PPL Industries Puts Its Expertise to Work in Training a Skilled Workforce for the Twin Cities Community
At its core, PPL Industries is a business—one that provides an unusual opportunity
for the socially disadvantaged to gain essential skills and training.
The global economy has changed the face of the U.S. workforce, creating new challenges for many Americans. New Americans, displaced workers, and people with social disabilities need skills and training to enter the workplace. PPL Industries makes this possible. | • Job experience and soft-skill training. Our job training programs succeed in preparing individuals for today’s workforce. Trainees are given soft-skill training (such as better work habits, job-seeking and job-keeping skills, etc.) and relevant job experience. Thanks to local United Way funding, the PPL Industries Career Development Program provides more than 20 on-site classes. Equally important, all participants are paid an hourly wage while they hone their skills.
• Contributing to society. Once participants successfully complete their training at PPL Industries, they are ready to enter the Twin Cities workforce. Not only do they contribute to society
through employment—paying their bills, child support, and taxes—they improve their personal lives with new on-the-job experience and self-confidence. In 2003, nearly 300 people received job experience and soft-skill training at PPL Industries. Because many of our trainees have been rejected by other programs, we are even prouder of our results—and of our participants’ accomplishments!
• Help from all corners of the community. Volunteers are a cornerstone to the success of PPL Industries. Our volunteers come from diverse fields and backgrounds. They assist in numerous activities (e.g., GED and Adult Basic Education classes) and career-development efforts with trainees, bringing their real-world experiences to the table.
“Not only is PPL Industries providing a service to the county that is environmentally friendly in this recycling business, but some of the folks that they’re training, providing support services to and placing in jobs are folks coming out of our correctional facilities, folks who have been homeless and who have been hard to employ, and they’re really making a difference and have a pretty good success rate.”
– Gail Dorfman, Hennepin County Commissioner | • PPL Industries is practically self-sustaining. Managing a business in the U.S. gets more challenging by the day. Yet PPL Industries successfully operates a complex social enterprise, blending entrepreneurial spirit and workforce readiness. Thanks to steadfast client focus combined with continuous training improvements, we have historically kept our grant income to less than 5% of our budget. | 
