Officials tout job skills
The path to a fulfilling career can be a rocky road but when reins of authority expedites the public conveyance, government can deliver the goods.
Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia (D-56th) arrived Thursday at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in the new site for SIATech High School, to bring awareness of Assembly Bill 1111. “Breaking Barriers to Employment” lays the groundwork to a competitive grant offering workforce assistance to those facing the most hurdles to employment: veterans, dropouts, formerly incarcerated, single mothers and others.
“AB 1111 is imperative to ensure our workforce training centers have resources to train vulnerable populations,” said Garcia. “This takes a comprehensive approach to economic empowerment so everybody can contribute. Without intervention and investment to grow the economic vibrancy of our region it then becomes a challenge.”
The goal is to build a more self-sufficient economy. Praising AB 1111 as a vehicle to solidify partnerships with community-based organizations resulting in effective programs was Miguel Figueroa, director of Imperial County Development Board.
“If we are to change our system we need to be relevant,” said Figueroa. “AB 1111 has garnered bi-partisan support. There are 4.4 million middle skilled jobs available. We need to come up with the money to be able to fill those jobs and make this bill a reality.”
Yet tempering exuberance with a sign of caution was Ernie Silva, SIATech executive director of external affairs. He reminded everyone each 26 seconds another youth leaves high school in the U.S., often to cope with a family crisis, but as they leave they confront unanticipated challenges. Employment is difficult to attain and wages are lower. For every $10 a high school graduate earns, a dropout makes just $8 and change.
“At SIATech we have graduated 180 students in the last three years locally and statewide our schools graduated 7,000 in the last 20 years,” said Silva. “We have discovered the secret sauce: caring adult relationships, real learning for real life-job skills of the future and personalization of learning where our students do homework on high tech tools but return to class and interact with teachers who recognize their particular needs and move them forward.”
Silva also extolled Garcia’s other bill Assembly Current Resolution 102, a pathway to re-engage youth 16 to 24 who lacked the right tools or training to graduate high school. So ACR 102 will recognize the month of August as Opportunity Youth Reengagement Month by promoting outreach strategies to return atrisk youth to high school, attain a diploma and advance to post secondary training. Two alumna of SIATech, Lyonese Jones and Jacklyn Mejia spoke poignantly of how they triumphed over adversity. Jones has her Emergency Medical Technician Certificate from Imperial Valley College, arrived at SIATech with a 1.97 GPA yet graduated with a 3.87 GPA.
“SIATech allowed me to achieve my dreams,” she said. “It was our class that started the student council. Here you can do your classes on your own time and not feel stressed out. I will always love this school and it was a pleasure to talk about my positive experience.”
Mejia, a studio arts major at IVC echoed her classmate. “My teachers always treated me with respect and went out of their way to help,” she recalled. “I got a job at school under IVROP and it gave me a taste for adult life. This is a miracle school.”