Public Relations

NWACC Career Pathways Achieves all its FY08 Goals

BENTONVILLE (Wednesday, July 2, 2008) – A federal grant program at NorthWest Arkansas Community College intended to move people with low incomes into high-wage careers exceeded its fiscal year 2008 goals, said Robert Tucker, director of NWACC Career Pathways Initiative.

The Arkansas Career Pathways (CPI) program is designed to allow families receiving welfare-benefits to attend college classes,” Tucker said. “The goal is to get people into career fields that are high-demand, high-wage careers in the Northwest Arkansas area.”

He said the fields include business accounting, education, criminal justice, computer networking, and allied health.

NWACC’s goals as outlined by the state Department of Higher Education and CPI office were to enroll 200 students, 20 Transitional Employment Assistance (TEA) clients, and have 100 students complete a certificate program.

“Our program enrolled more than 300 students, approximately 40 TEA clients, and we are currently at 102 completions,” Tucker said. “Our 100th completer was Vanessa Klein (pictured above on the left), who joined the program in January. She earned a Silver Career Readiness Certificate.”

Klein also was the first NWACC CPI student to score a perfect 7 in one of the sub-sections.

“Our successes are the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work from the Career Pathways staff,” Tucker said. “We have all worked tirelessly to serve our students and they, in turn, have worked very hard to earn their required certificates.”

Tucker credited college personnel for helping the NWAC CPI staff achieve goals. He cited the NWACC Testing Center, Shannon Siebler and Janie Todd, for proctoring Career Readiness Certificates. He cited Amy Robertson-Gann for offering four workshops to aid Employability Certificate completions.

For more information on the program, contact Tucker at 619-4373 or rtucker1@nwacc.edu http://www.nwacc.edu/LDC/pathways.php

For questions/comments on this content, contact Robert Tucker.

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