work2future

work2future is Silicon Valley's Workforce Investment Network, part of the national workforce system authorised under the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), with the City of San José acting as fiscal agent. It runs three America's Job Center of California sites (two in San José, one in Gilroy) offering career coaching and around 150 professional certification programmes delivered through local eligible training providers, targeting youth aged 16-24, adult workers and small businesses.

The programme aims to help businesses and individuals meet the workforce demands of a global economy, build a world-class local workforce through collaboration among businesses, residents, government, educational and community organisations, and strengthen the economic base of San José and Santa Clara County by increasing employment and job retention.

Core offerings include On-the-Job Training (OJT, 2-4 months) and Work Experience (WEX, up to 2.5 months) placements with wage support from work2future, plus Metrix online skill-building covering roughly 200 in-demand occupations. Youth-focused strands include San José Works (run with the Mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force), the Young Adult Program (career advising, workshops, paid internships), the year-long Trades Orientation Program (TOP) for construction-trades careers, and the PG&E PowerPathway utility-construction training track.

In 2022 the programme served 4,158 participants, assisted 300 employers and placed 758 clients into employment. San José Works has served over 5,000 youth since 2015; TOP graduated 77 students in 2023 (605+ cumulatively since 2015) with 87% securing placement within a year; and PG&E PowerPathway has produced roughly 1,200 graduates since 2008, about 84% of whom were hired by PG&E or the utility-construction industry. All figures are work2future's own reported counts.

work2future describes its own impact as reaching hundreds of students a year with free training that opens pathways into skilled trades and utility-construction careers. Because training and placements rely on local partnerships, the organisation considers replication to other cities and expansion into green-transition job training as plausible next steps, though no independent assessment of these claims is cited.