The New Orleans Career Center is racing to keep up as employers around the city clamor for skilled workers. CEO Claire Jecklin says the nonprofit has rapidly expanded its slate of classes in both the building trades and health care, adding plumbing and ramping up clinical training at its Tremé campus.
Enrollment Is Surging
What started as a small pilot has ballooned. Enrollment has climbed from roughly 100 trainees in the center’s early days to about 800, and the site now serves just over 200 people on a typical weekday. The program blends half-day technical classes for Orleans Parish high school students with a bridge year and accelerated adult reskilling cohorts that include SNAP recipients and employer-paid trainees, according to New Orleans…..