Two nonprofits in the Autodesk Foundation’s Work & Prosperity portfolio that offer workforce development programs free of charge to jobseekers—Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) and Revolution Workshop—worked with Symetri, an Autodesk training partner, to conduct train-the-trainer sessions in Autodesk software fundamentals. This gave the trainers the necessary skills to then teach trainees, boosting the employability of both organizations’ graduates.
Autodesk’s 2024 State of Design & Make Report uncovered that 43% of industry leaders and experts face barriers to their company’s growth due to the lack of access to skilled talent. For the construction industry specifically, the need for talent is even more acute. In a 2023 survey of more than 1,400 construction firms, 85% of respondents reported having job vacancies, and 68% said applicants lack the skills needed to enter today’s construction workforce.
Both Revolution Workshop and JARC are filling these industry employment gaps by establishing long-term partnerships with employers—ensuring better job placements for trainees and opportunities to upskill current employees. Revolution Workshop prepares individuals for construction careers, both in the field and in the office, and JARC prepares individuals for advanced manufacturing careers.
Revolution Workshop partners with employers to align its programs with industry demands, tailoring training to meet real-world talent needs and identifying job placements for graduates. Its Professional Pathways Program, developed with input from industry leaders, prepares participants for careers in construction management, architecture, and engineering. As a key partner, ComEd—Illinois' largest electric utility provider—provides critical funding, expertise for curriculum design and instruction, as well as space for graduation ceremony.
ComEd’s commitment to fostering a skilled workforce extends beyond the Professional Pathways Program. Last year, in collaboration with Revolution Workshop and its engineering vendors, ComEd launched Power Up Academy, a program that opens pathways to technical careers without the need for a college degree. With a curriculum focused on in-demand skills like AutoCAD, Power Up Academy equips entry-level participants for success in technical engineering roles. Eighty percent of the 15 graduates are working. Nine of the 80% secured roles with partnering firms, underscoring the program’s real-world impact.
Both JARC and Revolution Workshop are diversifying today’s workforce and equipping more people, especially people of color, with the digital skills employers increasingly expect job candidates to possess. As part of a pilot initiative, JARC is training its instructors in Autodesk Fusion—starting with Adonis Summerville, the organization’s senior metalworking skills instructor.
At 17, Summerville experienced homelessness and spent the next few years couch-surfing across Illinois. In 2011, he reconnected with a high school friend who introduced him to JARC. Summerville applied, enrolled, and was immediately drawn to CNC machining. He fast-tracked his pursuit of career-ready skills and, after graduating from JARC, landed his first job at a manufacturing firm. Within 16 months, he went from earning $10 an hour as a CNC operator to $25 an hour as a CNC machinist with a global industrial manufacturing company. By 2015, his salary jumped to $100,000 as a lead CNC machinist.
— Adonis Summerville, Senior Metalworking Skills Instructor, JARC Chicago
Summerville kept in touch with the JARC team, and in 2017 he accepted an offer to join JARC as a part-time instructor while continuing to work at the manufacturing company. After two years in both roles, he decided to focus his energies on teaching with JARC and transitioned into his current role as a full-time instructor.
Now, after seven years with JARC, Summerville maintains a strong desire to learn new skills and grow as a trainer. When the opportunity arose to learn and teach Autodesk Fusion with JARC, he was thrilled at the prospect of expanding his and his students’ technical abilities. “I always tell my students: ‘My goal is not to make you one-dimensional. I want to make you versatile,’” Summerville says.
Marcus Lee joined Revolution Workshop as an instructor and certification specialist in 2022, bringing with him nearly 20 years of experience working in the home improvement space. Lee was driven to join the Revolution Workshop team by his desire to teach others “how to build up their communities” while earning a living wage. “Economic development helps everybody in the neighborhood,” he says.
With an interest in IT, Lee saw an opportunity to incorporate more in-demand, digital skills training into Revolution Workshop’s existing curriculum. While he did not have experience with Autodesk technology, he recognized the immense value of bringing it into the nonprofit’s programs. Lee worked closely with Revolution Workshop leadership, alumni, and employer partners across architecture, engineering, and construction to appropriately incorporate AutoCAD and Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) into the Professional Pathways curricula.
— Marcus Lee, Lead Instructor and Certification Specialist, Revolution Workshop
Lee completed two trainings with Symetri—one in AutoCAD, one in ACC. Revolution Workshop’s Professional Pathways Program now offers basic training in both software. “At first, ACC was a little intimidating,” says Lee. “Working with Symetri made it easy.”
Rob Torres, a Symetri Europe consultant who led the training with Lee, sees alignment with industry and the unique goals of his trainees as critical to each training’s success. “The closer training assimilates tangible, real-world experience, the easier it is to absorb,” he says.
“Rob helped us set everything up on the backend and train Marcus on how a student would go through this project,” says Jackie Gallo, Revolution Workshop’s senior program director, who worked with Lee and Torres to develop and integrate technology into the curriculum.
“It was meaningful to be a part of a training that will open new career opportunities for people starting out in the construction industry,” Torres says.
Summerville and Lee share a common desire to grow their knowledge and abilities to equip more people with the skills they need to succeed in today’s ever-digitizing world. To date, Revolution Workshop has graduated 475 trainees, 85% of whom have been hired into paid positions with more than 100 companies. Thus far, Lee has trained 32 Revolution Workshop graduates across two cohorts in AutoCAD and ACC, with another 15 trainees currently enrolled to complete the training. The organization expects to grow these numbers well into the future.
Summerville has trained more than 20 JARC Chicago graduates in Fusion so far, with another cohort of 12 trainees now learning the software. After successfully integrating Fusion into JARC Chicago’s training curriculum, Summerville trained two other instructors to do the same at JARC Rhode Island.
In the past five years, 80% of JARC trainees have graduated, and 90% of JARC graduates have secured gainful employment. JARC opened its first affiliate location, JARC Baltimore, in 2015, and JARC Rhode Island, its third location, in 2023—advancing plans to bring its programs to more US cities facing labor shortages, skills gaps, and un- or underemployment in manufacturing.
