Decatur Public Transit System recently donated two city buses to support the EnRich Program at Richland Community College.
Decatur Public Transit System donates two buses to the Richland Community College EnRich Program.
According to Courtney Carson, Executive Director of External Affairs, “This donation creates the local partnerships that allow Richland to give back to the community. We wanted to offer a passenger endorsement for our CDL training participants and these buses will allow our participants to gain the training they need for a greater chance of employment, so they may obtain a living wage and become self-sufficient.”
All EnRich CDL participants are required to go through a four-week Essential Skills class before the CDL training begins. Essential Skills is designed to address all work readiness and life skills so that we may produce the best employees for Decatur and the surrounding communities.
Carson added, “Richland Community College is known for its excellent training, and we’ve added to that with our Essential Skills program. This method has proven to work time and time again by producing some of the best students, employees, and entrepreneurs in the area. We appreciate the generosity of the Decatur Public Transit System so we can continue to build on creating the best CDL program in the state.”
Decatur Public Transit System Administrator John Williams added, “We are always looking for great drivers and Richland has always produced them for us. This is just another opportunity for us to support and give back to a training program so we may continue to employ more Richland students in the future.”
Richland Community College’s EnRich Program was designed and developed to change lives by offering quality training that connects individuals to employment and livable wages resulting in stronger communities. The program is an innovative approach to training delivery combining Technical Industrial Job Skills Training (IJST) with Essential Skills. The IJST program not only provides basic technical skills in Welding, CNC, Occupational Safety, precision measuring tools, hand tools, Technical Math, blueprint reading, and heavy equipment operation, but it also concentrates on the Essential Skills that are indispensable to making the most out of life and work.
EnRich is changing lives by offering quality training that connects individuals to employment and livable wages. EnRich completers are 64% minority, with 57% classified as African American, 79% male and 43% African American Male. A total of 89% of EnRich participants who completed the program were hired by major local employers. Of those, 80% remain employed.