Gov. Evers, DWD Announce Over $10 Million to Bolster Wisconsin’s Workforce

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD), today announced 10 regional workforce development organizations across the state will receive nearly $10.3 million in grants through the second round of funding awarded through the Worker Advancement Initiative (WAI). The WAI was first launched in 2021 as part of the governor’s groundbreaking Workforce Solutions Initiative and funded by the state’s allocation of federal relief funds. In total, projects receiving funding through the second round of the WAI are projected to help more than 1,400 Wisconsinites find or improve their employment through paid work-based learning and classroom training.

“Over the past several years, including in 2024 the Year of the Worker, we’ve been hard at work to reduce barriers to work, address our state’s generational workforce shortages, and build the 21st-century workforce needed to support a 21st-century economy,” said Gov. Evers. “We’re continuing to build upon these tremendously successful efforts, and we’re proud to have helped tens of thousands of our friends and neighbors successfully enter or move up in the workforce, and these investments will continue that good work in communities across our state.”

Included in Gov. Evers’ Workforce Solutions Initiative were three innovative programs: the Workforce Innovation Grant Program, the Workforce Advancement Initiative, and the Worker Connection Program. The first round of grants awarded through the WAI were targeted to serve more than 2,300 Wisconsinites, and to date, programs included in the governor’s Workforce Solutions Initiative have collectively served more than 33,000 Wisconsinites across the state.

“We are very excited to be working closely with the local workforce development boards that serve people throughout the state of Wisconsin,” said DWD Secretary Amy Pechacek. “This investment of over $10 million will help people who are struggling to find employment by removing barriers that often can make or break an individual’s ability to get or stay in the workforce and expanding training opportunities in some of our state’s most in-demand fields.”

Participants served through the WAI will benefit from a continuum of services, including paid work experience opportunities to develop and/or enhance job skills; training so participants can acquire occupational skills connected to in-demand jobs along with critical work-based skills needed to succeed; on-the-job training opportunities that will lead to economic self-sufficiency; and supportive services to address related barriers to employment, which may include assistance for child care, housing, transportation, and worker stipends.

Grants were awarded to 10 Workforce Development Boards across the state for the following projects:

• Bay Area Workforce Development Board — $900,000
  This grant will be used to provide skills accelerator training to roughly 100 participants through a partnership with gener8tor, focusing on industries such as supply chain, logistics, and finance. Training will be delivered in a hybrid approach and will use case project development to enable participants to apply artificial intelligence solutions to industry challenges.
• Employ Milwaukee — $1,999,791
  These funds will serve 400 participants by launching “BankWork$,” an eight-week retail banking career training class targeting youth and adults from low-income and communities of color through partnerships with government agencies and community-based and faith-based organizations. Training will include workplace skills for professionalism, forging customer relationships, financial services fundamentals, and preparing for employment. Additionally, Employ Milwaukee is partnering with Teens Grow Greens to help youth build local connections and have project-based learning in horticulture, cooking, and environmental justice.
• Fox Valley Workforce Development Board — $1,164,625
  These funds will serve 75 participants by providing Commercial Divers License (CDL) and welding training in partnership with Moraine Park Technical College. Additionally, an onsite mobile welding lab will be offered for incarcerated women at Taycheedah Correctional Institution. Training will also include separate IT and project management courses with an introduction to artificial intelligence courses through various University of Wisconsin System campuses.
• North Central Wisconsin Workforce Development Board — $1,065,075
  Funds will support 85 participants with short-term training opportunities in healthcare, child care, tourism-related occupations, welding, home energy audit and solar installation, CDL, and construction trades. Construction courses will be offered in conjunction with local technical colleges and trainers with a focus on engaging unemployed and underemployed workers and individuals re-entering the workforce following incarceration.
• Northwest Wisconsin Workforce Investment Board — $690,640
  Funds will support 70 participants through comprehensive training in fields including CDL and heavy equipment operation in partnership with Midwest Truck Driving School. Participants will be able to earn the OSHA 40 certification training for workplace safety and regulatory compliance. Additionally, training in the building science principles industry and certifications for energy auditing or energy contractor work will be offered through Slipstream. Eligible candidates will be identified through local community-based organizations, Tribes, and businesses.
• Southeastern Wisconsin Workforce Development Board — $610,061
  Funds will support 60 participants by providing Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) boot camps in two cohorts through Gateway Technical College and CDL classes through Milwaukee CDL. Individuals at the Ellsworth Correction Center will have the opportunity to participate in the CDL class.
• Southwest Wisconsin Workforce Development Board — $685,422
  Funds will serve 143 participants by supporting training in accelerated industrial maintenance (AIM), firefighting, certified nursing assistant (CNA), and welding. Training will be provided to three cohorts in the AIM summer program; one cohort in the Fire Academy; three cohorts of CNA trainees to prepare for the National Nurse Aide Assessment Program exam and state accreditation; one cohort of welding trainees in the Prairie Du Chien Correctional Institution; and one cohort of welding trainees at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College.
• Waukesha-Ozaukee-Washington Workforce Development Board — $1,114,480
  Funds will support 115 participants by providing rapid training and upskilling that blends classroom instruction with work-based learning in sectors such as advanced manufacturing, information technology, healthcare, child care, professional/business management, and transportation logistics and warehousing.
• West Central Works — $719,327
  Funds will support 150 participants by providing new worker training through Certified Pre-Apprenticeship programs in beginner and advanced welding and child care through Northwood Technical College. Training will focus on jobs that lead to economic self-sufficiency with sustainable wages.
• Workforce Development Board of South Central Wisconsin — $1,343,100
  Funds will support 225 participants by augmenting and advancing current work-based learning strategies, such as bringing young adults to careers using subsidized employment; subsidizing salaries for individuals completing certified pre-apprenticeship training or registered apprenticeships; providing programs, including certified pre-apprenticeships, to re-entry populations engaged in work release programs; collaborating with regional business partners to address in-demand employment needs through technical skills training; and integrating a compensated digital literacy learning. Targeted industries include construction, health and social assistance, advanced manufacturing, and information technology.

EVERS ADMINISTRATION’S EFFORTS TO BOLSTER WORKFORCE INNOVATION AND REDUCE BARRIERS TO EMPLOYMENT

Gov. Evers declared 2024 the Year of the Worker in Wisconsin to highlight the need to address the state’s generational workforce challenges and promote new efforts by the Evers Administration to build a workforce prepared to meet the needs of a 21st-century economy, including launching the state’s first teacher apprenticeship pilot program, creating the Governor’s Task Force on the Healthcare Workforce, and establishing the Office of Employee Engagement and Retention for the state of Wisconsin workforce, which focuses on recruiting and retaining state employees.

Gov. Evers’ 2025-27 Executive Budget seeks to build upon the Evers Administration’s work over the past six years to address the state’s generational workforce challenges and build a workforce prepared to meet the needs of a 21st-century economy, including an additional $20 million investment for the WAI and a $140 million investment to reestablish the successful Workforce Innovation Grant Program.

Unfortunately, both of these investments were removed from the governor’s budget by the state’s Republican-controlled budget committee, who recently voted to gut more than 600 proposals from the governor’s 2025-27 budget, including several additional workforce-related proposals.

The governor’s 2025-27 budget would have built upon his administration’s work to support the state’s workforce. Instead, Republicans voted to gut:

• Efforts to reduce barriers to work and expand job training opportunities by reestablishing the successful Workforce Innovation Grant Program;
• Grants to local organizations to address local workforce needs and barriers to work;
• Investments in the state’s Registered Apprenticeship Program and Fast Forward workforce training opportunities for in-demand fields, including artificial intelligence, teacher apprenticeships, and green jobs training; and
• Supports to connect workers to jobs, including the highly successful Worker Connection Program and Youth-to-Registered Apprenticeship supports; and
• Proposals to restore collective bargaining rights and prevailing wage protections, repeal right to work, and bolster protections relating to wage theft, worker misclassification, and project labor agreements.

The governor’s budget would have also provided most private sector workers in Wisconsin with paid family and medical leave for eight weeks and expanded eligibility to ensure parents and families had the flexibility to meet their personal, family members’, or kids’ needs—a proposal that over 70 percent of Wisconsinites support.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.