Building Worker Power Through Workforce Development final 10-4-2024 - Flipbook - Page 15
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S T E P S / R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S
This pilot project and accompanying survey advance our collective
understanding of the challenges systematically excluded workers face in
attaining high quality jobs, and opportunities for workforce training programs
to better equip participants to succeed in the 21st century labor market.
Recommendations to reduce access barriers to workforce training include:
Language access: Hire interpreters and translators or
compensate in-house staff who take on interpretation
and translation for the program.
Meals: Provide meals so participants can connect over
food and feel nourished—especially important if a program is attended after a long day at work.
Childcare: Provide childcare that enables parents with
young children to attend training sessions.
Responsive scheduling: Offer training sessions in the evenings or on weekends to increase program access for prospective participants, most of whom are already employed
to some degree, often in jobs with little scheduling
昀氀exibility.
Transportation: Cover the cost of travel to ease the
昀椀nancial hardship incurred by additional travel to and
from job training locations.
Meals: Provide meals so participants can connect over
food and feel nourished—especially important if a program is attended after a long day at work.
Paid training: Many workers do not bene昀椀t from stable
work schedules, and they might have to miss or decline
work to attend. Offering stipends for participation lessens
the burden of missing out on paid work.
We also learned that worker’s rights education can be a transformative pairing with workforce development. It can
equip excluded workers to advocate for the creation of and placement into quality jobs. We saw that workers who become
aware of their rights and feel con昀椀dent that the skills acquired through workforce development programs will lead to job
placement, they are motivated to join in advocacy with other workers and organizations. For that reason, it is important
that this approach is offered through partnerships anchored in the community and organizing work, so workers can
not only learn about their rights and get skilled up, but also connect with and be supported by others advocating for rights
in the workplace.
Additional recommendations for next steps in advancing this work:
• Develop a meaningful, scalable way to
track the impacts of this training on
participants beyond anecdotal stories.
• Re昀椀ne, translate, formalize
and share program curricula
and materials.
• Create a tool to track and publicize
employer job quality, including but
not limited to pay and bene昀椀ts.
ReWork the Bay and our partners are now planning the next phase of this work, which will include identifying impact
metrics, formalizing curricula and scaling this model. If you are interested in learning more and exploring partnerships
to advance this work, please contact Brianna Rogers (brogers@sff.org) or visit www.ReWorktheBay.org.
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B U I L D I N G W O R K E R P O W E R T H RO U G H W O R K FO RC E D E V E LO P M E N T
