Developing their careers

When resident Emilia Contreras was a child in her native Guatemala, she dreamed about becoming a nurse.

But it all seemed out of reach. In her culture, her father would choose her career, and she couldn’t speak English.

But then, opportunity came knocking via the Verdugo Jobs Center, and she took it.

“It was my dream as a girl to be a nurse,” Contreras said.

And on Friday, she and 11 other students graduated from the Career Development Institute’s nursing assistant program at the Verdugo Jobs Center.

Each student got a certificate of completion, a rose and certified nursing pin.

Before graduating, Contreras was working as an interior designer for a Culver-City based company. She was laid off in September, unable to weather the foreclosure crisis.

At 59, she was still too young to retire and collect Social Security, but couldn’t find a job because she spoke limited English.

As her employment benefits neared their end, Contreras sought help and employment opportunities at the Verdugo Job Center. There she saw a flier for a program that offered training to become a certified nursing assistant.

“This is my opportunity to do what I want,” Contreras said.

She and 11 other low-income and unemployed students who all emigrated from other nations saw the program as a chance to steady themselves in an unstable employment market.

“I think they are all pretty enthusiastic, and they wanted to do that,” said Don Nakamoto, labor market specialist for the Verdugo Workforce Investment Board, which oversees the job center.

The graduates also received certified nursing assistance and English-as-a-second-language training, he said.

To become a nursing assistant, they must pass an exam, which is in English, Nakamoto said.

“You have to have a pretty good grasp of the English language to be able to pass the exam,” he said.

The center funded the program, which was run by Career Development Institute. The institute parked a mobile training lab for three months at the center’s parking lot, Nakamoto said.

There, the nursing students used the lab every day, going through the training course.

“It’s a pretty big commitment on the part of the students to go through this process,” he said.

Blanca Perez, 58, of Highland Park, said the language portion of the course was most challenging.

“We all put in a lot of effort,” she said.

The students were required to get a job after completing the program and passing the exam, said the institute’s president, Janis Newton.

And just because they graduate doesn’t mean the students should stop learning about nursing, the program’s instructor Rheyvonn Abueg said.

Nursing, he said, requires plenty of practice and patience.

Contreras was eager to put her nursing skills to work.

“It’s my dream,” she said. “I feel very good about it. I am so motivated.”