Training Needs and Costs in Kalamazoo's Core Neighborhoods

This report estimates training needs in three Kalamazoo “core neighborhoods”: the Northside, Edison, and the Eastside. Using Census data, the analysis estimates the number of people potentially needing training in these neighborhoods as between 1,254 and 2,098 individuals. This report also estimates this training population’s characteristics, including: childcare needs, lack of a household vehicle, disability, felony records, substance abuse, mental illness. All these characteristics pose challenges for many hundreds in the training population. Based on a review of prior effective “sectoral training programs”, a training program may cost $7,300 per trainee, with over two-thirds of this cost due to various support services before and after training, and less than one-third of the cost due to the actual training. For a program to serve these neighborhoods’ estimated “training population”, total estimated costs are between $9 and $16 million ($7,300 times 1,254 or 2,098). If implemented at the lower scale over 5 years, the program would enroll about 250 trainees per year and cost a little less than $2 million annually.