Local program helps adult learners get high-quality jobs

In the early 2000s, Tammy Liles was laid off six times in six years from her graphic design job, and as a single parent, Liles said she had to figure out how to earn a stable paycheck.  

At the time, Liles had visited the Brighton Center for help with paying her gas and electric bills and received some food from the organization’s food pantry. While there, she said someone told her about the Center for Employment Training, also known as CET, offered through Brighton Center.

“I have always been interested in healthcare, but I didn’t have the money to go to med school and things and didn’t quite think that I could cut it—like I wasn’t smart enough for it,” Liles said. “But then I came to this program.”

The program Liles found was the medical assisting training offered at CET. That was in October 2011.

Today, with almost 12 years of medical experience under her belt, Liles is a full-time instructor at the CET medical assisting program, giving back to the same place that helped her find a career.

The program is designed for adults who may not have access to traditional post-secondary degrees or certificates or don’t have the time. In addition to medical assisting, the center offers training in health technology administration and human resources/payroll specialists.

Last year, 140 individuals enrolled in CET. Individuals who completed training saw an average wage increase of $20,120, 92% of trainees secured employment and 88% maintained their job for 12 months.

“This program is designed to be the training that people need to enter specific jobs that are high quality and have a family-sustaining wage, and to have that happen in a pretty short timeframe, so about six to nine months,” said Brighton Center Workforce Development Director Lauren Allhands.

The program’s goal is employment. Individuals cannot graduate from the program until they have obtained a job. CET is also about helping families achieve self-sufficiency and get into careers that offer a pathway for advancement and decent wages.

CET accepts walk-ins, and Allhands said that people often find them by word of mouth.

Christie Johnson heard about CET from the medical assistants at her doctor’s office who were trained through the program. Now, she’s enrolled in the medical assisting program.

Johnson owned her own business for 27 years, restoring homes after major disasters such as fires, floods or tornados.

“I’m getting up there in the years, and I didn’t want to be in the houses, you know, when it’s 95 degrees outside, and you’re in a house trying to determine what contents you can save, and it’s like 110 or 115 (in the house),” Johnson said. “In the wintertime, if the roofs are missing or part of a roof, you’re going to have snow and ice, and I’m just too old.”

Roughly 31 years ago, Johnson was enrolled at the University of Northern Kentucky to be a registered nurse. She said she dropped out to be a stay-at-home mom. Johnson said she loves helping people and is a people person, so the idea of returning to the medical field appealed to her.

Through the CET program, people can do externships, allowing the trainees to gain work experience and insight into a specific career field. Johnson will get to start her externship with St. Elizabeth on Aug. 15. Allhands said once a student does an externship, that is most likely the company for which they will work.

Johnson said she couldn’t afford to go to a community college or university because of the student loan debt that comes with it. Though the CET program is not free, it costs $9,185 per person; students can attend debt-free by receiving things like Pell Grants and private funding.

Johnson was able to attend CET through a Pell Grant, which, according to studentaid.gov, is a grant usually awarded only to undergraduate students with exceptional financial needs and without a bachelor’s, graduate or professional degree.

“Maybe from your family, you’re the first person that’s wanted to go on to college or had the option even to go on to college; it can feel really unattainable,” Allhands said. “The ability for folks to not have that barrier, at least that massive financial barrier right from the get-go, is, I think, one of those equalizing opportunities when we think about what it ultimately takes to get a high-quality job in the future.”

The programs at CET are 60% hands-on learning. In addition to specific skills related to their program, trainees also practice skills to be well-rounded employees. That includes having to clock in and clock out when they come and go from CET, dressing the part and being expected to communicate with their instructor if they get sick or can’t attend training.

The program also has a full-time career coach who supports every trainee with everything related to gaining employment, from writing their resumes to interviewing skills.

Trainees in the program are being employed regionally, which in turn helps local companies.

“We know Northern Kentucky is not in isolation from the rest of the state and the country, and we are very much headed into a period of time where our baby boomer generation either enters retirement or approaches retirement, we are really facing significant labor shortages,” Allhands said. “The benefit to employers is really tremendous in that they have a very local source of a talent pipeline.”

Each skill division has a technical advisory committee comprised of employers from that sector. The committee informs the curriculum and reports on workplace trends, helping each program train the most employable person for the organization.

Brighton Center has 48 different programs within its agency. Because of that, if someone in the CET program needs assistance elsewhere, they can find it.

Autumn Gibson is enrolled in CET’s human resources/payroll specialist program. The wrap-around services that Brighton Center provides are one of the reasons she said she enrolled in the program in June.

“I have five babies, and coming to CET helps you with other benefits, like childcare, things like that,” she said. “So, it’s a chance to really get more education and still be able to be home with my kids and not take too much time away from them.”

Although Gibson said the program has been challenging, particularly Excel, she said anyone in the building will help her if needed. She’s even receiving tutoring sessions on Excel to help her further.

Gibson said the instructors at CET are also flexible and understanding.

“Most of us do have kids at home,” she said. “As long as we have good communication, they understand if one of our kids is sick or we have a job interview or anything like that. They really work with us and make sure we don’t fall behind on what it is we need to be doing here for the days that we have to be absent.”

After spending much of her career in diabetes and endocrinology and then in oncology and hematology, Liles returned to CET as an instructor.

“I loved it,” Liles said. “I loved taking care of the patient. I loved being able to make them smile, especially in oncology. I felt like they needed me to help them forget about their problems for a little bit while they were there.”

Though she loved working in the field, Liles said she saw some things that made her want to turn to teaching. She said some people didn’t seem adequately trained, gossiped about patients and didn’t clean the equipment properly.

“I knew that something inside of me, I felt like I needed to come back and give back and give my experience, expertise to the trainees of what really goes on out there,” Liles said. “I’ve always felt like this was home.”

The Center for Employment Training is located at 601 Washington Ave., Suite 140
in Newport.