

n 2005, Dan Swinney, the former machinist who is the executive director of Manufacturing Renaissance, joined forces with 10 unlikely allies from the business, nonprofit and public sectors to form the Chicagoland Manufacturing Renaissance Council (CMRC).

As its managing partner, he led the creation of Manufacturing Connect at Austin Polytechnical Academy (APA). It is a successful school-based manufacturing skills training and certification program.

“There is a growing network of leaders and organizations that are advancing a public agenda on advanced manufacturing that recognizes the need for a reasonable return on investment by owners, management, and shareholders, but are principally driven by a commitment to manufacturing as the essential means to achieving social objectives in communities like Austin” Swinney adds.

AWN: What is the Manufacturing Innovation District?

Swinney: It will be an ecosystem on Chicago’s West Side that

in West Side residents getting jobs.

And other area organizations have great training programs as well.

With this educational infrastructure in place, a Manufacturing Innovation District becomes possible. As Swinney says, “If we can meet the talent needs of existing companies, we can also begin to recruit manufacturing companies to locate production on the West Side and in Austin.”

includes manufacturing companies, research and development centers, an education and training infrastructure, and community-based business development organizations—all focused on bringing more manufacturing jobs to the West Side.

It’s a new model for community development based on successful European models. We are working in partnership with Austin Coming Together, JP Morgan Chase, the Illinois Medical District, the Delta Institute, World Business Chicago, the Alliance for Regional Development and others to make this happen.

AWN: Any successes?

AWN: Where will the District be located?

Swinney: In Austin, the Illinois Medical District, and other West Side communities that have vacant properties such as the Brach site. These vacant sites have been symbols of decay—we want them to become symbols of development and growth.

AWN: Why now?

Swinney: It is estimated that there are 20,000 jobs in advanced manufacturing going

Photo by Erica Swinney

Pablo Valera, an instructor at Austin Polytechnical Academy, with a group of students. unfilled in the region paying $75,000 a year when you include benefits.

This challenge gets worse with the exit of the baby boomer generation from the manufacturing workforce.

We founded Austin Polytechnical

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Proud member of the Chicago business community for over 120 years.

4545 W. Augusta Blvd. Chicago, IL 60651 www.freedmanseating.com jobs@freedmanseating.com

HIGH-SKILLED WELDERS, LASER & PRESS BRAKE OPERATORS

Academy in partnership with Chicago Public Schools as a high school that is focused on preparing the next generation of leaders in all aspects of manufacturing, including skilled production jobs, positions in management, and ownership to meet this challenge. Currently, 55 manufacturing companies are partnering with us. Upon graduation, some of our students are getting career jobs and others are going to college to get engineering degrees to prepare them for careers in advanced manufacturing. We also initiated an adult training program in the school that is resulting

Swinney: The first company, PMS Medikal, which manufactures high tech sterilization equipment and consumerables for hospitals, has signed a lease to set up production in the Illinois Medical District. Within the next two quarters, it will be bringing 35 new manufacturing jobs to the area, and the company has pledged to bring its international headquarters here as well. To us, that means that we are changing the perception of this being a community to avoid, to one that has assets.

AWN: What is in the pipeline?

Swinney: We are now in discussions with 10 manufacturing companies (6 of them international companies) to locate production on the West Side and bring as many as 450 new jobs to the community. With the first lease signed we have a beginning and are hopeful for the future.

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CAREER CONNECTIONS

Austin Weekly News, February 25, 2015

“Thank You” from Austin Coming Together Manufacturing Renaissance Erica Swinney, Dan Swinney, Maqsood Iqbal, Pablo Valera, Seth El-Jamal Austin Polytechnical Academy Makalani Akinshiju Jane Addams Resource Corporation Regan Brewer, Mark Meyer, Guy Loudon, Jessica Newsome, Emily Doherty, Lida Schenkier Safer Foundation Isaac Carothers, Rob Gorman New Moms, Inc. Melanie Garrett, Mary Knuth St. Joseph Services Bradly Johnson, Iris Millan

Erie House David Swanson, Julian Lazalde

BUILD Len Felton

Dominican University Jack Lesniewski, Ph.D., Kathleen O’Dell, Ph.D.

Freedman Seating Craig Freedman, Torres Hughes Valerie Galvan, Bianca Tilmon

Prevail Ed Ozga Westside Health Authority Roger Ehmen Literacy Works Betsy Rubin Workforce.IO. Abby Cheesman

Dudek & Bock Jeff T. Kopacz, Kathleen Dudek, James Cox, Tawnee McCluskey, John Dudek City Colleges of Chicago Rasha Farmer, Christopher Sala JPMorgan Chase Beverly E. Meek

AWC Member Organizations

AWC Supporters

The Austin Workforce Collaborative (AWC) was formed with the generous support of Chase.