Willie Wade is the newly appointed CEO of Employ Milwaukee, a federally funded agency that helps regulate the workforce and support workers in Milwaukee.
Employ Milwaukee is a federally funded agency that helps regulate the workforce and support workers in Milwaukee. The agency’s newly appointed CEO, Willie C. Wade, accepted an invitation to discuss his work with Off the Cuff.
What is Employ Milwaukee's mission?
Employ Milwaukee is the workforce board for Milwaukee County. We're charged with coordinating matters between the supply and demand of the workforce. The supply is people that need jobs, the demand is companies that need workers. In between them, there is a need for training, education, etc., and Employ Milwaukee is charged with making sure a person gets the skills they need to become employed. So, if a person is looking for a job, or if a business is looking for workers, they can get in contact with us.
Can you tell me more about Employ Milwaukee's programs?
One of them is America's Promise, which is a grant program for the health care and manufacturing sectors. Another is TechHire, with a free training boot camp and career coaching to enter IT-related jobs. And there are many others program that people may join at will.
How can people get more information or join one of your programs?
We have locations throughout the city where people can just walk in, whatever their situation is, so we can direct them to people who can help them. They can also go to our website, which is very easy to understand. They can click on what they're interested in, choose a certain job sector, such as IT or finance, so they can get connected and engaged with us. We make it very easy. If people walk through our doors, at 2342 N. 27th St., we can deal with them directly and send them to one of our four job centers in Milwaukee.
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Do you have success stories to share?
Just today, I was at a graduation for DRS, which is a U.S. submarine contractor on the North Side of Milwaukee. We trained 13 or 14 workers, they got their certificate, and they’ll start working at DRS on Monday, making more than $18 an hour on a career path. Those are the type of partnership we look for all the time.
Can anybody in need of work or training seek you out?
Yes. For instance, we work a lot with reentry workers, people who are returning citizens and who served time in the correction system. We work with them to help them get the skills and the credentials they need, so they can get into the workforce and earn enough to get away from whatever it was that put them in the correction system in the first place. We also focus on youth employment, like with our Earn & Learn program. It's a program that we do in the summer to make sure that close to 2,000 young people in Milwaukee will get work experience, either at a nonprofit agency or at a business, so they can start preparing to be the future generation of workers.
