Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Prisoners hope that education can erase a stigma

    Idaho's nine prisons have more than 30 postsecondary educational programs geared to helping incarcerated people get hired in career-track, technical jobs after their release from prison. The prisons focus on jobs in demand and woo potential employers with tours of their well-equipped classrooms. They also focus on education that produces certifications that carry more weight in industry. Studies show those credentials produce better odds against people returning to prison. Such programs nationwide have suffered from inadequate funding, but more federal money is in the pipeline.

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  • Green Jobs Offer Ex-Offenders a Career Path after Prison

    At Florida's Everglades Correctional Institution, incarcerated men teach a course offered through a college correspondence school that can lead to certification to work as a wastewater treatment plant operator, a well-paying green-industry job in high demand. An incarcerated journalist tells the story of how demanding lessons in chemistry, microbiology, and algebra prepare students for the state certification exam. Hundreds have taken the course and many have found jobs in the industry after prison, although many employers remain reluctant to hire people with felony records.

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  • Latest student-built tiny home, now merely small, rolls off to a permanent location in Bridgewater

    High school students from several schools got hands-on construction experience by building tiny homes that are then sold at under-market prices to people needing housing. The training is provided to the students at Huot Technical Education Center, with mentoring from volunteers from the building trades. Four houses have been built and delivered so far in the program, which was slowed but not stopped by pandemic restrictions.

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  • In a Mafia Stronghold, This Cooking School Is Stirring the Pot

    Italy's first tuition-free cooking school gives unemployed young people in the economically challenged region of Calabria a career path – and a culturally resonant alternative to working for the region's organized crime syndicate, the 'Ndrangheta. The school, Uno Chef per Elena e Pietro, surrounds cooking instruction with an appreciation for food culture and farming. Besides the extortion, kidnappings, and murder that the Calabrian Mafia uses, it also launders money by infiltrating farming and the food business.

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  • Future Mechanics Return To Class In Person

    Gateway Community College in New Haven, Connecticut is adapting a class that's pretty difficult to take online—automotive repair. Although 90 to 92% of the college's classes continue remotely, the automotive repair class has reduced class size from 18 to 12, instituted social distancing, frequent face shield disinfection, and open-air space for students to continue to get a hands-on education when it comes to fixing cars, and learning from mistakes.

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  • ‘We're writing the book' - McCracken jail sees strong early success from vocational programs

    Vocational training and life skills classes at the McCracken County Regional Jail help prepare incarcerated people for stable jobs and living situations once they are released. Of the first 16 to complete vocational training, none have returned to jail and 12 are employed, despite the poor job market during the pandemic. Though the results so far are small and early, jail officials are working to expand the available programs to more people. Particularly useful not only to the incarcerated people but also to their families are cognitive skills classes, which vocational students are required to take as well.

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  • Urgency of getting people back to work gives new momentum to “microcredentials”

    Western Governors University in Henderson, Nevada is one of many educational institutions in the United States redefining how students can get degrees through technical skill-oriented programs. Students can obtain certifications, or "microcredentials", in high-demand skills like "technical support, cloud technology, and data analysis" within months, and be ready to enter the workforce. But, what makes this model different is its certificate "stacking," which means that students can keep earning work-relevant certificates, while also satisfying degree requirements.

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  • Shop Class, Over Zoom

    What happens when vocational education goes online? In Danvers, Massachusetts, one high school is pioneering creative solutions such as dropping off mannequin heads for cosmetology students, setting students up with a zoo webcam to practice their veterinary observational skills, and assigning environmental science students to pick up litter in their neighborhoods and analyze its impact on marine life.

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  • How Tennessee Is Getting Adult Students Back to School

    Tennessee Reconnect, which started as a small-scale "mentorship and financial support program", has now been adopted and expanded throughout the state as a way to help adults start or continue higher education. Now in its second year, the program matches applicants with "navigators," adult mentors who understand the specific student's financial and social challenges and helps them navigate the process every step of the way. The program also provides funding to students to pay for coursework and is now looking to expand its operations to jails and prisons.

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  • Solving crimes, acing tests, building bridges. What this Fresno school program does right

    A career technical education program in California exposes children to work in fields including biotechnology, business, marketing, and psychology, and has been shown to improve test scores. The twist? The program is run and funded jointly by two districts with widely varying socioeconomic demographics.

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