Moses Lake skill center offers look into what's possible

The Grand Coulee Dam School District would like to see a skill center in the area, a place where junior and senior high school students can learn practical skills that will help them land jobs after high school.

Superintendent Paul Turner visited the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center in Moses Lake on May 4, observing classes for certified nursing assistants, culinary arts, advanced manufacturing, and entrepreneurship and marketing.

"There's an international nursing shortage, so by starting these students in high school, we've set them on that track," said CNA program instructor Laura Cromer. "Even if they choose [that] nursing is not for them, they've done it before it cost anything. For most of them, they want to do something in healthcare, and we're able to set them on that path and give them a good start."

The CNA program will be the first step in a local skill center, and should be starting up in the fall of this year.

Students in the CB Tech CNA class said they appreciated the one-on-one, hands-on approach to learning, finding it a more practical form of learning as they enter the workforce than traditional school.

In the class, students learn any number of lessons, including how to transfer a patient to a wheelchair, how to check blood pressure, and how to observe a patient and know what to report to a registered nurse.

The students work with nursing-home staff and patients, gaining real experience in the process, and quickly get over any awkwardness they may experience with physically touching patients, and being around people who are sick or in pain.

"It gives you a foundation to go anywhere in healthcare," said Program Director Misty Fuller.

Turner was impressed not only with the job skills students were learning, but the people skills as well.

"[CB Tech] is very well defined in their expectations of kids and the goals they're wanting to achieve," he said. "Not only are they teaching the subject, but they're teaching kids how to be employees. These kids are willing to work."

Students in the other classes echoed the sentiments of the nursing assistant students, saying that they felt more confident about getting a job after high school than if they had not enrolled in the skill center.

Student Dylan Swan, in the culinary arts class, expressed enthusiasm for learning to prepare a wide range of foods, including sushi and desserts, and keeping a clean kitchen, knowing he can bring that knowledge and skill with him to get a job anywhere that there are restaurants.

"This place teaches you what you need," Swan said.

Christine Armstrong, director of CB Tech, said that businesses will reach out to them looking for employees, and CB Tech will recommend students who take the work seriously. In addition to the job skills learned, students are also learning people skills, how to make eye contact and to be personable.

During the tour, a student in the advanced manufacturing class identified himself as the ambassador of the class, dropped what he was doing and spoke to Turner about the class, explaining that it has connections with the company that makes Genie industrial lifts, with Benchmark Farms, and more, for future job opportunities.

CB Tech also offers classes related to criminal justice, learning computer coding, cosmetology, and more.

GCDSD is limited by the number of students in the district, as far as bringing in a number of other classes goes, but after a CNA class is established in fall 2018, Turner wants to get a feel from the community about what other programs to bring to the Grand Coulee Dam area.

"We would want to bring the different entities into a discussion," he said. "Polling industry, talking to the bureau, bringing the tribe into the discussion, bringing the towns into the discussion, and looking at 'what is the need out there?' It doesn't make sense for us to do something that there aren't jobs for."

Lynne Brougher, public affairs officer for the Bureau of Reclamation, issued a statement on behalf of the bureau concerning the possibility of a skill center:

"The Bureau of Reclamation at Grand Coulee Dam hires employees with a variety of professional and technical skills, including electricians, pipefitters, power system control craftsmen, IT, engineers, administrators, and security, just to name a few," she wrote. "Reclamation is pleased to know that the school is actively pursuing programs to provide students the basic knowledge and skills that will allow them to pursue additional education and/or apprenticeships to be able to apply and compete for jobs at Grand Coulee Dam."

A student who attends the new skill center in the local district will go there half a day, about three hours, in addition to spending the other half of the day either at the traditional high school or at the alternative learning environment, which is reopening in the fall after a one-year hiatus. The skill center may be located at the former middle school in Grand Coulee or the former high school in Coulee Dam.

Following the tour of CB Tech, Turner joined the staff for a meal prepared by the culinary class that included both chicken and vegetarian enchiladas, guacamole, black beans, pinto beans, and more.