The organization also gets funding from foundations and through government education and training contracts for courses ranging from general literacy to specific skills needed in health-care professions.
Question: Why did you get into this work?
Answer: . . . It was always a very compelling idea to me - that career advancement through education just raises the whole boat in society, the workplace, and in the union. . . . What made this organization especially compelling was that it was a labor-management organization. . . . The employer and the union working together is such a powerful combination . . .
Q: I've been reading about something called sector training. What is that?
A: [Sectors] are clusters of employment and career opportunities within an industry - health care . . . life sciences . . . manufacturing.. . . In the past, workforce development may have had training programs that really didn't drill down into a particular sector. . . .The sector initiative involves . . . really doing an assessment on what the needs of that sector are. From a workforce-development perspective, that incorporates not just the front-line workers, but what are the career-ladder opportunities?
Q: Hasn't a lot of workforce training just been getting people in the door, and then neglecting them in low-level jobs?
A: Absolutely. . . . The best sector initiatives are really approaching a strategy for changing those low-wage jobs into family-sustaining jobs - with health benefits and pensions - that are connected to career ladders.
Q: Give me an example.
