(KGTV) — At Workshops for Warriors in Barrio Logan, It’s a place for rebuilding U.S. manufacturing through hands-on training from welding to machining.
"There's almost half a million unfilled jobs in manufacturing,” Rachel Luis y Prado, the Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer of the nonprofit tells me.
But for many who walk through these doors, it’s a place to help transition to a new normal for those men and women who serve our country.
"It can be a little bit troublesome, you know, a little bit difficult to kind of overcome like having a purpose for such a long time and then being left to like here you go,” says Adoni Torres.
Torres tells me he served in the U.S. Marine Corps for nearly 21 years. After retiring he tells me it was difficult to adjust to civilian life especially when it came to finding a job. But he's not alone. Sena Alfaro didn't have much of a choice.
"I got out because I had cancer and they would not let me continue my aviation career," Alfaro tells me after spending 17 years in the Air Force as a jet refueler.
Alfaro says she's glad she found this nonprofit and tells me it’s helped her adjust to a life after serving.
"When you leave the military, you kind of feel disconnected and then coming to a veteran based program like this, it's awesome," she says. "We get to reconnect and we kind of understand each other's jargon and humor and stuff like that so that's very awesome to find"
The organization has helped more than 1,400 people, a high percentage of them veterans, get the training and skills they need for a flurry of manufacturing jobs. But those behind it say that's just half the battle.
” In 2030, there'll be 3.8 million jobs that'll need to be filled, and 1.9 million of those are expected to go unfilled because of a lack of skilled labor,” says Luis y Prado.
According to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, as of February 2025, there were 482-thousand manufacturing job openings…
That number is expected to grow and the skills taught at Workshops for Warriors aims to help fill them.
"There isn't a talent pipeline quite like ours. There is no other veteran workforce development pipeline into the machine welding careers like workshop for warriors," Luis y Prado explains.
A hand to help our veterans and in turn help our country as well.
"The skills gained here will suffice me for the rest of my life, and in an awesome career field that we need out in the world," Alfaro says.
