CASSELBERRY, Fla. – It’s a ground-breaking way of teaching a skill in days, not months, that former jail inmates can use to get a job as soon as they graduate from the training.
Promising People, a faith-based nonprofit that just opened in Casselberry is aiming to keep those who got in trouble with the law out of trouble by making them job-ready in 15 days and connecting them with jobs.
News 6 has reported on vocational training inside Central Florida’s jails, including cooking classes at the Flagler County jail taught by a gourmet restaurant chef and an electrician apprentice program taught by a licensed electrician and former inmate.
But Promising People teaches through virtual reality.
Monday was Day One for 11 students, most of them former inmates at Seminole or Orange County jails or those who’ve had contact with Seminole or Orange County Corrections Departments.
Toni Czmyk, a Subway restaurant manager who’d been arrested and jailed almost 40 times, decided to skip work at her fast food job to come back Tuesday for day two.
“My story is pretty extensive, from about 30 institutions, jails, rehabs,” Czmyk said.
Czmyk and the other 10 students are learning to become electrician helpers, not electricians or apprentices but more like assistants to electricians.
“I mean, it’s teaching everything from safety from OSHA to the real names of tools to voltage and Ohms,” Czmyk said.
The students spend their day inside a cavernous fully-renovated glass-walled strip mall building next to the Lowe’s in Fern Park that looks more like a video game design center. They wear virtual reality headsets and hold plastic handles with buttons.
The VR headset projects an immersive 360-degree simulated worksite, such as an exposed wall on a job site, wherever the student looks. The controllers allow the student to pick up and manipulate virtual objects like measuring tape or pliers and use them to perform tasks, such as cutting wire and installing an electrical box.
Sixty-four lessons later, a student is expected to be familiar with the tools involved in electrical work and how to use them because they cannot cheat or rush the training. They must pass each lesson with a 100% score and if they pass the test at the end they’ll receive an industry certification.
Dr. John L. Evans, President of Promising People and a social scientist, said the nonprofit tested the VR software with Tri-City Electrical Contractors and proved the VR training can produce an electrician helper in 15 days.
“It typically takes people around 10 to 12 months to become an electrician’s helper,” Evans said. “In our program, we’ve gotten that down to 15 days.”
Evans said Tri-City is eager to hire any student that graduates from Promising People because of the shortage of trained electrician helpers. Promising People will provide not only the training but also connect graduates with jobs.
“We’re going to help place them because of our relationships with CEOs all around Central Florida,” Evans said.
Evans said Promising People’s goal is to stop the cycle of recidivism, or reoffending, by giving offenders a path to success.
“Recidivism is at an unacceptable rate of 83%,” Evans said. “Let me underscore that: 83%. Our vision here at Promising People is to cut it in half and cut it in half again. Here’s how we’re going to do it: it’s going to take a tremendous digital revolution. Virtual reality is our ticket. Right here in Fern Park in Central Florida. This is six years in the making, $6 million in the making. We are now training returning citizens from Seminole and Orange County Corrections and they’re getting hope. Why? Because they’re learning how to become an electrician helper and they’re going to be certified.”
Evans said through Promising People’s partnership with Seminole and Orange County Corrections Departments, inmates when they are released, those under supervision or on parole and those who entered pre-trial diversion are recommended to Promising People as a resource for vocational training.
If they accept the training, it’s free to the students, paid for by federal Pell grants and Florida state funding.
Toni Czmyk said she plans to complete the training. She’s excited about it and she hasn’t been about anything in a long time.
“Every time I walk in the door they just keep giving me hope that I’m going to make it,” Czmyk said. “And I never had that. Ever. Ever.”
Besides electrical, Promising People offers 23 different types of training, including HVAC and plumbing.
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