Living wage hits $48,500 for Dallas County workers as costs continue to rise<\/a><\/p>\nPathways to Work, launched about a decade ago, offers industry\u00a0recognized training and credentials in\u00a0high\u2011demand\u00a0fields such as healthcare, information technology, construction,\u00a0logistics, advanced manufacturing,\u00a0business\u00a0and finance. Participants can access\u00a0adult education, GED and ESL classes, digital skills,\u00a0work\u2011based\u00a0learning, career coaching, and\u00a0childcare and transportation\u00a0assistance.<\/p>\n
The program placed about 5,000 North Texans into better-paying jobs last year, with average wage increases of about 40%, according to United Way.\u00a0Jim Burke, CEO of Irving-based Vistra and United Way\u2019s annual campaign chair, said he wants to triple that to 15,000 placements a year as funding and employer commitments grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf all these employers are here, and some want to come to Texas, well, they can only come and be successful here if there\u2019s a trained and available workforce,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n
However,\u00a0many workers fall through the cracks between classroom and career\u00a0because “hiring and placement\u00a0is\u00a0not easy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pledge to Pathways is meant to tighten that link. Employers who sign on agree to share upcoming job needs, help shape curricula with training\u00a0partners,\u00a0and actively consider graduates for open roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
United Way also wants\u00a0to build a technology hub that connects recruits, training programs and hiring employers in real time. That means\u00a0workers can see which courses exist,\u00a0while\u00a0companies are prepared to hire on the other\u00a0side.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The initiative’s impact is\u00a0evident\u00a0for Henry, who\u00a0moved to North Texas years ago after\u00a0a traumatic car crash in Detroit left her on disability and unsure if she would walk or use her hands again. Since then,\u00a0thanks to Pathways to Work,\u00a0the 45-year-old\u00a0has a\u00a0steady, higher paying job and\u00a0has\u00a0purchased\u00a0a used 2015 Buick Enclave\u00a0to get around the region.<\/p>\n
Now working as a plasma center phlebotomist, she\u00a0hopes more employers will join United Way\u2019s pledge to give trainees the first shot she needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShow a little bit more\u00a0leniency,\u201d Henry said. \u201cA lot of places want you to already have a year\u2019s worth of experience. If I just graduated, how am I going to\u00a0possibly have\u00a0a year\u2019s worth of experience if nobody wants to give me a chance?\u201d<\/p>\n
The $6 million, and future campaign support from companies,\u00a0could\u00a0turn more of those first chances into lasting careers.<\/p>\n
This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News\u00a0retains\u00a0full editorial control of this coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Henry\u00a0can\u00a0finally\u00a0reach\u00a0work without worrying whether an Uber cancellation, a late bus or a friend\u2019s empty gas tank will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[732,96674,96673,96672,102,104,103,93339,95705,87998,89396,89146,96670],"class_list":["post-288044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-article","tag-business-jobs","tag-business-local-companies","tag-business-philanthropy","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas","tag-tp-southern-dallas","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-ed-lab-college-career","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas-workforce","tag-tp-resilience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}