DeKalb County Workforce Area

Georgia Perimeter College Partnership

Georgia Perimeter College (GPC) and two of its workforce partners, DeKalb County
Workforce Area and Atlanta Regional Workforce Area, worked together to submit a
Community Based Job Training (CBJT) proposal to the U.S. Department of Labor
(USDOL). The Community Based Job Training Grants Program is a USDOL initiative to
help community colleges and their strategic partners prepare workers for high-demand
occupations such as healthcare and high-tech manufacturing. In November 2005,
Georgia Perimeter College was awarded a $1.5 million grant to address the critical
shortage of qualified healthcare professionals in Georgia by expanding the college’s
capacity to educate students to enter the Healthcare field, particularly the Registered
Nurse (RN) degree program.
DeKalb Workforce will focus on two aspects of the grant: Certified Nursing Assistant
(CNA) training and Project Redirection. GPC has created a Certified Nursing Assistant
curriculum that will include 100 hours of instruction and an internship. WIA will cover
the cost of the tuition, which includes uniforms, books and supplies, for WIA eligible
students. The inaugural class began on June 12, 2006.
The Project Redirection part of the grant will help people who apply for admission to the
RN program at Georgia Perimeter but are not admitted due to limited class size or other
reasons. Competition for entry into GPC’s RN program is stiff - students with a 4.0 grade
point average may not even make it into the program depending on their score on the
Nursing Entrance Test (NET) test. Georgia Perimeter is forced to turn down many
potential RN students every year.
DeKalb Workforce is providing an experienced, certified Career Consultant to help
students who are not admitted to the RN program to develop alternate training goals.
Every effort will be made to encourage these students remain in the healthcare field
whenever possible. The Career Consultant will be on site at GPC two days/week to
provide counseling and career planning, and to determine WIA eligibility and conduct
orientation sessions for WIA services. The Career Consultant will help customers explore
various healthcare training programs at GPC and other WIA approved schools, depending
on individual needs and circumstances.
For additional information, please contact:
DeKalb County Workforce Area
404-687-3400

June 26, 2006