America cannot build its maritime and aerospace future without a productive California workforce that actually exists — and we cannot build that workforce without a community that believes in young people.

For years we’ve relied on hope, incentives, and recruiting gimmicks, yet employers still face a hiring crisis and students still face a future full of potential but short on access.

The missing ingredient isn’t more “programs.”                                         

The missing ingredient is readiness — which means:

• academic and soft skill mastery
• workplace discipline
• confidence
• and the support system that carries a new employee from orientation to apprenticeship.

The Talent Pipeline Initiative (powered by SMI) restores what the workforce system has been missing:

Young people who are worth investing in, and employers who want to keep them.

Built on SMI’s Talent Pipeline Vision Paper for manufacturing workforce development this pilot combines modern learning tools, mentoring, and employer engagement so that participants become motivated, reliable, coachable, and truly job-ready.

When students achieve mastery of foundational skills, something remarkable happens: 

They stop bracing for failure and start taking ownership of their career and personal future. They become the kind of new hires that companies want to mentor, develop, and retain.

Why We’re Raising $20,000

This campaign funds 20 completion scholarships that are awarded only when a participant:

1. Finishes the Core Skills Mastery (CSM) credential
2. Completes career exploration process with Journeysmap's app and Counseling.

Each scholarship is $1,000, paid directly to the learner upon completion, not before.  Each completer then receives the following add-on services to increase their chances of long-term career and personal success:

1. SMI helps place completer in a job, apprenticeship, college, or training placement with a prescreened employer
2. Pairs with an employer-mentor committed to continued career development at the employer

The scholarships are designed to eliminate the “last-mile barriers” that often derail even the most motivated students:

• Transportation costs
• Gaps between training and first paycheck
• Tools and basic equipment
• Childcare and family support needs
• Temporary income disruptions during transition

You’re not funding training. You’re funding a finish line that opens doors to careers and self-sufficiency.

Your support tells a hardworking student: “You mattered, you finished, and you earned your place in this field.”

Why This Model Works

This pilot takes proven elements from SMI’s earlier FastBreak work and delivers them in a flexible "lite" form that can plug into high schools, colleges, work-source centers, and community organizations instead of building new bureaucracy from scratch.

Talent Pipeline Initiative Vision Paper

For this cohort:

• SMI pays for the CSM credential process for 20+ students
• SMI provides career exploration and guidance using the Journey's Map platform (through the CalSEA program)
• SMI coordinates supplemental resources (transportation, technical help, childcare, counseling) to remove barriers to success
• SMI, through its role in the CalSEA ecosystem, handles job/college/training placement with prescreened employers who agree to mentor and support participants after hire

The focus is simple:

Create motivated individuals who are worth hiring, worth developing, and who can contribute to the success of a business “family.”

Pilot, Scale, and National Visibility

This is a pilot cohort with a clear path to growth.

• Pilot window: January to July 2026
• Pilot goal: 20 completion scholarships across high school students, college students, veterans, continuation students, and previously incarcerated individuals
• Evaluation focus: employer satisfaction, investment in completers, wage growth and continuation into apprenticeships compared to other job-placement approaches

The vision is broader implementation beginning in late 2026, with the model replicated across California through schools, colleges, workforce centers, and community partners.

Because this initiative supports the same maritime and aerospace workforce needs addressed by CalSEA and its partners, the pilot has national visibility in sectors where talent shortages have become a strategic risk for America.

This pilot will help answer key questions:

• Do employers prefer graduates of this model over typical placement applicants?
• Are they more likely to invest in apprenticeships and continued training when the applicant meets established requirements?
• Do retention, wage progression, and career continuity improve?

When this cohort succeeds, it paves the way for public and private investment in a repeatable model that prepares young adults for high-demand careers and restores employer confidence in the entry-level workforce.  It reconnects the participation of the business community in mentoring academic institutions, training and economic growth.

Stretch Goal: +$5,000 for Independent Evaluation

If we reach the core goal of $20,000 (20 scholarships), we activate a stretch goal of $5,000 to support an evaluation team (for example, USC students) to:

• Track the entire cohort
• Measure employer satisfaction, retention, and wage progression
• Produce a Talent Pipeline Impact Report for funders, industry, and policymakers

Major sponsors will be recognized in this report (unless they request anonymity), giving them a lasting presence in a research document that will inform future workforce investments.

Here's the clearest way to understand the impact of your support:

This is one of the few workforce efforts where students, employers, educators, and donors all win together.

Quote From Program Leadership

“There is an urgent need to engage individuals in a process of academic and soft skills mastery so as to connect these past and present students with the skillsets that make employers want to invest in the career path of the new hire.”
— David Goodreau, President, Small Manufacturers Institute

You Can Meet the Cohort

Donors will be invited (virtually or in person) to a Cohort Completion Ceremony in Summer 2026, where graduates will be recognized and introduced to partners, employers, and supporters.

This is not a nameless fund. It’s a chance to see the faces and hear the stories you helped move forward.

Call to Action

Sponsor a student’s finish line. Fund the moment that transforms effort into a paycheck and a future.

• $1,000 = 1 completion scholarship
• 20 scholarships = 20 workforce-ready careers in 2026

Every contribution, large or small, fuels the Talent Pipeline Initiative and helps build the productive California workforce that America’s maritime and aerospace future depends on. 

If you’re unsure what to give, consider sponsoring part of a scholarship — even $25 gets a student closer to the finish line.  Every dollar will go towards the scholarship model and objectives listed above.