The 51st episode of the NEW Manufacturing Insights podcast, sponsored by Werner Electric Supply, features Kayla Countney of Goodwill NCW and Nancy Bleck of Rawhide Youth Services, who talk about the innovative Career EXCELerate program they administer along with their partners at Fox Valley Technical College.
The program was launched by the three organizations about three years ago with the support of a Wisconsin Workforce Innovation Grant, and it’s still going strong today with an eye on growth, Countney says.
The program was developed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to respond to workforce issues as the state identified mental health as a primary barrier to gaining and retaining employment, the guests told co-hosts Ann Franz of the NEW Manufacturing Alliance and Kate Bruns of Insight on Manufacturing magazine.
“We could not solve a workplace crisis without combining expertise from different agencies,” Countney explains on this week’s episode. “We really chose different skillsets that each other had. Goodwill provides case management support, job placement and retention support; we’ve got FVTC that provides that provides that educational component; and we’ve got Rawhide that provides that trauma-informed approach to everything that we do.”
Countney says the initial goal of Career EXCELerate was to serve 460 Wisconsinites, and the number has already reached 420. Manufacturing careers are well represented among the eight pathways Career EXCELerate currently offers.
Listen to the full episode on the Insight website, on Spreaker, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
New episodes are released on Thursdays and produced by B.J. DeGroot of Woodward Community Media. The podcast will take the week off Oct. 31 due to the Manufacturing First Expo & Conference but will return Nov. 7 with a special episode recapping the event.
