As it enters its second decade, the Snead State Community College Ready to Work Program continues to see success among its students.

According to its recent success report, the program has an 86.67 percent success in its participants finding employment, entering college and completing training.

“We’re very excited to continue to see this program grow and provide opportunities for our students in going to work or going to college. It’s a team effort among our instructors, our workforce development staff, the admissions staff and our recruiters. The effort is paying off, and the benefit is success for our students,” Director of Workforce Development Teresa Walker said.

How it works

As part of the Ready to Work program, students train in the necessary soft skills requested by employers for today’s workplace. The curriculum includes both online and classroom components, including communication, workplace behaviors, problem solving, job prep, computer skills and financial literacy.

Individuals successfully completing Ready to Work receive the Alabama Certified Worker Certificate and a National Career Readiness Certificate. The Ready to Work program is operated by the Alabama Community College System in cooperation with AIDT. The training is six to eight weeks in length.

Other benefits of graduating from Snead’s Ready to Work program include a free three- or four-hour credit course at Snead State, job placement assistance, career assessment, job search information, Alabama Job Link registration, financial aid/enrollment/advising information, and information about Workforce Development class offerings. Job placement assistance is provided to students during attendance and after graduation.

Continuing on

“The college recently set a goal of recruiting 10 percent of our Ready to Work students to enter college and continue their education and training. We are currently tracking approximately 9 percent of students who will take advantage of the free class, so we’re on track to celebrating more milestones with these students,” Walker said.

Since the program began in 2009, 103 free classes have been awarded to Ready to Work graduates, and they also enrolled in an additional 1,508 within the last 10 years. Snead State has awarded 37 degrees and 14 certificates to its Ready to Work graduates to further their education.

“Our success is due in part to the relationships we have with our industry partners. Our industry champions include Newman Technology, Kappler, HFI, Atrion Medical and Syncro. Each company has employees regularly enroll in our Ready to Work classes, including those we are currently running. These companies also interview any Ready to Work graduates for vacant positions within their business,” Walker said.