Partnerships important to Job Corps training

MOSES LAKE - When it comes to most careers, there are the lessons learned in the classroom and lessons learned on the job. In fact some careers require on-the-job training before certification.

That means businesses that have a place for on-the-job training are important to the process. "They're critical. Especially in our health care trades," said Susan Mann, public information officer for Columbia Basin Job Corps.

Job Corps students receive training as pharmacy technicians, certified nurse aides, in computer networking, business, office administration and facility maintenance, among others, Mann said. Training partners change with time and as the job market changes, she said.

Current training partners include Samaritan Healthcare, the Moses Lake School District, agencies at the Grant County Courthouse, Walgreens, Moses Lake Professional Pharmacy, Hearthstone and Lake Ridge extended care facilities, Columbia Crest rehabilitation, and the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce. Students also work at Aerotek Genie, where they can apply for employment after they complete welding training, she said.

Job Corps crews have catalogued all the records at the local Bureau of Reclamation office, she said, and have worked at the Port of Douglas County and Moses Lake Head Start. Students will be working as fire crews for the U.S. Forest Service this summer, she said.

Students also work around the Job Corps property, from the kitchen to property maintenance. "I'm always looking for more sites," Mann said.

Placement requires a mentor on the site, she said. Job Corps is required to provide transportation.

The trainees don't qualify for jobs that otherwise would be taken by salaried employees, Mann said. Trainees do help businesses stretch manpower, she said, at a relatively small cost.

It works out for businesses, too, said Chandra Rodriguez of the human resources department at Samaritan Healthcare. "Assisting students benefits the healthcare community as a whole as these students are our future workforce and caregivers," she said. By working at the hospital, "students are able to complete their clinicals and better understand their profession in a hospital setting."

Isidoro Machorro and Rickey Montoya are recent graduates of the Job Corps pharmacy technician program, and on the job training is required for certification. Montoya, 24, of Aloha, Ore., said the job setting allowed him to ask real-world questions of people who had real-world experience. He learned more about the drugs being dispensed, what they could and would do, which reinforced that it was real drugs with real effects being dispensed, he said.

The training, on the job and on campus, required Machorro to be responsible in a way he hadn't before, he said. It also gave him a goal, which he'd had some trouble with before he enrolled in Job Corps, Machorro said.

Machorro, 18, of Everett, said he plans to become a pharmacist eventually, although that's "many, many years down the road. Lots of schooling later." With the pharmacy tech training he can support himself in the meantime, he said.

"Now we can go home and get a job," Montoya said. His ultimate goal is to work in a hospital pharmacy, he said.