How do you start a new career in a pandemic? These Wichita workers found a fresh path
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Working in a pandemic world
The novel coronavirus has changed the landscape of work in Wichita, Kansas and the U.S.
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Michelle Escobar was ready to make a big career jump: from working long hours as a dental assistant to coding and working from home. But without enough money to pay for education up front, it wouldn’t be easy.
The single mom, 42, was between jobs and her daughter was about to graduate high school. She found an opportunity to attend an online data analytics boot camp from the University of Kansas.
That’s when KU directed her to the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas, which paid for about two-thirds of her tuition costs.
Training programs and grants aren’t new. But as the coronavirus pandemic has changed the landscape of work, they have the potential to play an outsize role in the economic recovery — amid staffing shortages across industries and structural changes that are transforming jobs in certain sectors.
“It’s more relevant in terms of what’s happening in the economy,” said Keith Lawing, president and CEO of the Workforce Alliance, which runs the Wichita Workforce Center and others in south-central Kansas. “But we always need ways for workers to get better skills.”
Not everyone agrees that workforce training can offer employees a clear path to higher wages and more stable lives. But experts generally find that such programs, combined with other factors, can drive changes in individual lives, if not systemically.
Escobar realized it was time for her to make the shift after she had worked as a dental assistant for more than a decade. She cared for her elderly, sick father throughout the pandemic. Living at home helped her realize she wanted a more flexible job that allowed her to work remotely.
Options for career transitions
Wichita, much like other local economies, is experiencing a lot of friction in its labor market during the economic recovery from the pandemic.
That means unemployed workers are shifting from one job to the next. They don’t always have the skills they need to move up the proverbial career ladder, which can keep them unemployed for longer.
“Job training reduces some of that friction,” said Jeremy Hill, director of Wichita State University’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research. “It helps someone transition in their careers quickly and get them back in the labor market. That’s beneficial to everyone, not just that person.”
The Workforce Alliance offers grant programs designed to help employees get back to work as soon as possible after a job loss, or to rebuild skills for future jobs. It is funded in part through the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, known as WIOA, and also receives state and local grants. Generally, workers don’t have to pay to participate in the programs.
About 12 million people across the country had contact with local career centers by fall last year, according to USA Today. That was up from about 8.5 million people in 2019, but far below Great Recession levels.
The Wichita Workforce Center served 33,768 people in 2019, then 28,135 people in 2020. Through July 2021, it served 14,539 workers. The number of 2020 workers served dropped off in March and April, when many followed stay-at-home orders, then jumped to exceed 2019 levels in the fall, Workforce Alliance data shows.
The Workforce Alliance isn’t the only outlet to assist people attempting to progress in their work lives. NexStep Alliance, through Goodwill of Kansas and WSU Tech, offers adult education that ranges from high school diploma classes to English as a second language courses. It also provides digital skills training and general job assistance through career exploration and resume reviews.
Registered apprenticeships are another option. They allow employees to earn wages from the first day while experiencing hands-on learning.
Local unions often offer such apprenticeship programs. For example, in Wichita, the Plumbers and Pipefitters union has its Apprenticeship Training of Kansas program, designed for students who want to become journeyman plumbers, pipefitters or HVAC service technicians. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union has its electrical construction apprenticeship.
Learning new skills
Cody Cain used to work at National Plastics Color in Valley Center and thought he would be a “lifer” there. The warehouse job had him doing things like sending off BB gun pellets to be sterilized.
Cain, 29, didn’t have a Kansas high school diploma. He had previously struggled with drug addiction and substance abuse.
He had faced charges in the past for burglary, theft, reckless driving and possession of stolen property. He was able to go through Sedgwick County Drug Court in 2018 as part of a plea agreement stemming from other charges of fleeing an officer.
“I thought I was going to prison,” Cain said. “But in drug court they got me sober and clean.”
Cain said drug court connected him with NexStep Alliance to help him get his Kansas high school diploma. NexStep has programming to help people leaving the criminal justice system get education.
Cain did more than get his high school diploma. He was able to fast-track a welding certificate at the same time. He began classes at WSU Tech this fall for an associate degree in welding.
“After they got me sober and gave me the opportunity, I enjoy life a lot more, and I can enjoy going to work,” Cain said. “And I can say I complete things. I never thought I’d get my high school diploma.”
Cain has six kids, and the pay increase he can get with a welding degree will make a huge difference. Median pay in 2020 was $21.25 per hour, or $44,190 annually, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Although Cain didn’t switch job pathways because of the pandemic, his experience shows how the labor market experiences regular friction, economic recovery aside.
That friction is normal even in good economic times, Hill said. A person learning new work skills can add value to the overall economy. Skills also diminish over time, and training can help a worker keep up.
Teaching new skills is also a way for programs to help meet the needs of local employers, who benefit from having a pool of workers with the skills that match open positions. Without training, employers could face a different kind of workforce shortage.
In order to meet the demand that employers have for certain talent and skills, training programs should always be adaptable — especially now, when it’s not just friction at play, but a structural shift in the labor market, Hill said.
That happens when jobs themselves change. Not every shift will require new training. For example, retail stores might employ fewer cashiers, but apps employ more workers to shop for consumers and deliver goods to their doorsteps.
Other transitions do require a new skill set. The hotel industry was hit hard by COVID-19 and many have not brought back all the workers who helped clean rooms before. Instead, those employees may look for other work. For a job like advanced manufacturing in Wichita, they would need on-the-job training, at a minimum.
“If an industry or skill or an occupation is no longer needed, and all the sudden a new one is, these programs help bridge that gap faster,” Hill said.
“We have more friction now than two years ago. People were laid off and their skills are no longer needed,” Hill said. “And some jobs were created during COVID that didn’t exist before.”
Technology was in the process of bringing about many of these changes when the pandemic accelerated those shifts.
“People are switching industries right now,” Hill said. “That is actually a very natural, healthy thing for our economy.”
Eliminating barriers to employment
Donial Fayson worked in the travel industry for eight years before the pandemic hit, causing her to lose her job booking business trips in March 2020.
At first, it was a temporary furlough. By October, it turned into a permanent layoff.
“They attempted to bring me back, but travel didn’t rebound by then,” Fayson said. “I wasn’t completely surprised.”
Fayson and her sister started a restaurant that had long been a passion project: Wichita Subs and More, selling classic East Coast-style Philly cheesesteaks.
At the same time, she wanted to switch career paths to something more “recession proof” than pandemic-battered industries like travel and restaurants.
“I always had things in my life that prevented me from going back to school,” Fayson said. “So I took the opportunity when it was presented to me.”
Fayson began taking classes this year toward her associate degree in cybersecurity at WSU Tech. She qualified for a federal Pell Grant, and the Workforce Alliance covers any remaining costs.
After graduation, she hopes to return to the same company — in an information technology position. It would offer higher wages, more stability and “less opportunity to be laid off,” she said.
While some workers like Fayson and Escobar chose to use training to shift from one industry to the next, others find the programs helpful to boost skills in their current career.
“To continue to be in that industry, upskilling is key,” Lawing said. “Good times, bad times, it’s a way you can increase your wages. By learning new skills you become more valuable to that company.”
Programs and grants like those at the Workforce Alliance go beyond helping people with classes — they are designed to “eliminate barriers they have to employment,” Lawing said.
Grant funds help participants pay for child care or transportation.
“If you have to drive to class, you depend on your vehicle,” Lawing said. If your car breaks down, we want you to still get to class, so we will help pay to get your car fixed. Or we can help purchase gas.”
Workforce programs debated
Workforce training alone won’t help transitioning employees recover from the pandemic. It acts as a supplement to help people boost their skills, whether it’s when they need it most in an economic downturn, or in good times when they’re planning ahead.
Every project operates differently, with varying degrees of success. In California, one program pays residents $600 per week for nine weeks while they train for digital jobs like data analysts and technical support specialists, the Sacramento Bee reported.
California used its federal coronavirus relief funds to create short-term job training. At least nine participants out of 40 got job offers, with more expected. However, some wished the program were longer.
National researchers are split on the impact of workforce training.
While some experts say strong programs are even more necessary in times of economic transition, others think training isn’t the best way to raise workers’ wages.
A report from the nonprofit Brookings Institute says the U.S. should have a workforce development plan that encourages and helps employees who need to switch fields.
Some industries will continue to see less demand for labor, and some workers will face long-term unemployment. That’s because industries will likely be slow to recover and some changes in jobs will be permanent. Training programs could help with that, according to the report.
“Providing access to training and education helps people who want to get into higher paying careers do so and is also necessary for some whose jobs will not be coming back,” the Brookings Institute report concludes.
Other researchers found that while training may help push individual workers into higher-paying jobs, there are other, more systemic forces that keep wages low.
Instead, the mismatch could be better explained by employers’ power in the labor market, according to a December report from the liberal think tank Roosevelt Institute. Measures of workers’ wages aren’t perfect examples of the value of certain jobs.
The report challenges the narrative that a gap in skills is what drives long-term unemployment. Although skills and education are still important factors that impact wages, there are more holistic policies that can raise wages beyond workforce training.
“Ultimately, we think the scale of income inequality outmatches training programs’ potential to reduce it,” Roosevelt Institute researchers concluded.
Future funding
The state of Kansas has allocated at least $8.1 million as of Aug. 5 from federal CARES Act dollars toward workforce development, according to the state’s online dashboard that shows COVID-19 relief spending.
In the coming months, President Joe Biden’s administration is looking to invest even more in workforce training programs as part of the country’s recovery from the pandemic.
The original blueprint for the American Jobs Plans, which the administration released in late March, included a call on Congress to invest $100 billion in workforce development programs. That included $40 billion for new dislocated workers and sector-based training, as well as funding to create new registered apprenticeship slots.
The plan aimed to support the kind of community college partnerships that allow job training curriculum rooted in industries with high-demand skills — similar to the work done by the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas and other workforce centers across the country.
The American Jobs Plan eventually split into what’s known as the bipartisan infrastructure bill, passed by the Senate last month, and the separate, Democrat-backed budget blueprint that would boost the social safety net.
Spending on workforce development didn’t make it into the bipartisan infrastructure bill. It’s unclear yet whether the partisan bill will eventually lead to more funds for workforce training programs.
Technology training grows
Whether or not more funding for workforce training flows into south central Kansas, the Workforce Alliance will continue to have its core programs for workers facing job losses and industry fluctuations.
Lawing, the president, said many employees remain interested in aviation and manufacturing, an outsize part of Wichita’s economy. There’s also a steady flow of new health care workers.
However, “we are definitely seeing growing numbers of people getting into information technology,” he said.
That includes Escobar. Prior to her career as a dental assistant, she worked in retail, which also offered limited employment choices.
The certificate she’s seeking now opens up a wide range of job options for her to choose from: coding, website or software development or even working in a billing department.
“I didn’t realize all the things I could do with it,” Escobar said. “There’s just so many opportunities.”
She hasn’t decided exactly what type of position she wants to pursue after she graduates from the boot camp in October, although she’s interested in using her new coding skills. She’s glad that whatever job she finds, she can most likely perform it remotely from home.
With no more constant overtime hours and no long commute, Escobar plans to use the extra time looking after family members.
The extra wages will offer her more stability too. The 2020 median pay for dental assistants was $41,180 annually, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Median pay for web developers and digital designers was $77,200 per year, while computer programmers can earn median pay of $89,190, federal labor department data show.
“I cried when I found out the Workforce Alliance could help. It was just a huge blessing,” Escobar said. “One less thing to have to stress over.”
This story was originally published September 12, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
