The Center for Employment Training:
An Interview with Mary Laporte

Aired September 29, 1999

David C. Barnett–With those twelve months remaining, many observers within the welfare system are advocating a change in view, a change in terminology. They say we shouldn't concentrate on the term "welfare reform" as much and focus on the people who are working their way off the system, focusing on their needs as they work their way. For the past three years, the Center for Employment Training has made strides in affecting that transition. Mary Laporte is the executive director of the Center for Employment Training, and she joins us on the phone. Good morning.

Mary Laporte–Good morning.

DCB–A little bit of history first, where did this program come from? It didn't originate here, I understand.

ML–No, it didn't. CET Cleveland is a replication of a national program that was started in 1967 in San Jose, California.

DCB–Tell me a little bit about it, what programs do you offer?

ML–Here in Cleveland, we started two years ago, we opened our doors in June of 1997, and we started with two skill areas, welding and machine tool operation. These were two high-demand skill areas where employers and our work-through-the-job and workforce initiatives had identified pretty strong labor force shortages, a need for skilled workers, and at the same time we were trying to address how do we get the estimated 30 to 50,000 individuals in the city of Cleveland attached to the labor market.

DCB–So how do you do that?

ML–Well, we believe that training is essential in this whole process of changing lives and moving people from whether it be public aid or a spotty work history or perhaps educational deficits, that we really need to provide some kind of a leg-up and a connection that many of us really kind of grew up with a connection to the labor force. Therefore, we've got an intensive six-month training program that simulates the work environment, and we integrate both, we call it technical skill training and our four occupations, we've added two more since we've opened up, along with basic skills, GED, and a real strong component of human development.

DCB–We just heard about one of the big problems, is this whole issue of tracking. Do you have a way of keeping track of your folks after they come out of your training program and go into work, do you have a way of knowing if you're still successful after they get that job?

ML–Yes, well, we're required to track individuals and we've got systems in place to track them, presently six months following their job placement. David, one of the hallmarks also of CET is we don't graduate individuals from this program, no one leaves CET until we get them placed in a job. One of our standard-bearing hallmarks is that we don't have a diploma, we say graduation is your first paycheck. In any case, we track individuals for six months, we start with an exit interview, when individuals are getting close to leaving CET and moving into the workforce. We back that up with monthly contacts to both the individual and the employer, we try to address any issues that might arise because really the most important thing is, job placement is one thing, keeping them on the job is another, so it's through phone calls, letters, and then we have quarterly, we call them alumni workshops, ways to bring our trainees back and help them keep moving up and getting greater economic development opportunities.

DCB–It's likely that you're going to see more and more people as this one-year deadline comes down to the wire here. Are you able to handle that?

ML–We've got a model that allows us to start individuals every week and as soon as people are placed on the job, we're able to bring more individuals in. We've not had a problem with capacity to date, we're able to at any one time have 104 individuals in training, that's 26 in each of our four skill areas, and that has not been a problem. We've seen quite a bit of activity through the neighborhood centers, Commissioner Dimora mentioned those, and those neighborhood service centers are working very well, the word is getting out. We've got relationships with the self-sufficiency coaches, and we are getting individuals into the program.

DCB–Mary Laporte is executive director of the Center for Employment Training. Thanks for joining us.

ML–Thank you very much.