Enter the Chicago Manufacturing Institute a largely federally financed training center that each year graduates up to 300 machine operators and industrial inspectors many of them former welfare recipients. Perhaps no program has moved more students into skilled jobs than the Center for Employment Training. I wake up in the morning and want to come to work. United Airlines plans to hire 400 welfare recipients in slots from reservation clerks to cabin cleaners this year. To help smooth any turbulence United assigns mentors to welfare hires for their first 60 days on the job.
Experts are worried that the easy part of welfare to work is already over.
The jury is still very much out. But companies like Marriott are showing that the welfare rolls can be a source of valued workers who know how to use a fighting chance.