With work waiting, program prepares students for district positions
It had been 18 years since Jason Merriweather left high school without graduating when he decided to do something about it.
“I’d been putting off getting my GED (high school equivalency certificate) for years, and finally I thought, ‘I can do better for myself,’’’ he recalls.
The next stop for Merriweather, then 36, was the Riverside Adult School (RAS), where he signed up for tutoring classes. He aced the GED practice test and, to his great satisfaction, passed the four-phase GED test.
“So many people over the years told me how scary the GED test is, but it’s not as hard as they made it out to be,” says Merriweather, now 38. “Everybody at the Riverside Adult School was so helpful. If you’re a student on the fence about taking the test, my advice is to jump in and totally do it.”
“I’ve met my goals so far, and getting my GED is where it started.”
Jason Merriweather, Graduate of Riverside Adult School
It was the graduation ceremony itself that solidified his accomplishment to himself, he says. “I needed that walk across the stage, wearing a cap and gown with everybody watching — everything you miss from not getting your diploma to begin with. Once I did that — even though I was 18 years late — a lot of things fell into place.”
One of them was being accepted into RAS’s Job Skills program, which offers training for and positions in nutrition-service and custodial services in the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD). The four-week program is inclusive of both skill sets. After completion, graduates can focus on either one of them. A high school diploma is not required to join the program.
The jobs are substitute positions, but often lead to full-time work, as in Merriweather’s case. He’s a full-time nutrition-service employee at a RUSD high school. “That’s really big to me,” he says. “I’ve met my goals so far, and getting my GED is where it started.”
“Jason is a double success story for us,” says RAS director Rachel Bramlett. “With his GED, he could one day be promoted to kitchen supervisor or head custodian.”
Substitute work is “a good way to get into the school district as a full time employee,” Bramlett points out. “Every day, we have 30 to 40 vacancies in nutrition service and custodial, and our substitutes fill them. Each year, between five and 10 become permanent in either capacity.
“If you need a job and you can give us four weeks, we make it work for you,” she says.
For more information on Riverside Unified School District adult education programs, visit http://ras.riversideunified.org.
Written by Allen Pierleoni.
| Regions | Classes |
|---|---|
| Southern California | Careers in Health Care – High School |
