what we do
Workforce Network, Inc. (WNI) is a nonprofit that empowers employers to hire and retain workers with skills they need and for workers to have good jobs, advancement opportunities and family-sustaining wages.
Working with our economic development corporations, employers, education providers and community stakeholders throughout Burnet and Llano counties, we are building a pipeline of skilled workers for the industry sectors that drive the economic prosperity of the Highland Lakes. From 2016-2022, we have secured $415,000 in public and private grants to train 170 adult workers in high demand occupations such as food preparation, plumbing, electrical, nurse aides and medical assistants.
In September 2022, WNI received $4.6 million to develop job training programs in the counties of Burnet, Llano and Blanco. The pool of money came from $12 million awarded to Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area (WSRCA) from a federal grant through the American Rescue Plan Act. The $4.6 million will be used to fund job training programs in the Skilled Trades (Plumbing, Electric, HVAC, Welding, CDL), Healthcare (LVN,RN, Social Work) and Finance/IT (Banking, Bookkeeping, Information Technology).
Our Work
We secure and administer grants to pay for the cost of skills training for adults. Our plumbing and electrical training courses are Department of Labor Apprenticeship Programs providing work hours during the day and skills training 1 night a week in a nationally recognized curriculum.
We also address worker instability through Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World, a model created by aha! Process, Inc.. This award-winning training company provides programs that help improve the lives of those experiencing instability in their daily lives. Instability inhibits a person’s ability to sustain employment and rise from poverty.
Getting Ahead
Getting Ahead helps participants take the first and most important step toward the life they want: taking charge of their own lives. The class curriculum uses facilitators to help participants reflect on where they fit in a wider economic class structure, and where they want to go in the future. Poverty is defined as “the extent to which an individual does without resources.” This definition gives participants something concrete to do about poverty – build resources and assets. They answer the question posed. Are you willing to “make-do” without resources? Would you like to learn how to get ahead? A very important part of this program is that the “investigators” decide what they want for their future and then are helped by the “facilitators” to develop a path that is doable with the resources available in their community. When the course is completed, there is a feeling of confidence and this creates hope within the participants, hope that they can make changes to have a stable life while reaching for their goals.