Serve, Learn, Earn coalition urges legislature to restore base funding to preserve training and placements
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Summary
Coalition partners told the House Commerce & Economic Development Committee that cuts to Serve, Learn, Earn funding have reduced participant capacity about 17% and asked the legislature to raise base funding from $500,000 to $1 million to sustain programs and attract private grants.
Members of the Serve, Learn, Earn coalition told the Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development on Wednesday that recent funding cuts have reduced the number of Vermonters served and threatened program capacity.
"We served about 600 people in 2024," Kate Gluckman, director of development and communication at Vermont Works for Women, told the committee, citing coalition data on statewide reach and credentialing. Gluckman said three coalition programs were recently registered as state pre‑apprenticeship programs and stressed the importance of stipends and other direct program support that the coalition uses to make training accessible.
The coalition described mixed outcomes from recent survey follow‑ups: a majority of participants are aged 15–24, roughly half seek job placement after training, and coalition estimates show about 30% of those seeking placements were confirmed placed in jobs. Gluckman and other witnesses said data collection is imperfect and that some programs track employment alignment to training more closely than others.
"We are asking for an additional $500,000 in next year's budget," Gluckman said. The coalition said the current base allocation routed through Forests, Parks & Recreation is $500,000; the ask would increase that to $1 million to restore scale and to help the partnership attract further private funding. Gluckman also named a private investment: "we are so proud to have secured a $1,800,000 investment from a national level workforce development funder called the Ascendium Foundation," which coalition witnesses said was tied to the visibility and stability provided by state support.
Tom Longstrats, executive director of Resource, described how the programs translate into placements for construction and conservation jobs and warned of growing labor shortages in the trades. "The workforce in construction is down 11% since 2019," Longstrats said, and he cited other workforce pressures including an aging workforce and low retention in rural areas. Resource reported having trained roughly 550 people who benefited from SLE funding and said 81% of intensive trainees and 90% of YouthBuild trainees are placed into employment at average starting wages the witnesses reported as about $22 and $19 per hour, respectively.
Vermont Works for Women’s Trailblazers pre‑apprenticeship was highlighted as a pathway to trades employment and retention. "Trailblazers is a 7 week cohort based program" that pairs classroom training with paid internships and employer connections, Roni Bazden, executive director at Vermont Works for Women, said, providing a recent success story of a participant placed into an HVAC apprenticeship.
Committee members asked about whether post‑program employment aligned with trainees’ training. Witnesses acknowledged that some programs can verify role alignment and others cannot; the group also flagged survey nonresponse as an undercount risk for outcome measures. Witnesses repeatedly emphasized that stipends and direct program spending are central to recruiting participants who otherwise could not afford to enroll.
The committee did not take any formal action at the hearing. Members said they would consider coalition testimony as they review the governor’s and appropriations proposals this spring.
