Our mission is to develop and advance the workforce of Southeast Minnesota.
Meet Aaron Benike
President, Benike Construction
SE MN Workforce Development Board Member since 2015
Why did you decide on a career in the construction industry and who/what influenced you to decide on this career choice?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be working in construction. As a young kid, maybe around the age of four, I remember going around to job sites with my dad and as I got older it always seemed fun. My dad really had an impact and influence on my path into the construction industry. Like a lot of other people, when you see what your parents and other family members do, it is natural to want to do the same thing.
On March 9, 2018, Anisha was awarded the 2018 Owatonna Business Women: Young Careerist Award. The award acknowledges a young business woman from Steele County for her accomplishments thus far in her career and highlights the promise she shows in her future careers. Read more
"Anisha's story is a little bit different compared to most. Helping others has always been important to her and something she's passionate about. It's her way of giving back, as she feels she was given a second chance at life."Sonji Davis, Area Manager, WDI
Career Pathways
Career Pathways are a series of connected education and training programs, work experiences, and student support services that enable individuals to secure a family-sustaining career or advance in a demand industry or occupation. Successful career pathways merge employers from a target industry at the regional level with education and training institutions. Often it is a workforce entity that serves as a convener of the two partners.
Susan Boehm was hired in April of 2015 as the Regional Career Pathways Coordinator. She guides the regional career pathways work being done for both youth and adults throughout the eleven-county area of Southeast Minnesota, connecting the ten counties that make up Workforce Development, Inc. and Winona County. One focus of Susan’s position is to create shorter term trainings that give customers, especially those with barriers to employment, an opportunity to discover careers for which they might not otherwise have awareness of or access to.
March Feature:
Building Carpenters
Carpentry Training Program
Workforce Development, Inc. (WDI) has a number of career pathways in various stages of implementation. One career pathway currently in progress is the Building Carpenters Carpentry Training Program, offered in partnership with the Carpenter’s Union. We are excited that the first cohort is showing great promise.
"One goal of this program has been to give persons from barriered populations access to a short-term training for a high-demand career that pays a family-sustaining wage. A second goal is to provide skilled employees to contractors who have been having a difficult time finding both the quality and quantity of labor they need in order to complete their projects." Susan Boehm, Regional Career Pathways Coordinator, WDI
Climbing the Ladder of Success!
An Effort to Get More Women into Male-Dominated Careers
KAAL TV (Rochester) Video Feature
Spotlight on the Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce
Women and Minorities Work Group
The Women and Minorities Work Group began with Workforce Development Board members and partners coming together to take a closer look at our respective communities and identify ways in which we could make a difference in the equity gaps in education, employment and income within gender and minority populations.
The
Women and Minorities Work Group meets the first Thursday of every other month. The next meeting is scheduled for
Thursday, April 5th at the Rochester WorkForce Center.
"I needed more in life for my kids, and I was not going to just sit around waiting for someone to just hand it over. I could not begin to imagine where I would be without the Workforce. I'm guessing I would have not gone to college."
