Joshua Flynn went to a traditional four-year college after graduating from Hall High School in Little Rock but decided after a year there that university life wasn't for him.
He would spend the next few years working on and off at a number of jobs before realizing he wasn't satisfied and wanted to get on a career track.
"It just wasn't something I'd like to be doing permanently," he said of his past employment at a water park.
So when the 22-year-old heard from his mother, who teaches in the Little Rock School District, that the city was partnering with the district to offer free job-skill training and certification to young adults ages 18 to 24, Flynn decided to give it a shot.
In June, he was among the first graduates of a pilot program called the Evening Career Center. A second round of the program is set to start today for a fall semester.
Initially, certifications were offered for welding, auto mechanics and computer-aided drafting/architectural design.
Now, medical professions and auto collision repair have been added as options.
A late start and weather conditions limited the pilot program, which was supposed to start in February but actually ran from March to June.
City officials say that contributed to a mid-level participation rate. Of the 50 young adults who started out in the pilot, only 22 remained engaged throughout.
Of those, seven gained employment through companies partnering with the city and school district, and 14 more plan to come back for the extended fall program to complete their certifications.
Because the center only operated 90 days during the pilot, there is $77,400 of the initial $207,500 allocated for the program left over. That money is funding the fall semester.
Little Rock School District teachers work overtime as life coaches and instructors at the Evening Career Center.
Participants attend classes from 5-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday at the Little Rock Metropolitan Career Technical Center.
There are 36 spots available in the self-paced fall program. Anyone interested in enrolling can show up to class today or contact Cassandra Norman-McGhee, director of the center, at (501) 447-1390.
"Our goal for the participants is to start them in the process of maintaining and sustaining wages that will keep themselves and their families moving throughout life, and to develop a better economy -- that's what it's all about," Norman-McGhee said.
People who dropped out of high school are welcome in the program.
If a participant doesn't have a diploma or equivalent, career center staff will help him work toward a General Educational Development diploma before beginning the path to job certification.
Marq Golden, designer of the pilot and programs coordinator in the city's Community Programs Department, said certifications allow participants to gain entry-level job skills. Pep Boys, North Point Nissan, Cameron Valves and the city are a few of the entities that entertained job applications from certificate earners during the pilot program.
Flynn was the only spring participant to earn both mechanic certifications offered -- one in brakes repair and another in light maintenance. He took a job in mid-July as an entry-level technician at North Point Nissan.
"We got right into hands-on learning" at the career center, Flynn said during his lunch break Friday. "It's great now that I'm working in a field I'm interested in. I like to work on cars."
It's not just the certifications that participants can benefit from, Golden said. One student got a job with KARK doing closed captioning and operating a TelePrompter.
"That was primarily because of the life skills classes we provided," Golden said.
"Every day, they come in and have to participate in soft skills training. That teaches them basic skills about how to come to work, proper attire, what to say at work and how to conduct yourself. They also work on building their resumes, even down to creating business cards."
The pilot program uncovered some obstacles in the way of participants' success, and the city is now working to address those issues, Golden said.
The primary complication was transportation. A bus stop nearby gets them to the center for the start of classes, but the buses don't run late enough to take them home, he said.
"We also found that a number of participants deal with a lot of life issues, and we are working on trying to provide more of wrap-around services and references to support services for that," Golden said.
He added that the city is considering providing participants with bus passes but is entertaining a second option of partnering with a community organization to provide rides to and from the evening classes.
The certifications are self-paced, and there's no end date set for the fall program, but Norman-McGhee said she hopes there is funding to continue it through the end of the school year.
Metro on 09/08/2014