Women Venture: Jobs in the Trades

Purpose: To train and help place low-income working women in jobs in fields that use transferable
skills and offer higher-than average entry-level wages and high lifetime earnings

Women Venture has identified construction trades and cable installation as employment sectors that offer women opportunities for jobs with better-than-average entry-level pay and high lifetime earnings. Most program participants learn of the program directly or indirectly from previous clients, and are familiar with what careers in the trades involve. Intake screeners give applicants a realistic picture that includes not only the positive aspects but also the hard physical labor and the chance for isolation or harassment in workplaces where women are still relatively rare. Training is intensive, occurring all day, every day for three weeks (cable installation) or five weeks (construction trades). Tuition is based on ability to pay, but the lack of earnings from work during the training is a barrier for some otherwise qualified applicants. Training itself includes a mixture of hard skills learned on a job site; and soft skills including motivation, developing a positive attitude, and group support, and basic math in the classroom and on the job. Through Women Venture’s extensive employer contacts, participants are given leads to potential jobs as well as coaching on how to prepare for interviews; placement specialists try to match individual participants with suitable positions.

	Partners: (As of April 2003)
		Educational: See note below
		Employers and business organization: See note below
		Non-Profit Organizations: Women Venture (see also note below)
		Public philanthropic, and other organizations: See Note Below
	Note: Program also builds on existing relationships with Dunwoody Institute, labor unions, non-profits, and public organizations for program ideas and advice and services for participants
	Participants: Women seeking non-traditional occupations. Most have work history in what they perceive as dead-end jobs, and are already aware of what jobs in the trades involve. Of 19 participants enrolled to date, all have a high school diploma and about one-third have some post-secondary education. Only 15 percent have been employed all of the last six months, and one-quarter have worked none of that time. Ninety percent are single parents. Forty percent are White, 30 percent are Black, and 10 percent are each Chicano/Latino and mixed race. For 10 percent, English is not their primary language
	Recruitment: Mainly through word of mouth from previous participants. Some advertising, including on the web, is generating increasing interest from non-English speaking candidates. Intake screening attempts to make participants aware of potential hardships in this type of work. No pay is given for the three or five weeks of training
	Training: Soft skills and industry-specific hard skills in 60 hours over five weeks, including “economic literacy” to increase financial competence and saving. Training is a mix of job preparation, placement, and on-the-job work experience. Besides offering two current types of training (cable installation and construction), the grantee will explore three or more new kinds of training to introduce with similar openings and pay levels
	Support Services: Comprehensive support includes support networks, one-on-one coaching/mentoring, longer-term contact including intensive job retention services. $300 is available to TANF participants for supportive services
	Job placement, retention and advancement: Placement support through relationships with employers, one on one contacts, and matching of participants with openings. Participants are invited to return or call when presented with any personal or professional problems (i.e., the program never formally ends)