The Urban League of Greater Madison is addressing southern Wisconsin’s changing workforce needs while training unemployed and underemployed community members by expanding intensive training academies for careers in commercial driving and solar installation, according to a release from the organization. The programs, made possible through a $250,000 grant from Ascendium Education Group, are in response to growing interest in the organization’s small-scale commercial driver’s license (CDL) internship project and the opportunity for new jobs in the country’s ongoing transition to solar and other renewable energies.
The Urban League plans to develop and implement short-term, intensive training academies for careers requiring the CDL, solar installation, and related renewable energy fields. A portion of the grant funding will allow the Urban League to grow its small CDL project from training just two to four people per year, to training at least 45 CDL drivers over the next two years. Through its two expanded academies, the Urban League aims to help at least 100 unemployed or underemployed adults obtain an industry-recognized credential and/or secure new or better employment in the next two years. Despite complications caused by the COVID-19 health crisis, the organization has placed more than 1,500 learners from low-income backgrounds into new or better career pathway jobs in the past three years.
