FOCUS ON WIOA: Driving Innovation in Workforce Development through WIOA Reauthorization
By Martin Schwartz, Vehicles for Change
For-profit businesses invest significant resources in efforts like innovation, staffing, and expansion. This affords them the opportunity to develop new products and pathways to success. Nonprofits need this same opportunity if we are going to be successful.
As the President of Vehicles for Change, a national workforce development organization and employment social enterprise based in Baltimore, Maryland, I have seen firsthand the incredible value of funding for innovative approaches and organizational capacity-building. As Congress considers reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), we urge policymakers to take the opportunity to invest in the development and scaling of innovative, practitioner-led approaches in our nation’s workforce development system.
Vehicles for Change’s (VFC) mission is to empower families facing financial challenges to achieve economic and personal independence through car ownership and technical training. VFC accepts donated cars, repairs them while training returning citizens to become automotive mechanics, and awards reconditioned cars to low-income families in Maryland and northern Virginia. Our unique program impacts two major issues rooted in social injustice and systemic racism — generational poverty and mass incarceration — by addressing our communities’ critical need for transportation, as well as providing training that creates a pathway to well-paying, career-leading jobs.
Our program is the largest of its kind in the country. Since our inception in 1999, VFC has positively impacted more than 28,000 individuals and provided more than 8,000 cars to worthy families. Our research reveals that 75 percent of our recipients increased their annual income by more than $7,500 in just 12 months of car ownership. Just as important, parents are able to take their children to after-school, recreational, cultural, and athletic events that weren’t accessible before. A car provides a low-income family with the hope that they can finally escape poverty.
Our close partnerships with employers and philanthropy have provided the critical support for VFC to expand and develop our programs. In December 2015, VFC launched our Full Circle Auto Repair and Training Center. This workforce development program is an employer-driven, paid internship, social enterprise that trains men and women — most with a criminal background — to be auto mechanics. Directly addressing a national recidivism rate north of 60%, Full Circle helps people with a criminal background or multiple barriers to employment prepare for and secure high-paying, career-leading jobs. This 12-week, 40 hours-per-week program combines virtual reality, classroom and hands-on training; Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certifications; and a full complement of wraparound services such as financial literacy, mental health, transportation, and housing.
Currently operating four training facilities (three in Maryland and one in California), VFC will train and place more than 125 individuals in FY2025, in partnership with employers such as auto dealers, NAPA Auto Car centers and other independent repair facilities. Over the past seven years, the program boasts an 80 percent completion and placement rate and less than a 2 percent recidivism rate. Graduates are obtaining employment starting at $17-$18/hour and many increase their salaries to more than $80,000 over the course of two years.
Recently, VFC has developed and launched its newest social enterprise, VFC-Virtual Reality (VFC-VR) with support from national philanthropy Schmidt Futures. VFC-VR is an immersive, cutting-edge auto technician training module that is more cost-effective and a safer way to conduct training. VR is designed to shorten the learning curve and enhance learning proficiency in auto technician training. These modules take individuals with little to no auto experience and help them learn how to do an oil change, use a tire balancer and changer, complete a brake replacement, and prepare for the ASE brake exam. HTX Labs developed the module out of Houston, TX, following their development of a similar training module for the United States Air Force.
As recently featured on CNN, VFC-VR is currently being implemented in the Maryland and Virginia prison and jail systems, several state Departments of Juvenile Services, and workforce and high school programs. VR training will soon be the standard for skill training nationally as it is significantly more efficient and effective. VFC has created national employment partners including the National Auto Dealers Association (NADA), NAPA Auto Parts, Precision Tune and others to assure employment opportunities for graduates of the VR program.
Based on our experience at VFC, we believe the adoption of an innovation fund in WIOA is vital if organizations are to address the economic challenges facing marginalized populations in the US. WIOA funding is extremely valuable to existing programs, but is restricted to support only direct programmatic activities — and can also be challenging to access as providers face complicated enrollment processes in each state and county. Nonprofit organizations need access to more flexible funding that will allow them to explore new, innovative ways to solve the issues facing our communities. At VFC, we would not have had the opportunity to develop the VR training program without an investment from Schmidt Futures. Federal funding should mirror the targeted, flexible approach reflected by this philanthropic funding.
That is why we strongly support the Better Jobs Through Innovation and Evidence Act (S.4008), which was recently introduced by Senator Michael Bennet. This legislation would create a workforce development innovation fund to develop, scale, and evaluate innovative, evidence-based strategies that address community needs and work in close partnership with employers. Building on the enhancements to WIOA introduced in the Stronger Workforce for America Act (H.R. 6655), we encourage leaders in the Senate to incorporate the Better Jobs Act as WIOA reauthorization moves forward. To address generational poverty and mass incarceration, we must drive workforce development funding to innovative strategies.
Martin Schwartz is President of Vehicles for Change.