Job-training program draws millions from R.I.

Look around Rhode Island and you’ll find signs of the state’s growing job-training program — at a textile plant in Woonsocket, a Teamsters truck driving school, Twin Oaks restaurant in Cranston and, of course, submarine maker Electric Boat.

These are among the dozens of organizations that receive funding, directly or indirectly, through Gov. Gina Raimondo’s Real Jobs Rhode Island program, which she wants to more than double state spending on next year.

Described as employer driven — some would say privatized — job training, Real Jobs has largely avoided the tough scrutiny of Raimondo’s new economic development and education programs.

That could change when lawmakers vet Raimondo’s budget proposal, which would boost the $5.45 million in state dollars spent this year on Real Jobs to $14.1 million next year.

One likely reason for Real Jobs’ popularity is how broadly it spreads funding across a number of influential institutions.

Nearly 50 different industry groups have participated in Real Jobs since 2015 and in most cases those groups include several companies or organizations, not to mention suppliers.

Tracing where all $17.4 million Rhode Island spent through the program last year (which includes some federal grants and money rolled over from prior years) ended up is not easy.

Nor is explaining how it works.

Essentially, Real Jobs allows companies, trade associations, chambers of commerce, labor unions and community organizations to form groups that can apply for funding.

These partnerships decide what job-training employers in these industries need and then either provide it themselves or order it up from another organization.

They then bill the state Department of Labor and Training for their costs, which can include administrative expenses.

The partnerships come in many shapes and sizes.

Some look to train the unemployed to fill open positions.

Others look to teach existing workers new skills.

Some act as intermediaries designing curriculum or feeding workers into training performed by other organizations.

Electric Boat’s partnership, which accounted for $4.5 million of the $17.4 million spent on Real Jobs last year and is the highest profile example of the program, uses this intermediary model. Most of the Electric Boat money funds a series of shipbuilding training programs at the Community College of Rhode Island and New England Institute of Technology. It booked $30,000 in administrative costs.

Others use the money more like traditional grants, and in some cases used to receive state funding under earlier grant programs. They include Man Up, the nonprofit that received General Assembly grants overhauled after the criminal investigation into ex-Rep. Raymond Gallison.

Social Enterprise Greenhouse, a Providence nonprofit that helps nurture entrepreneurs, used the $374,000 it received through Real Jobs last year to fund its own programs, including everything from staff salaries to business cards and falafel orders for a business accelerator lunch. For these partnerships, the distinction between training and administrative expenses can be a little hazy.

Political Scene reviewed some of the thousands of Real Jobs reimbursement invoices from a few of the partnerships to get a taste of where the money ends up.

There are a lot of office supplies.

A Rhode Island Hospitality Association-led partnership that trains mid-level managers in the restaurant industry received $446,000 last year, including $192,000 in administrative expenses.

A Hospitality invoice covering October 2018 claimed $1,200 in rent to Twin Oaks restaurant, of which the state paid $200.

And it claimed $136 in mileage expenses — which the state offers 10% reimbursement — including $19 to drive to a golf tournament at Quidnessett Country Club and $11 to drive to an unidentified “PAC fundraiser” at Oak Hill Tavern in North Kingstown. (2018 was an election year, after all.)

Angelika Pelligrino, spokesperson for the Department of Labor and Training, said the agency excluded the drive to the Political Action Committee fundraiser from the Hospitality Association’s reimbursement expenses for that month and does not fund political activity.

The golf tournament, however, was in play, with expenses including “golf auction wrapping paper ... orange juice, creamer and putting green items,” totaling $66.

State Labor and Training Director Scott Jensen, who oversaw the creation of Real Jobs, describes the approach as “train and place,” instead of traditional government-directed “train and pray” programs that sometimes have a tenuous connection to what employers need.

Even with some funding going to administrative costs, Jensen said using industry intermediaries is “a way better vehicle than state government” to help workers.

“We are not looking to subsidize corporations or teaching people how to teach, we are looking for a more efficient connection,” Jensen said about the partnerships.

Real Jobs replaced grant programs controlled by the Governor’s Workforce Board, but is already much larger than the old programs.

Critics of Raimondo’s economic policies, like Providence Democratic state Sen. Sam Bell, lump Real Jobs in with her business incentives, which they see as corporate giveaways.

“Real Jobs is an effort to make job training not about helping workers but about helping businesses,” Bell said last week.

What are the results?

Between 2015 and mid February, 14,644 people received some training through a Real Jobs program, according to Labor Department figures. More than half of them already had jobs and were seeking new skills.

Of the 3,974 unemployed Rhode Islanders who were trained, 2,939 were hired at the end of the training. And Jensen said around three-quarters kept that work for at least six months, about as good or better than the national labor market average.

However, the job placement rate varies significantly between the different programs and is heavily influenced by Electric Boat, where all but 10 of the 1,348 people who completed training were hired, or 99%.

Other smaller programs had placement rates as low as 8%, and others, like SE Greenhouse, are training people to get promotions or start their own businesses, so new hire rates aren’t really applicable.

“Incumbent worker investment is making companies in state more competitive in the market they are in,” Jensen said. “It also keeps people from being laid off.”

Since Real Jobs started, the Labor Department has canceled eight partnerships:

• Healthcare Training Collaborative (for certified nursing assistants)

• Insurance Innovation Partnership

• Opportunities Industrialization Center of Rhode Island Partnership

• Partnership for Real IT Jobs (LaunchCode)

• RI Bankers Partnership

• Stepping Up (UNAP Bridge to Nursing Apprenticeship)

• Tech Hire

• West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation Partnership (Business Skills for the Construction Trades)

Still on the ballot?

Andrew Yang, Rhode Island Secretary of State

Nellie Gorbea would like a word.

Her staff has been trying to reach the Brown University graduate’s erstwhile presidential campaign to see if he still wants to be on Rhode Island’s Democratic primary.

So far no luck.

Yang suspended his campaign Feb. 11, but by that point had already submitted enough nomination signatures to qualify for the Rhode Island ballot.

State law lists Feb. 25 as the deadline for qualified candidates to withdraw, but Gorbea spokesman Nick Domings said in practice elections officials will take names off the ballot right up until the day it is printed. In this case that’s March 11.

But they need a proper hard-copy letter from the campaign to remove a name. No tweets, texts or Instagram posts will do. And so far they can’t track down the Yang Gang.

They’ll likely be reaching out to others as well.

Tom Steyer dropped out of the race Saturday night and Pete Buttigieg on Sunday and the odds others follow them after Super Tuesday are good.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick also submitted enough nomination signatures to qualify for the ballot, but has withdrawn, according to the secretary of state’s website.

As it stands, the candidates currently set for the Rhode Island Democratic primary ballot are: Amy Klobuchar, Yang, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Steyer, and Tulsi Gabbard.

Republicans: Bill Weld, Donald Trump, and Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente. panderson@ providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7384 On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_