Early this past summer, Antoine Brathwaite got laid off from his job building pallets for a Salina company.
It was a Friday afternoon when he got the news, and as he pulled out of the company’s parking lot for the last time, the 25-year-old wasn’t sure what he’d do next.
Then he heard an ad on the radio for a new program at Salina Area Technical College, which helps people learn a high-demand job skill such as Commercial Truck Driving, while also earning their GED through the Salina Adult Education Center.
Brathwaite was within sight of Salina Tech when he heard the commercial, and pulled into the parking lot – only to find the college had already closed for the evening. So he came back the next week and enrolled.
On Friday, he was one of five people to graduate from the new program, called Accelerated Opportunity – Kansas, and from Salina Tech’s CTD program.
The AO-K program, a joint project of the Kansas Board of Regents and the Kansas Department of Commerce, pays tuition for students to attend programs identified as in-demand in a given area of the state.
“All I had to do was go back and do something I knew I should have done years ago – get my diploma,” Brathwaite said.
He had moved to Salina from New York City when in high school so he could live with his brother, who was attending Bethany College.
When it was his time to graduate from high school, he was a half-credit short. He made a couple of attempts to make up that half-credit, but never quite got it done.
“My mom wanted me to do it, but I kept saying no,” he said. “Getting laid off, and hearing that radio ad – it seemed like a sign.”
Daniel Alarcon also heard the radio ad, but was a little skeptical at first.
The idea that he could earn his GED and become a Certified Truck Driver very few out-of-pocket expenses “sounded too good to be true.”
Student costs for the program, including a medical exam required by the U.S. Department of Transportation, a truck-driving learner’s permit and GED materials, total less than $250.
I’ve recommended it to a lot of my friends already,” Alarcon said.
He was close to finishing high school when he dropped out because “I was too busy working and hanging out with my friends – I thought it was a smart thing to do at the time.”
Now 32, he’d been working in sanitation for several years, and thought it was time to find a better-paying job.
“This opportunity made that possible,” he said.
Because of demand, the truck-driving program was the first at Salina Tech that was approved for AO-K benefits in 2015. A medical pathway, leading to certifications in Medical Billing and Coding, Certified Medication Assistant and health careers, will begin in January.
Salina Tech has had a CTD program for two years now, has had 30 graduates, all of which have been hired as drivers, said CTD instructor Ron Stelter.
“This was our first class with AO-K students,” Stelter said, with five of seven students in the class working on their GED at the same time as their CTD. “I was a little apprehensive, because some of these guys haven’t been in school for years, and they were having to learn to study again. But they all did great. Different backgrounds, different ages, and all really supporting each other.”
The CTD program is fast-paced and intense, Stelter said.
“On the first day, I tell them in eight weeks we’re going to go through 36 chapters in a book and drive at least 40 hours,” he said. “That’s on top of the GED work they’re doing for a few hours each morning over at Adult Ed.”
“We’re helping people get out of dead-end jobs, support their families and even plan for retirement,” said Kelly Mobray, director of the Salina Adult Education Center, which is part of the Salina School District, and next-door to Salina Tech.
“This works because the instructors at Salina Tech are open to it,” said Mobray. “That’s not always the case elsewhere.”
Salina Adult Education Center instructor Jess Picolet worked with the students both at the Adult Ed Center and in the CTD classroom at Salina Tech.
Rather than use a standard Adult Basic Education program, Picolet found other resources that meshed with the reading and math the students needed for the CTD program.
“Having these guys in class has been really fun,” Picolet said. “They really kept me on my toes. I really appreciate all of you putting in the work you did – you all worked so hard.”
Lara Duran, AO-K coordinator at Salina Tech, said the lack of a diploma or GED often creates a “ceiling” that limits how far people can advance in a given career, because it limits their opportunities to take advantage of college training
“AO-K removes that ceiling,” Duran said. “Our goal is for people to graduate certified to work, debt-free, in a recession-proof career.
With the AO-K program now established in the truck-driving program, and the medical pathways starting in January, Duran said Salina Tech is reviewing other programs might be next with AO-K.