The SkillUp Together Fund announced an expansion of its national effort to provide training and job placement support for American workers displaced by the ongoing economic impacts of the recession. During the past six months the fund has awarded $500,000 in grants to people seeking new skills to get in-demand jobs. The SkillUp Together Fund is an initiative of the national social impact nonprofit SkillUp Coalition, founded in 2020 to create paths to economic mobility for more than 40 million workers nationwide.
“Workers embarking on the path to gain skills leading to in-demand jobs face a lot of challenges; finding a high-quality program that leads to a good job, completing those rigorous programs and supporting themselves and their families,” said Beth Davis, vice president of training and analytics at the SkillUp Coalition. “The fund aims to help workers by finding partners who are at the top of their field and offering financial support to assist workers with the financial burdens of reskilling.”
The grants have been used for everything from childcare to books to groceries to rent underscoring the critical role that financial support can play in helping displaced workers navigate the path back to financial stability, she said.
As part of its expansion, the SkillUp Together Fund brought in six new training providers to its platform. Skill seekers will now be able to access training for in-demand roles including HVAC technicians, medical assistants, and electricians from Austin Career Institute, Climb Hire, Creating Coding Careers, ForgeNow, NPower, and Propel America. Supporting the effort are commitments of more than $1 million from new funding partners including Charles D. and Mary A. Bauer Foundation, Macquarie Group Foundation, and Mark IV Capital’s Victory Logistics District.
“NPower’s Tech Fundamentals program helps individuals not only transition from ‘hourly to salary’ jobs, but moves them to high mobility occupational clusters where they have far greater opportunities for growth—and to become more insulated from economic dislocations like another pandemic,” said Bertina Ceccarelli, CEO of NPower.
The SkillUp Together Fund provides financial support to workers enrolling in training programs that can lead to in-demand careers in growing industries. Workers enrolling into programs offered by our fund-eligible partners who are 18 years or older making under $40,000 a year and have less than a bachelor’s degree are eligible for the grants provided by the SkillUp Together Fund. During the past six months, the fund awarded more than 500 grants to learners across the country, many of whom are now graduating from their respective programs. The SkillUp Together Fund partners with training providers with demonstrated retention, completion and placement rates in the top of their category — typically completion rates near 90%, job placement rates of more than 80 percent, and an average of at least $20,000 in annual wage increases.
To learn more or donate, please visit www.skilluptogetherfund.org