Workers Seek Education for a Better Job, Better Life

(Democrat & Chronicle)

WORKERS SEEK EDUCATION FOR
A BETTER JOB, BETTER LIFE
 
By Mark
Hare
Columnist
 
Rochester) -  "I was
nervous to go back to school," says Kiesha
Girtman of
Rochester. "I'm 31 and didn't
know what to expect, being in with
young
kids. But it's what I wanted to do for
myself."
 
For those who've seen how
learning can open new doors, education is
indeed
sweet.
 
Girtman is a certified
nursing assistant at the Wesley Gardens nursing
home
in Rochester and a member of 1199
Service Employees International Union
United
Healthcare Workers East, which provides a
variety of educational
opportunities to help
its members advance professionally.
 
The
union is certainly not the only one to do so,
but 1199's programs and
others like them do
allow adults with limited means, whose school
careers
may have been less than satisfying,
to build better lives for themselves
and
their children.
 
Girtman is in a Pre-LPN
class to help students obtain the math and
reading
skills they will need to test into a
10-month licensed practical nurse
training
program. She graduated from high school in
1996, "but so much has
changed since then"
that she knew she'd need to prepare for moving
into the
health care field. She hopes
eventually to become a registered nurse.


Jeri Rogers, 49, also of Rochester, has
worked a dozen years at the
University of
Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital as a
surgical support
associate (which involves
setting up and cleaning equipment and
operating
rooms).
 
She's taking the
same Pre-LPN classes, she says, "because I
decided to
broaden my horizons." She has set
her sights higher, as well. She hopes
to
become an R.N. and earn a degree from
UR.
 
Bernadette Weider, who works for
the City School District and teaches
the
Pre-LPN program and other classes for
1199, says there is still a great
need to
help adults acquire the skills that will not
just get them jobs but
put them in careers
where they can be productive and
advance
professionally.
 
"I love
teaching in this program," says Weider. "There
are adults who
didn't have very fulfilling
experiences in school, and they have
to
overcome some demons to get themselves
back into class."
 
And it's not just
that these students want to advance their own
careers,
Weider says. "They want their
children to stay in school. ... And
they've
picked up on the fact that their own
education is part of the picture. It
sends a
powerful message to the children."
 
This
is exactly the message many urban children need
to hear: Education
matters, no matter what
you hear on the street, and your parents are
living
proof.
 
The 1199 union and the
employers it bargains with give members a wide
range
of educational opportunities designed
both to improve the lives of workers
and to
provide employers with the skilled workers they
need as medical
technology changes, says
Coert Bonthius, the assistant director for
upstate
regional programs of the union's
training and upgrading fund.
 
The
educational programs, Bonthius says, are funded
by employers with whom
the union has
contracts and by various state and federal
grants. Workers
can apply for financial help
with continuing education and
certification
programs and workshops, as
well as degree programs (which often are
fully
paid for by the fund).
 
The
fund pays not just for education directly
related to health care but
for degrees in
accounting or finance, administration,
engineering and other
fields that can lead
to jobs with the medical facilities that are
helping
to pay for the training.


"Basically, we want to give people a chance
to do with their lives what
they want to
do," Bonthius says.