SOWELA Technical Community College offering two short-term training opportunities

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - It’s not one but two short-term training opportunities for students at SOWELA Technical Community College.

“If you’re wanting a job, if you want a good job that can turn into a quality career pathway, you know, this is really good, it’s a great return on investment,” said Executive Director for the Office of Workforce Solutions David Lafargue.

As he explains, there’s a 10-week pipeline technician training course.

“It helps equip them and gives them certifications, they’ll actually walk away with the OSHA 10 certification, or walk away with the NCC or CORE, there’s an intro to pipeline, and also a field control center operation certification through NCCR,” he said.

There’s also a three-week culinary fundamentals program, and as I learned, it’s a new program that’s coming to SOWELA.

“This program will basically have the students, it’ll prepare them, and then walk away with American Health, it’s a certification called the certified kitchen cook through the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute,” he said “They’ll also receive a ServSafe manager certification through the National Restaurant Association.

That’s just one piece of the puzzle, he says upon completion students earn credit hours towards an Associate’s Degree at the culinary program.

“You can either keep going or go into the workforce and be an entry-level cook or you can, you can actually continue and you could go on to pursue your two-year degree.”

Lafargue tells me how the need for these types of positions helped create these programs.

“We had key stakeholders in the region that were telling us that they had this need and this demand, and so we basically created advisory committees with both the culinary side, both the pipeline industrial side of those key stakeholders to actually give us their feedback on what they were looking for.”

Lafargue says seats are limited for each program; scholarships are available for students who qualify.

For more information, you can visit www.sowela.edu/culinary-fundamentals and www.sowela.edu/technician.

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