REGIONAL CAREER NETWORKSREGIONAL CAREER NETWORKSFor career technical education directors, community college deans, and trade school leaders running a manufacturing program
A Regional Career Network is the nonprofits, schools, and employers of one region, committed in writing to run one career pathway together. The nonprofits bring the people they serve into your program. Your school trains them. The companies you already send graduates to commit in writing to tours and interviews. The network stays standing between grants, so the region goes after the next one together.
In San Bernardino, a STEM Lab (science, technology, engineering, and math) introduces young people to machining, and its coordinator books them into tours at Technical Employment Training, the region's training school. The students walk in already knowing the career. California funded that pathway, and the companies are committed in writing. This page explains the model, what your school brings to it, what we bring, and how to start.
BOOK A MEETING ABOUT YOUR PROGRAMThirty minutes with Daniel Wierman.Pick a time that works. Come with your enrollment picture in mind.
Where this came from
My name is Daniel Wierman. Before any of this had a name, I ran a registered apprenticeship on a machine shop floor in Southern California. One day a young man in quality control asked me to print his training certificates. There were about twenty of them. I handed him the stack, he looked at it for about ten seconds, looked up at me, and said, bro, I barely graduated high school. He had earned something he could see.
That moment changed how I see this work. A career pathway makes hope visible.
Then I spent years inside a Southern California workforce system that managed 120 programs, and I watched the same movie on repeat. A school builds a strong manufacturing program. The machines are there, the instructors know the trade, and the graduates get hired. Then the money that paid for outreach and student support dries up. The nonprofits that were sending students move on to the next funded program. The classes empty out, enrollment drops, and the program has to defend its budget the next cycle.
Nobody failed. The school, the nonprofit, and the company each did their part. Programs lose their students because they are built on a single grant, and because they run alone.
The model
So we built a way for a region's partners to do the work together. In plain words, a Regional Career Network is the nonprofits, schools, and employers of one region, committed in writing to run one career pathway together, so the pipeline into your program survives any single grant. The formal definition, the one we use in grant narratives:
A Regional Career Network is a locally coordinated system of nonprofits, educators, and employers that moves people into careers, with sector-specific pathways like CNC, Welding, or Maritime deployed based on regional demand.
Each partner does one part. Nonprofits provide participants and wraparound services, the support that keeps a student enrolled. Educators provide the training needed to be hired, the part your school already does. Companies interview and hire graduates. Support Partners, such as workforce boards and chambers, provide resources and networking. A student moves through one simple path: Get Informed. Get Trained. Get Hired. Your school is the Get Trained step.
Every partner signs a Memorandum of Understanding, an MOU, that says what they will do for the grant. For your school, that is tours of your program and help with enrollment. For a nonprofit, it is recruiting students from the people they serve and keeping them supported. For a company, it is tours, classroom speakers, and structured interviews with your graduates. The partners doing funded work are attached to the Lead Applicant as contracted partners, each with a Scope of Work in the budget, so each one answers for its own part. The fiscal lead is chosen per grant from the partners, and on some grants it is the school. An organization that sits outside all of them, Regional Career Networks, holds the group together between grants, so the partnership is not rebuilt when the next grant opens.
That is why a region with a standing network can win grant after grant. In San Bernardino the first grant supported the STEM Lab that introduces students to the career. The next formed an apprenticeship with the state. The one after that certified instructors, so the region can keep teaching the pathway. Each grant built one more piece a training program can use, and each piece stayed in place for the next grant.
What we bring
Your school already trains the skills the companies hire for, or we would not be talking. Most educators are good with employers too: you run hiring events for your cohorts and you know the shops that take your graduates. What most schools do not have is a steady way to reach the nonprofits whose people need exactly the training you offer.
The nonprofits in a Regional Career Network serve opportunity youth, veterans, adults with autism, and career changers, and they already know who is ready. Recruiting students into your program and keeping them supported is written into their MOU. We set up those relationships and come to the meetings with you.
You already know the shops that hire your graduates. We turn those relationships into employer MOUs that commit tours, classroom speakers, and structured interviews, and we open the RCN Upskill Tracker to each company, a training system for the workers they already have. Companies that use it start asking your school to train to their skills list.
CNC Career Network and the CNC Career Guide are the career seeker facing side of the network. Students arrive already informed about the career, and a tour of your program is booked in two clicks. Your staff learn no new software; your counselors learn a three step guide. The Guide also records each step a student takes toward your program and the companies, so the enrollment and placement numbers your grants report are captured along the way.
You know the sector. The grant that wins tells the story of a whole region's partners moving students into one pathway, with the nonprofits and companies committed on paper before the deadline. We write that story with your grants office, for the equipment, student stipends, and instructors your program needs.
Webinars for career seekers, videos filmed at your facility, and web content that sends students to your tour. We produce it, so the outreach does not fall on your instructors.
When you sit down with a nonprofit in your region, bring me. I explain what a manufacturing career means for the people they serve, their part in the pathway, and what the grant funds for them, and I bring them into the Regional Career Network for your region. When you sit down with a company that hires your graduates, bring me too. I turn the hiring relationship into a written commitment and open the RCN Upskill Tracker to them. You do not have to learn how to talk to nonprofits to fill your classes.
Two ways in
The model is operating in San Bernardino and is building or being explored in more regions. If your school is in one of them, your program becomes the training step in a network that already has partners in it, and it is written into the region's next grant.
If your region has no network yet, we start one with you. Any partner can start a Regional Career Network, and a school with a working program and employers who know it is a strong place to start. On the meeting we look at the employers you already know, the nonprofits near you, and the grants that fit. Then we go meet them together.
The proof
A California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship award, alongside a Strong Workforce Program grant, supported an operating STEM Lab in San Bernardino and an apprenticeship formed with the state. Today the lab's coordinator books students into tours at the region's training school, and the first company is hosting apprentices at its own facility.
Thirty minutes. We talk about your program, the students you need in it, and the companies that hire your graduates. You leave with a read on your region: which nonprofits could send students, which employers could commit in writing, and which grant is worth going after first. From there I join you in the meetings with the partners around you.
BOOK A MEETING ABOUT YOUR PROGRAMThirty minutes with Daniel Wierman.If you would rather write first, the application takes about two minutes, and I reach out to set up the same meeting. Apply to work with us on your region.
Questions educators ask
The nonprofits in the network serve specific populations and already know who is ready. Recruiting students into your program and keeping them supported is written into their MOU, and I sit in the meetings where they commit to it.
No new software. The CNC Career Guide works around the systems you already use, and your counselors learn a three step guide. Your part in the partnership is tours of your program and help with enrollment. The coordination between partners is carried by our team.
The companies in the network sign an MOU that commits tours, classroom speakers, and structured interviews. They come from the relationships you already have, and I come to those meetings with you to put the commitment in writing.
That is why the network stays standing between grants. Each grant builds one piece that stays in place, like a lab, certified instructors, or equipment, and the partners go after the next grant together.
We are written into the funded budget as a fixed fee for a defined scope, the same way every partner doing funded work is.
Not ready to talk yet?
RCN Grant Watch is a free account that shows the verified workforce grants worth a look, read for what each one funds for a school: equipment, student stipends, and instructors. Open it, watch your region, and when a card fits, the meeting is one click away.
Open a free RCN Grant Watch accountSee the grants your region could win.
This is what we're going to do. Do you want to be a part of it?
BOOK A MEETING ABOUT YOUR PROGRAMThirty minutes with Daniel Wierman.Pick a time that works. Come with your enrollment picture in mind.
P.S. Enrollment decides whether a manufacturing program survives, and filling the classes usually falls on the instructors. A Regional Career Network is the nonprofits, schools, and employers of one region committed in writing to one pathway, held together between grants. Your school keeps training. The nonprofits send students, the companies commit to tours and interviews, and I come to the meetings with you. Book a meeting about your program, or open a free RCN Grant Watch account and watch your region first.