Now here's a pretty cool story:

Rapid, multilateral cooperation has put 14 hungry workers into decent jobs as welders at Milwaukee's Tramont Corp. And it also has suggested what the region's fragmented work force development efforts can do through employer-driven collaboration.

Six weeks ago, Jessica Cooper, 32, was a food stamp recipient with a work history of hopping between jobs cleaning and caregiving. Now she's in her second week welding steel fuel tanks, which Tramont makes for generator equipment manufacturers.

On Cooper's third day at work, she welded a 700-gallon tank with no leaks - compared with 15 to 25 leaks that are typical for most new welders, says Tramont's president, Sean McGowan. Six months ago, McGowan turned away $10 million in orders because he didn't have the welders to complete them. And now: "I believe we can ramp up the business," McGowan says.

On Tuesday, Cooper and her 13 classmates brought family members to a graduation ceremony at Tramont, in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood, where they'll be starting at $13.05 an hour. They received praise and lunch and heard how their training program is raising expectations for work force development.

So from welfare to $27,000 a year starting in 6 weeks.  Not bad at all.  As opposed to this kid, who did this all day instead of going to class.  I wonder what kind of job he ended up with after his college education was over: