Sacramento Works | Emerge Career with SETA
SETA and Emerge Career launch a new chapter in their partnership. The Emerge Career with SETA initiative will train hundreds of Sacramento County residents for skilled trades and place them in jobs. It enrolls residents who have been impacted by the justice system and struggled with mental health or substance use.
BSCC, SETA and Emerge Career staff at the Sacramento program update, August 10, 2026.
First Vocation: CDL
The first vocational pathway offered through the partnership will be commercial driver’s license training.
California is projected to have more than 18,000 commercial driver openings each year, driven by retirements, turnover, and freight demand. In the years to come, Emerge Career with SETA will adapt its vocational training to the labor demand county employers report.
How will the CDL training work?
Application. Residents apply through SETA. Eligibility is confirmed before anyone enrolls.
Online training. Participants start their coursework online and study the material at their own pace.
Hands-on training. Participants move to the yard for instruction behind the wheel, then take the test. Online and hands-on together run about four months.
Job placement. Emerge Career places graduates with employers who are hiring.
Job retention. Support continues after the hire.
A case manager works with each participant throughout.
About Emerge Career
Emerge Career is a national workforce training technology company that trains low-income & justice-impacted Americans for skilled trades and places them with employers. Its technology-powered model pairs AI-driven coursework, practice testing, and progress tracking with human coaching at every stage. Its work has been covered by CBS News, the Boston Globe, and NBC.
The Why
Emerge Career with SETA takes on three of the most stubborn, interlocking challenges facing Sacramento and California at once:
1. Economic exclusion after justice involvement. Justice-involved Americans face unemployment rates more than 13 times the national average. In California, the statewide three-year recidivism rate is approximately 39 percent, and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) data shows that people who complete rehabilitative and vocational programming reoffend at substantially lower rates.
2. The mental-health employment gap. People living with serious mental illness are dramatically overrepresented in the justice system by three to five times their share of the general population. Yet stable employment is one of the strongest protective factors for mental health recovery, while unemployment deepens distress and raises the risk of relapse and reincarceration. Emerge Career with SETA is engineered around this evidence, combining supported employment with a clear, high-wage career path.
3. A critical skilled-workforce shortage. The skilled trades careers are short millions of workers nationwide, threatening $1 Trillion in economic losses. By connecting Sacramentans who are ready to work to an industry that urgently needs them, Emerge Career with SETA closes two gaps with one solution.
And it does so while saving taxpayers money. Incarcerating one person in California costs roughly $128,000 per year. A single graduate who stays out of the system and is placed into a family-sustaining career represents both a human victory and a significant public-dollar saving without relying on further incarceration or costly continual safety net benefits.
For nearly five decades, SETA’s mission has been to transform lives by meeting people where they are. Emerge Career with SETA extends that promise to Sacramentans who have too often been left out.” — Anita Maldonado, Executive Director, SETA
When you pair real training and a real job with real behavioral health support, you don’t just change one person’s income. You change the trajectory of a family.”
— Uzoma Orchingwa, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Emerge Career
Who qualifies
Applicants must meet four criteria together.
Live in Sacramento County. Be 21 or older. Have a history of arrest, charge, conviction, or active supervision or parole. Have a documented mental health condition or substance use disorder.
Time in the justice system alone does not qualify an applicant.
Behavioral health need can be established through self-attestation using standard screening tools. A referral or a clinician’s letter is accepted as stronger documentation.
Eligibility for neighboring counties is under review.
Looking ahead
The first Sacramento residents are already in commercial driver training. Employer demand decides what comes next.
Sacramento County residents can learn more at seta.net. Learn more about Emerge Career at emergecareer.com.
