Ramiro Aguado Avalos immigrated from Mexico to the United States three years ago, leaving a community that had been too dangerous for his family in search of something better.
He settled in California, then came to Lincoln two years ago, where he landed a job at Kawasaki, becoming among 20% of the company’s workforce whose primary language is Spanish. He took — and passed — a series of career advancement classes offered by the company despite limited English proficiency.
Then Avalos — who had earned a degree in Mexico similar to a mechanical engineering degree from a U.S. college — took English classes offered through a federally funded program at the city-administered American Job Center.
He’s among 22 Kawasaki employees who’ve gotten promotions after participating in the English language programs taught by Lincoln Literacy, one of three to reach the level of quality control inspector and among 573 people from Lincoln businesses who have participated in the American Job Center’s so-called incumbent worker program since it began in 2022.
Of those, 201 from five businesses have participated since the beginning of this program year (beginning in July) — all of whom are still employed, said American Job Center Workforce Administrator Dylan Wren.
“Workforce development is crucially important for our community’s economic growth,” Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said during a news conference Thursday highlighting the program. “When we invest in developing a skilled workforce, we ensure that more community members gain access to meaningful, financially secure careers and that local employers have the talent they need to compete.”
She encouraged other businesses to apply.
The incumbent worker program is federally funded — there are similar programs in Nebraska and in other states — and the dollars flow through the Nebraska Department of Labor to the American Job Center.
Employers can apply through the Greater Lincoln Workforce Development Board, which governs the job center, Wren said.
Those employers work with the American Job Center to design classes tailored to the needs of the business and can include such things as advanced machinery operation, software proficiency or English language classes — a big need now, Wren said.
Tabitha participated and helped 20 employees get their certified nursing assistant certificates, and the job center worked with Nelnet to train workers to help avoid potential layoffs, he said.
The American Job Center pays for a portion of the cost, sharing the remaining cost with businesses that commit to keeping those employees once they’ve completed training, he said. The percentage paid by the center can differ depending on the size of the business.
Wren said they’ve had 17 contracts with businesses — some of them renewed contracts with the same organizations — since they began the program.
Like Kawasaki, Garner Industries has worked through the American Job Center to offer Lincoln Literacy's English classes to employees.
Robert Williams, Garner's director of human resources, said helping employees overcome language barriers is empowering to employees — and turnover among participants is very low.
“Programs like this are priceless,” he said. “They truly help organizations, such as Garner Industries, be more productive and move forward.”
Kevin Mattran, Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing's training administrator, said the company started an English program a little over two years ago, then began working through the American Job Center and has since added both foundational and intermediate courses.
“We have a lot of people from Spanish-speaking countries,” he said. “We have a good number of people from Ukraine, from Russia, from Afghanistan, and if it weren't for those people we couldn't keep up with the production demands that we have.”
Alvos said his training in mechanical engineering helped him get through the company’s career advancement courses, but quality control inspector, he said, is a position that requires better communication skills.
The English classes helped him with that, he said.
Alvos — whose wife also works at Kawasaki and also is taking the English classes — said when the opportunity arose to come to the United States, he was determined to succeed and began taking English classes even before he left. But actually communicating in a new language is difficult, as is finding the time to take courses when many people are working long hours and often more than one job.
“One of the main challenges we have as immigrants, especially in the beginning, is the English language,” he said. “For this reason having the opportunity to take English courses helps a lot in order to succeed in your job, in the community, in every aspect of your life.”