On-Ramps to Opportunity: A 21st Century Workforce Model for Detroit

What makes a city great is not merely found in the number of buildings it has nor the amount of revenue it receives but rather the quality of life it affords its citizens. In this regard, Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC) recognizes that jobs and wages are two critical elements in determining and maintaining quality of life, for individuals and their families.

In recent years, Detroit has seen an increase in economic investment, opportunity and momentum, all of which are key drivers of workforce development. Yet, these opportunities have been slow to mature and have not reached all residents of Detroit. As DESC has studied this issue, we have come to recognize that beyond the pillars of work readiness (basic skills, soft skills and technical training), there are also numerous socio-economic factors that have historically impeded the abilities of Detroiters to find career opportunities that will enable them to support their families and positively impact their communities. The disconnect between job opportunities and the pool of talent has ultimately created the skills gap that exists in Detroit today.

Like other cities that have reinvented themselves and embraced new economies, addressing the skills gap issue is imperative to the future of Detroit. As the workforce intermediary, DESC recognizes the need to optimize service delivery to provide systemic service solutions to multi-systemic issues. This optimization will require:

· an innovative mindset in solution development

· a collaborative spirit across a diverse array of human service and socio-economic partners, and

· clarity of intended system-wide outcomes during strategic implementation

Reimagining Workforce Development

DESC has developed a comprehensive plan to build its capacity to provide more opportunities for employer driven training and work experiences to Detroiters. The goal will be to create a pool of residents ready to enter the workforce on career pathways that will swiftly move them into stable, middle skill jobs. This plan will also include efforts to reach out and engage the chronically unemployed and under-employed since only half (53%) of the 242,000 Detroit residents between 16 and 64 years of age report that they participated in the labor force during 2014.[i]

This plan incorporates successful DESC experiences with its youth opportunity programs, information technology initiatives, employer driven pilot programs, and partnerships supported in part by J. P. Morgan Chase, the U.S. Department of Labor, and local employers. This plan will scale up and integrate programs and services drawing lessons from these efforts into a more cohesive approach by DESC to workforce development in Detroit. At the same time, this plan is informed by and will be part of a broader citywide workforce development effort that is being developed by the Mayor’s Workforce Development Board (MWDB).

DESC plans to do part of this by optimizing its current services and building greater collaborations with its service providers and affiliates. However, with 92% of its funding based on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), DESC is particularly vulnerable to the whims of government funders. DESC anticipates the need for significant additional investment over time to help it continue its progress regardless of funding and policy changes by government funders. Therefore, the DESC future plans call for significant external, private resource streams to make these efforts more sustained and effective.

This new, holistic approach envisions using a wrap-around style of service provision that will break down the silos that are created by the very government programs that exist to support the unemployed. The plan would also call for an annual barrier mitigation fund to be set up to fill gaps in existing programs. For instance, special programs set aside training funds, benefits and subsidized employment for specific populations (custodial parents, youth, veterans, and formerly incarcerated) or might be determined by a narrow, predefined income threshold. Whether you are a single mother or a young man who has been working off the books, both would have the same opportunities to participate fully in DESC programs under this plan regardless of their eligibly for publically funded programs.

DESC’s overarching concept for the next two years has four different priority areas:

(1) employer-driven career pathways,

(2) optimizing services and partnerships.

(3) scale up capacity, and

(4) micro-network one stop demonstration project.

By simultaneously increasing capacity, optimizing services and piloting new career pathways and a micro-network integrated one-stop centers, DESC will be better positioned to be a leader in the citywide effort to bring tens of thousands of more Detroiters into the workforce. In this way, DESC will contribute to the broad, citywide goal to significantly increase the participation of Detroiters in the workforce.

1. Employer Driven Career Pathways

The most successful Detroit training and work readiness programs have been informed directly by what employers want and need from workers. Building on the infrastructure created by the MWDB, DESC will incorporate sector specific employer-focused MWDB subcommittees into the development of sector specific career pathways. By identifying the career specific skill sets needed to fill job openings in specific sectors (such as Health Care and Advanced Manufacturing), DESC will work with employers and community based organizations (CBOs) to develop training programs that incorporate different avenues, or on-ramps, for those pathways. By involving employers at the very beginning, DESC can make sure that training efforts produce workers that meet business needs and have employers invested in the process from the onset.

DESC has learned to engage employers as customers and to identify their thresholds for worker education, skills and experience and make sure that their work with Detroiters create qualified workers for their work force. In a similar way, the DESC programs developed for these new pathways will focus on what it will take to bring Detroit workers to meet and exceed business defined needs.

Through this process, employers become more invested in the training effort and take ownership of it. DESC plans to work with employers to improve worker outcomes, develop alternative but meaningful credentials, and build greater investment by local businesses in their workers. For instance, DESC will work with employers on ways they can invest in the continuing education and training of their employees to obtain a GED or Associates degree while they are on the job, or alternative credentials through specialized programs.

Employers will identify the skills and experience needed to enter into career pathways where workers can earn $9 - $14 an hour and work their way up to middle skill jobs that earn $16 – 24 an hour.([ii]) With this information, DESC will help develop different avenues, or on-ramps, to accommodate a variety of potential workers.

For instance, in a recent collaborative effort to secure funding from the Department of Labor TechHire program, DESC and three key partners envisioned a multipronged approach to supporting new workers seeking to enter the Information Technology sector. The group identified three different on-ramps that Detroiters could take to an IT career. The first on-ramp would provide those with high readiness with the opportunity to participate in an IT software developer boot camp. A second on-ramp would provide those in need of more training and supports with an apprenticeship track. A third on-ramp would be available to those that are close to being ready with a fast paced accelerator training to prepare them to enter the apprenticeship program, while a fourth on-ramp would refer applicants to existing remedial education programs such as Fast Track and Earn + Learn.

In a similar way, DESC would develop multi-pronged pathways for health care, advanced manufacturing and other key sectors. By providing alternative on-ramps within career pathways, DESC will be able to engage with more Detroiters and provide them with career specific education, soft skills and capabilities. At the same time, employers will be integrated into the process from the onset through the sector specific subcommittees under the MWDB and sector based employer consortia like ExperienceIT.

DESC will need $330,000 per year to develop and pilot one new, three tiered training program and another $400,000 to support the expansion its career pathway effort.

2. Optimize Services, Partnerships and Sustainability

DESC’s service delivery at its current One Stop Centers are defined by the specific government funding eligibility requirements. By adopting a wrap-around service delivery model, DESC will start to reduce redundancy within its service delivery and optimize its services. Meanwhile, customers will have a more integrated and seamless experience at DESC that will lead to greater engagement.

DESC has built strong, formal partnerships with service affiliates encouraging them to involve their own partners to extend their services and offerings. Making great strides in forging real partnerships, DESC has worked with affiliates to secure funding for innovative, employer driven services such as the Detroit Registered Apprenticeship Program (DRAP), Experience IT and the Detroit Environmental Employment Program (DEEP). DESC will expand on these relationships to extend its reach and develop neighborhood based micro-networks located within community based organizations.

Workers who need the longer alternative on-ramps to mature their skills are at high risk of leaving workforce development programs as mounting bills and basic needs drive them back into unemployment, underemployment or the unofficial job market. The longer it takes to place workers in income earning positions, the more likely it is that they will disengage in training and career development. For this reason, an important part of this plan will be to create a pool of stopgap funding that can be tapped to bridge the gaps in public funding due to demographic or economic thresholds.

Especially for workers that need intensive services and stabilization before they can engage in work readiness and workforce development programs, DESC will partner with neighborhood based, CBOs to deliver basic services. Research and experience demonstrates that neighborhood programs are the best ways to reach residents who have opted out or do not have the basic supports needed to participate in the workforce.

For instance, DESC has forged new partnerships with homeless and community based organizations that serve youth with basic needs to reach a previously unserved population. At the margins of society, these young residents are at the greatest risk of becoming part of the large population of Detroiters that do not participate in the formal workforce.

Furthermore, DESC will work to provide highly individualized plans and approaches delivered through its service coordinators, career advisors and service affiliates. Even within demographic populations such as youth, individuals can have widely different needs and abilities. For this reason, DESC will further develop it services to be responsive to individual needs.

DESC and its partners will also work to integrate their system of assessments so that they can be used by all partners to determine basic levels of math, reading, and soft skills. Shared assessment tools would leverage costs and resources and provide a defined baseline for Detroit job seekers across systems. Initial services would be provided on site including stabilization, career planning, basic skills, and general soft skill training. The next step would be to engage in appropriate, employer informed vocational training that will lead to real, available job opportunities.

This optimized model of service deliver would also leverage outside resources to support DESC through existing programs such as SNAP 50/50, opportunity youth and JAG. DESC would also need seed money for its fund and program development to assure that these programs will continue despite changes in its core government funder priorities.

DESC would utilize programs and partners within this newly integrated service model by leveraging existing government funds via WIOA/PATH/SNAP FAET/TAA, providing wage subsidies and other incentives to trainees, collaborative and audience specific outreach, and micro-networks.

Funding of $480,000 a year would support this work. About $230,000 would supporting optimization for coordinated program services, outreach, partnerships and the capacity for fund development, while $250,000 annually would fund barrier removal for Detroiters who do not qualify for support within the array of existing government programs.

3. Scale Up Capacity

DESC will also add capacity to its service provision through additional service coordinators and career advisors. Over the next two years, DESC will be able to provide services to tens of thousands of job seekers to contribute significantly to the MWDB plan to bring workforce participation rates up to 70% by 2021.

This capacity building will also include identifying best practices and training DESC managers to deliver services that follow these practices. In addition, DESC will create a pool of funding for barrier mitigation that will fill gaps in the government funding so that job seekers can stabilize their situation regardless of whether they fit within the demographic and income thresholds set up for specific government programs.

DESC will scale up its internal business services capacity to support the expansion of their sector-specific career pathway programs to nurture the involvement of local employers in training, work experiences, and hiring DESC customers.

Under this effort, DESC will need $560,000 annually to build capacity of direct service delivery staff so that it can reach about 4800 more Detroiters a year with its career services.

4. Micro-network Demonstration Project

Residents who can go to one location, near their home, to receive workforce support fare better and are less likely to drop out of services over time. For this reason, DESC will invest time and resources into developing a micro-network demonstration project that would bring together service providers and community-based organizations in a much more integrated way within a One-Stop Center. In this way, a customer can obtain food assistance, apply for Medicaid and Medicare, and secure transportation support while they visit their service managers and career advisors. A micro-network would include education advice to guide customers through how to pursue a GED, apply to post-secondary schools, or register for education assistance. For those in crisis, the customer could work with service coordinators and CBOs to stabilize their housing, utilities or other basic needs so that they can be in a position to engage in workforce development.

Micro-networks could deliver initial workforce readiness and soft skill training and career assessment. Regular programs, some delivered by partner agencies and service affiliates, would be offered at the micro-network site to encourage customers to come in regularly and touch base with their career advisors. Topics might include: an introduction to computers, using your smart phone as a job search tool, what it takes to secure your GED, and how to maintain your DHHS benefits.

DESC will need $750,000 of new funding and a service delivery partner that can provide match of $750,000 to launch new, comprehensive micro-network.

Building On-ramps for the future

By developing employer-driven career paths, optimizing services and partnerships, building capacity, and developing micro-networks, DESC will assure that its workforce development efforts will both meet the needs of area employers and prepare residents to fill the jobs that these employers create.

DESC will measure its success over the next two years by:

· How many customers have successfully moved from education, training, work experiences to employment

· The average wage of employed workers upon hire and during follow up surveys as a way to measure their advancement within their career pathways

· Increasing worker retention and reducing recidivism (returning to DESC for services that are not part of career advancement)

The ability of DESC and its partners to serve more people with greater efficiency

Satisfaction of job seekers and employers with the services of DESC and its partners

In this way, DESC will have tangible measures to evaluate and recalibrate its efforts.

DESC is uniquely positioned to work with closely with citywide workforce development efforts, particularly those led by the MWDB. DESC can serve as the fiduciary of federal and state funding and convene groups of service providers and employers to successfully leverage expertise and resources. This plan will greatly strengthening the role of DESC as the lead implementation arm of the MWDB's One Detroit vision.

Ultimately, DESC seeks to move a significant number of Detroit residents into well-paying jobs. By increasing individual incomes, city wide workforce participation, and nurturing sector specific careers, DESC will be an integral contributor to the revitalization of Detroit supporting a higher quality of life for Detroit residents and building a workforce that will attract new businesses and greater financial resilience for the City of Detroit.

[i] Based on the 2014 American Community Survey for Detroit, U.S. Census Bureau.

[ii] Driving Opportunity in Detroit, JP Morgan Chase, April 2015