Ten students in Jefferson State’s Birmingham Workforce Retraining Initiative are hoping to turn scholarships from partner Cawaco RC&D into even greater opportunities.
The students in the fall are scheduled to complete programs including Certified Medical Assistant, Phlebotomy, and Sterile Processing; but before graduation they will participate in clinicals.
“Everything is going well—just a lot of studying in which I don’t mind at all because it’s just me at home. There are not that many distractions, so I try my best to study as much as I can with work and school kind of catching up with me, but I am staying on top of it right now and will continue to do so,” student Jeanette Dizar said about her CMA class.
Jefferson State’s Birmingham Workforce Retraining Initiative focuses on serving low-income women, dislocated workers, new entrants to the workforce, and incumbent workers for good jobs in a high-demand healthcare occupations aligned with regional and community economic development strategies.
The Initiative is aimed to help women, minorities, low-income adults, and low or mismatched skilled adults access and complete occupational training that can lead to increased employment and higher earnings. The Initiative will connect the targeted population to advanced training and/or employment, through comprehensive activities in-demand occupational skills training, mentoring, and wraparound supports.
Scholarships are awarded to qualified applicants enrolling in in-demand healthcare training programs.
Learn more about the Initiative by clicking here.
The project was funded in part by a grant from Cawaco RC&D. Learn more about Cawaco RC&D by clicking here.
These training programs are from two weeks to 10 months depending on the occupation and are offered day and night in both traditional and non-traditional classroom settings. The training, both didactic and hands-on training, will provide skills that lead to proficiency in performing actual tasks and technical functions require by these targeted occupations.
The emphasis on preparing participants for in-demand healthcare occupations helps to ensure that jobs will be available. The training has a strong linkage between occupational skills training and work-based learning, which is critical to not only participants enrolling in training, but also completing training, obtaining a credential, and gaining employment.
Cawaco RC&D is a nonprofit organization that connects Central Alabama communities to the resources and partnerships needed to drive economic development in an environmentally sustainable way.
“I must first of all say a big ‘thank you’ to Cawaco for the opportunity given to me. My class experience has been very good. And I must commend my instructor who has tried in his capacity to make the course very interesting and interactive. Within the short period of this course, I applied for a job as sterile processing technician and I proved to the manager that I was a good fit for the job with the knowledge from the class during the interview and was offered the position as a sterile processing technician. All wouldn’t have been possible if not for the wonderful opportunity for grant given to me by Cawaco,” student Jibrin Usmin said.
