Workshops for Warriors: Helping Veterans Get Jobs at Home with Hernan Luis Y Prado, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Workshops for Warriors.
SPEAKER
Hernán Luis y Prado
Chief Executive Officer & Founder
Workshops for Warriors
TIMESTAMPS
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Hernán Luis y Prado: (00:00)
Good morning. Thank you for inviting me here today to share a little bit about Workshops for Warriors and how together we can rebuild America's manufacturing. If you served in the military, please stand and be recognized. All right. Thank you for your service. I'm sure the beard was the first thing you did when you got out. Right? So my name is Hernán Luis y Prado. I'm a 15 year Navy veteran with combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I love the Navy, but I left. Why? When I came back from Iraq, the people I served with, competent, capable, honorable men and women, struggled to find purpose in the civilian world. But it dropped me to my knees when one of my Marines lost both of his legs on a roadside bomb. I turned to my wife and said, "We have to do something." We sold our house, cashed out our savings, retirement plans, sold everything that we had, and started Workshops for Warriors. And it's thanks to her selflessness and unparalleled ability to analyze data that we are what we are today. Rachel, where are you? Please stand. Thank you, sweetheart. Thank you.
Hernán Luis y Prado: (01:24)
Since 2008, Workshops for Warriors is the only nonprofit school in America that provides accelerated advanced manufacturing training, nationally recognized credentials and places veterans into advanced manufacturing jobs in machining, welding, robotics, 3D printing. And this is critical because there are almost one million unfilled manufacturing jobs in America that are unfilled due to lack of skilled labor. This number will triple by 2030. So who will build our bridges, our ships, our future?
Hernán Luis y Prado: (02:02)
How did we get here? America has been relying on this manufacturing training pipeline that was turned off after World War II almost 80 years ago. This staggering lack of vision is leading to this colossal skills gap, which jeopardizes $1 trillion of economic output and leaves America economically, socially, and militarily at risk. We can't have that happen. President Biden's infrastructure bill is well-intentioned, and it's desperately needed to reinvigorate America's manufacturing force. But it's based upon an incorrect assumption, which is that we have to train people to fill these jobs. The missing cornerstone of this plan is a nationally scalable training program like Workshops for Warriors.
Hernán Luis y Prado: (02:55)
But let me share with you how it impacts people on a personal level. After eight years and two combat tours in the Marine Corps, James suddenly found himself unemployed, single and living in his car with his three-year-old son, Sammy. This combat veteran had never felt fear before until that day because he was worried. How was he going to feed his son? Low on gas with $2 in his bank account, he had lost all hope until he found Workshops for Warriors. After 16 weeks of accelerated manufacturing training and machining at our school with housing, tuition, childcare, and all meals covered, I am thrilled to tell you that James now has a $60,000 a year job in advanced manufacturing. But most importantly, thank you, he found hope. And for Sammy, that means that he and his father can sleep in their own beds in their own home for the first time.
Hernán Luis y Prado: (04:10)
What's the problem? For every James we can help, there are thousands we cannot. There are over one million service members that are leaving the service over the next five years. These are competent, mission-oriented, team-focused people that are ready if given the proper training, to start a new mission to rebuild America's manufacturing force, which every industry in America says is their number one priority right now. The challenge? Money. This is enlightened self-interest. By training veterans, you help our nation, and you help your company's bottom line. It's that simple. So here's my ask. $15 million allows us to train three times as many veterans as we can every single year and allows our school to become self-sufficient. $148 million increases the number of graduates we train 20 times and is tax-deductible. But you say, "Wait, those are numbers. Give me more numbers." Well, my wife, the statistician, says, "It's all about data." Right? So here's the data.
Hernán Luis y Prado: (05:20)
Since 2008, we have over 1,000 graduates who work in every state of the nation. 94% of our graduates are placed and retained in full-time jobs at companies like Boeing, SpaceX, Tesla, Google with $60,000 a year average starting salaries after just 16 weeks of accelerated training at our school, and we can replicate this nationally. Since 2008, we have grown 350 times our original footprint. We have a proven track record and we are ready to scale nationally. Because Workshops for Warriors manufacturers productivity and purpose by giving veterans the skills they need to strengthen our nation and your bottom line. That's what we need. We would never be happy with second place. Right? Guess what? In manufacturing, that's where we are, second place, and I need your help to fix that. You can put America back on top again, but it requires all of us to help. Join us at wfw.org, speak with me here at the conference, and join Workshops for Warriors in rebuilding American manufacturing, one veteran at a time. Thank you for your time. Have a good day.