Community Colleges Offer Free Retraining

Beth Hogue knows how to juggle.

Between her daughter, her husband and her own schedule she's got her hands full and she's adding one more thing to the list: school, again.

Hogue said, “I had worked 13 years for a car dealership, loved it, and worked there full time 60 hours a week it was like a second family.”

That was until the economy started struggling and the business suffered.

"It was just one of those things; the time had come when they had to make cuts. They couldn't avoid it any longer, it was tearful for everyone.” Hogue said.

So it's back to the classroom.

Some Community Colleges Offer Free Retraining She's taking advantage of the displaced workers program available at local community colleges in western Pennsylvania.

Anyone who has been laid off from full-time work through no fault of their own can apply.

The program varies from county to county.

At Community College of Beaver County, Hogue qualified for one semester and 12 credits, all for free.

She said, “I tried to look very carefully, did a lot of research, went on line looked at job opportunities there were. what they are anticipating to be 5 years from now, what the pay is and tries to pick something that I would enjoy that would be interesting, but that would also have career potential.”

She settled on training to become a radiology technician.

“You start looking at jobs and you see everything that's available looks medical. When you open up the paper and the first 20 jobs are medical and the next 25 are truck driving, I'm thinking medical is the way to go.”

Six weeks into the program, it's going well for her.

She's taking classes both day and night.

“You do reinvent yourself everyday, you just don't realize it. You take off one hat and put on another one. It's just you've got to make a new hat,” Hogue said.

If you are interested in taking advantage of CCBC’s Tuition Assistance Initiative, contact the Information and Registration Center at 724-775-8561, ext. 330.

For more information on Community Colleges programs for displaced workers click on the links below: Allegheny County Community College. Beaver County Community College.Butler County Community College.