Building Pathways to Success: How Manufacturing Renaissance Empowers Chicago’s Youth

MR’s Career Pathway Services programs are designed specifically to engage youth of color (in-school youth ages 14 to 18), and young adults (18 to 29), from low-income communities, to expand their access to career tracks in manufacturing, and increase their success on the job. Manufacturing Connect — launched in 2007 as a career pathways program embedded in a four-year high school — is now a 12- to 14-week technical training program that integrates three key elements (outlined below) to create a holistic approach to supporting the individual.

Technical Training: Participants meet two to three times a week, for 12 to 14 weeks with a credentialed instructor, in person (and virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic). The curriculum focuses on the skills necessary to obtain the National Institute of Metalworking (NIMS) Measurement, Materials, and Safety credential. Lessons include understanding applied mathematics, measurement tools, and blueprint reading, as well as machine and shop safety. Outside of meeting with the instructor, participants are expected to complete assignments on their own time. While completing the credentialing test isn’t a requirement to graduating and getting help with job placement, the training is built in a way that when program participants start a job, or when they find the appropriate time to take the test, they are prepared.

On the Job Experiences: Outside of the classroom, students participate in many different job experiences. MR has built a network of over 140 manufacturers in the Chicagoland area who offer trainees facility tours, job shadow opportunities, internships, and summer jobs. Through these opportunities students gain insights about what manufacturing looks like on a daily basis, learn about the culture of a company, and build connections with employers and their employees that can lead to employment opportunities.

Social Service Support Network: Parallel to the technical skills, Manufacturing Renaissance weaves in social service support. This starts with MR’s dedicated staff. Instructors have a background in social work and develop deep connections with students by learning about their background, history, and life outside of the learning environment. The work readiness side of the program is not built around a defined criteria set, but depends on individual connection, relationship, and commitment to help understand each person’s readiness. Manufacturing Renaissance has created a network of dozens of social service agencies who understand the complex social, emotional, economic, and academic barriers of the youth and young adults MR serves. The combination of internal staff and support network actively aid in helping individual participants secure and retain employment.

“Manufacturing Renaissance focuses on equal parts job placement, job retention, and personal development. You can’t just leave a young person after they get the credentials or a job. This often means helping navigate both job integration and home life experiences. For many, they may be the first in their family or peer group with a full time job which creates family and friend dynamics that create all new challenges and issues. Job retention includes how to get along with your boss and your cousins and your friends that may be making it difficult to stay committed to a new career.”

-Erica Staley, Executive Director

Manufacturing Renaissance created the Young Manufacturers Association (YMA) to support individuals that finished, or are finishing, the Manufacturing Connect program, as well as individuals who are pursuing careers in manufacturing regardless of their participation in a workforce development program. Established in 2016, YMA serves as a network and a program for young adults, aged 18-29, who are looking for their first employment opportunity, in between jobs, or still in training. MR organizes regular meetings and social events for YMA members to offer peer-to-peer advice and share working experiences. MR staff, the network of service providers, and fellow young manufacturers provide support for young adults transitioning into permanent employment, ongoing professional and life skills development, and balancing personal and work life dynamics. As of 2020, Manufacturing Renaissance now offers training similar to the Manufacturing Connect program open to young adults. There are over 75 members spread across the South and West side of Chicago.

In order for Manufacturing Renaissance to deliver their program and provide support successfully, several key aspects have to align. One of the most important is their network of about a dozen (with more being added regularly) social service agencies who help promote and connect youth and young adults to MR. This has been a win-win relationship. Social services agencies have expressed interest, and a need, to connect with career pathway supporters, and MR needs help marketing their programs. Once a connection is made, interested individuals are invited to an orientation event to learn about the process, programs, and outcomes. An orientation event brings together students currently enrolled in programming, members of the Young Manufacturers Association, manufacturing businesses, and trainers. The goal is to get potential participants to hear directly from those who have been where they are and gained from being part of MR’s supportive community. Depending on their age, if an individual (aged 16 to 18) signs up to be in the Manufacturing Connect program they get support navigating the process of applying for Workforce Investment and Opportunities Act (WIOA) funding to cover the costs of participating in the Manufacturing Connect program. Individuals aged 18 to 29 may sign up for YMA-hosted training as grant funding permits.

Relationships with manufacturers are also fundamental. Not only do they offer jobs and career opportunities to people who become work-ready through MR’s training, they play a role in ensuring the quality of the training and on-the-job experiences are consistent with needs in the industry. Over MR’s history they have built a network of over 145 manufacturers, with a couple dozen manufacturers who are very active in providing multiple types of work experience opportunities. These active partners make up an advisory committee that makes sure the programs stay relevant and impactful. In what could be considered an exchange, MR educates manufacturers on how to make their businesses more attractive to youth, especially young people of color. This is not a formal program, but it is a vital part of the success within their ecosystem.

“Companies struggle to engage younger people. Manufacturing Renaissance educates employers on how to work with our kids. It is part of doing the job to increase the opportunities for kids and young adults of color.”

-Erica Staley, Executive Director

Explicitly integrating trauma-informed care into all program operations is critical to supporting the communities MR has set out to impact. Youth and young adults from the hardest hit neighborhoods — in terms of economic disparities and social inequalities — in the Chicagoland area enter MR’s doors and training programs. Trauma is their reality. Trainers, both those who focus on teaching technical skills as well as those who focus on work-readiness, are from these communities and can, and do, share personal experiences and insights about the barriers to finding career paths and stability. While staff can provide personal stories and be present when day-to-day issues arise, MR is also working to build a network of social services that provides more robust care than MR can provide directly. The awareness of the role trauma plays in individuals’ abilities to access, and stick to, career development influenced Manufacturing Renaissance to hire a licensed social worker as their new program director.

“To scale impact there needs to be an integrated education system, one that brings together the school system and workforce development landscape. There is currently a divide that says while in school you are in the education domain and a month later, after graduating or leaving school, you are in the workforce domain. As a systems thinker I want to explore policies that get education and workforce on the same side, and from the beginning, help people learn about careers and what is possible, and get youth and young adults connected to social services, personal development and career development programs.”

-Erica Staley, Executive Director

In Chicagoland in 2018, there were approximately 58,000 jobs that went unfilled in the manufacturing sector. MR admits no one program will be able to single-handedly fill all the jobs in that system, and that it will take many workforce development organizations working on this task. MR would like to double or triple in size as a program over time, through an ongoing process of prototyping program designs and strategies for successful engagement and placement of BIPOC youth in the sector. With this long term growth in mind, for 2021 MR’s goal is to increase their direct training enrollment by an additional 50 percent.

Manufacturing Renaissance’s scaling process is focused on direct expansion of both programs, increasing enrollment in direct training the upcoming year, and through leveraging insights and impacting policies. On the policy front, MR is pushing for innovation within Chicago public schools, changing how different “pipelines” create different funding barriers, and getting the political systems in place in Chicagoland to advocate for these programs. These changes require a shift in thinking and behavior in the form of resource allocation, at the individual elected official level. MR is translating their on-the-ground lessons learned into policy recommendations and strategies to increase resources to scale the training, increase on-the-job experiences, and build a more robust, trauma-informed social service safety net for youth of color, especially those that are Black and Latinx.

This case study was originally published by Urban Manufacturing Alliance in collaboration with The Century Foundation in 2021 as part of “Manufacturing Workforce Strategies Building An Inclusive Future: How community-embedded workforce organizations center racial equity, credentialing, and training to create stronger neighborhoods,” a report highlighting best practices from eight workforce organizations in connecting diverse communities to opportunities in manufacturing.