Building Our Future
TOGETHER
DRMA's WorkAdvance
DRMA leads the Dayton Region Manufacturing Workforce Partnership (DRMWP), an OMA-endorsed sector partnership. DRMWP has received $930,000 to be used over the next three years as part of The Ohio Manufacturers Association’s (OMA) $23,492,808 award from the Economic Development Administration’s American Rescue Plan Act Good Jobs Challenge program.
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Building our Workforce Pipeline. Together.
WorkAdvance is a program to create a pipeline of talent for your entry-level manufacturing positions from our region’s untapped workforce. WorkAdvance is a proven initiative to recruit individuals with no manufacturing experience; it intentionally seeks out those who aren’t currently applying.
Working with community-based organizations that are recruiting, screening, training, and coaching people to fill your entry-level manufacturing positions.
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Attend a free 30-minute virtual info session CLICK HERE to learn how you can position your company to interview and hire these candidates.
What's the Value of WorkAdvance for Manufacturers?
DRMA members list the shortage of skilled workers as their most pressing challenge. We have long been the region's leader in workforce initiatives. With the addition of WorkAdvance, we are able to create a pipeline of talent for your entry-level manufacturing positions from our region’s untapped workforce. WorkAdvance is a proven initiative to recruit individuals with no manufacturing experience. It intentionally seeks out those who aren’t currently applying.
No Cost To
Participate
A Supplement To Your Recruiting Strategy
Access to a Job-Ready Workforce
Choice In Who You Interview and Hire
The WorkAdvance Progam
Designed to recruit, screen, and train people from our untapped workforce to fill entry-level manufacturing positions.
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Recruiting & Screening
For interest and suitability
Career Readiness Training
Workplace skills, soft skills, math brush-up
Technical Skills Training
Certified Manufacturing Associate
(manufactruring fundamentals)
Job Placement
With local manufacturing employers
Coaching
Supports job performance for up to 1 year after placement
Do You Qualify to Participate?
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Have entry-level positions and openings?
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Hourly wage equal to or greater than the living wage for the participant's home county ($~15.00)?
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Your culture welcomes employees who are diverse and with different backgrounds?
What Is WorkAdvance?
Noble Tool Corp. is one member of DRMA who participated in the DRMA WorkAdvance program. Jim and Noble Tool employee Mckeisha Hamilton speaks of the value and success in an article in the May edition of Manufacturing Engineering.
What Is WorkAdvance?
OMA is the lead applicant for 32 programs throughout the country to receive a portion of $500 million in federal funds aimed at getting Americans back to work by strengthening workforce partnerships that lead to good-paying jobs.
DRMWP is among OMA’s network of endorsed manufacturing industry sector partnerships throughout the state and has received funding from this grant to carry out specific recruiting and upskilling components of OMA’s workforce development action plan throughout the greater Dayton Region.
Get Involved!
Interested in connecting to this program?
Reach out to the Project Coordinator,
KQuellhorst@daytonrma.org
DRMA
50,000+ annual job openings over the next 36 months
More than 1,600 manufacturers comprise OMA’s statewide ISP network, including 120 that submitted letters of commitment to source new hires from this initiative. In total, these employers indicated a demand for 25,000+ hires in the next five years at an annual wage of $14.69-$15.26/hour, which reflects the prevailing wages for the initiative’s targeted in-demand occupations of machining, production, welding, industrial maintenance, automation, and robotics. In total, these targeted occupations are projected to have 50,000+ annual openings and 150,000 openings in the next 36 months in Ohio.
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Targeting underrepresented populations across Ohio’s communities
OMA’s initiative prioritizes on Ohio’s 32 Appalachian communities, the eight largest urban counties, and underrepresented groups among the manufacturing workforce including people of color, women, veterans, and returning citizens.
“We project 1,000 Ohio employers to engage in hiring, retaining, or advancing a participant served by this initiative,” said Ryan Augsburger, OMA president. “Our goal is to enroll 6,000 participants across the state in one or more training programs that lead to a job offer or upskilling opportunity at their incumbent employer. Added emphasis will be on reaching job seekers from underrepresented members of our communities.”
In response to regional needs and the needs of the target populations, the ISPs will implement the WorkAdvance model which is a rigorously evaluated industry-driven Career Pathway model with proven results for recruiting and equipping the future workforce. The strategy, which gives employers the opportunity to build a workforce trained to their specific needs, includes recruiting, pre-screening, preparing job skills training, onboarding, and ongoing support and job coaching components.
“Ultimately, the Good Jobs Challenge grant, branded WorkAdvance in Ohio, will lay the groundwork for exponential, ongoing impacts beyond the 36-month grant period by operationalizing sustainable new training programs, formalizing referral partnerships, accelerating ISPs’ momentum, and building underrepresented communities’ interest in manufacturing careers,” Augsburger said.
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