{"id":56724,"date":"2025-08-04T02:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T02:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56724\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T02:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T02:32:16","slug":"atlanta-workforce-career-center-opens-doors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56724\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Workforce Career Center Opens Doors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ajahnae Padgett (above) has been searching for work for two years. \u201cI think this is a great community event that will help people like me who are hungry for the next level, but just need opportunity,\u201d Padgett said.<\/p>\n

Ajahnae Padgett has been searching for work for two years. The 33-year-old single mother from Atlanta earned an EKG certification in 2023 through a Clayton County program, but despite her credentials, employment has remained elusive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a single parent. I\u2019ve had some setbacks, and I think this is a great community event that will help people like me who are hungry for the next level, but just need opportunity,\u201d Padgett said Saturday as she toured the newly opened\u00a0the Workforce Career Center<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>(WCC) in West Midtown on a cloudy Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Padgett\u2019s story illustrates exactly why Atlanta\u2019s newest workforce career center exists. The Workforce Career Center at 1073 Huff Rd. N.W. opened its doors with a promise that resonates deeply in today\u2019s economic climate: providing real skills for real jobs, without the burden of traditional college debt, and more importantly, ensuring students have the support systems needed to transition successfully into employment.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Noah Washington\/The Atlanta Voice<\/p>\n

\u2018God said build it, and they will come\u2019<\/p>\n

Marion Skinner, the visionary behind the Atlanta campus, stood among the crowd of supporters and prospective students like Padgett with evident pride. \u201cGod said build it, and they will come,\u201d Skinner reflected, watching as community members toured the newly opened facility. \u201cI appreciate the support of the community behind me. I\u2019m just here to train and upskill all these individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The training center is a comprehensive approach to workforce development that addresses Atlanta\u2019s critical skills gap while providing accessible career pathways for underserved communities. For people like Padgett, who already have certifications but lack the connections and support to find work, the center offers something different: direct partnerships with employers.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Noah Washington\/The Atlanta Voice<\/p>\n

\u2018Education needs to evolve\u2019<\/p>\n

What sets the Atlanta Workforce Career Center apart from the program where Padgett earned her unused certification is its network of industry partnerships that create direct pathways from classroom to career.<\/p>\n

Shanetha Culbertson, workforce development manager for Grady Health System, emphasized the importance of these connections. With 18 months in her current role and 20 years in workforce development, Culbertson sees the partnership as crucial for building a health care pipeline. \u201cWCC has health care programming, and they would like to partner with us to create a pathway for their students who complete training to have a pathway into Grady Hospital,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

For someone like Padgett, who earned her EKG certification through a much smaller Clayton County program with only six to eight students and no employer partnerships, this direct connection to Grady represents exactly what was missing from her previous training experience.<\/p>\n

Microsoft\u2019s involvement brings a technology component to the training programs. Darrell Booker, Microsoft\u2019s tech community acceleration lead, highlighted their \u201ctrain the trainer\u201d model. \u201cWe work with Marion and the workforce team by training some of their trainers to ensure that they can deliver not only digital literacy training, but also some of the more skilled things, such as AI,\u201d Booker said. \u201cWhen we think about getting and obtaining jobs, one of the fastest ways right now is to obtain certifications.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Microsoft partnership, which began development eight to 10 months ago, builds on successful workforce programs the team previously implemented in Texas. For Booker, the Atlanta expansion represents a natural evolution: \u201cEducation needs to evolve, and it needs to change, and it needs to meet with the times. It needs to focus on the actual jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m here exploring my options\u2019<\/p>\n

Padgett is considering both transportation and health care certification options, determined not to let her previous setbacks define her future. Her EKG certification expires soon, but rather than seeing this as another obstacle, she views the Workforce Career Center as a chance to start fresh with better support.<\/p>\n

In May 2025,\u00a0The U.S Bureau\u00a0of Labor<\/a>\u00a0statistics posted that Georgia has approximately 333,000 job openings with a job\u2011openings rate of 6.3%, significantly higher than the national average of 4.6%. While that may seem like a positive indicator, it actually reflects a growing gap between available jobs and a workforce equipped with the skills to fill them, a gap the Workforce Career Center was built to address.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here exploring my options,\u201d she said, watching other prospective students tour the facility. The difference between this center and her previous training experience is immediately apparent, not just in the state-of-the-art equipment, but in the visible connections to major Atlanta employers.<\/p>\n

\u2018When you come in, you want to be here. You want to learn\u2019<\/p>\n

The facility itself reflects the center\u2019s commitment to student success. The immersive learning environment features modern equipment, from a fully equipped commercial kitchen to computer labs loaded with the latest technology. The design philosophy prioritizes creating a space where students want to be, rather than feeling obligated to attend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve created something that\u2019s very immersive to where, when you come in, you want to be here. You want to learn,\u201d Booker observed. \u201cThis is the type of environment that people are really going to excel and gain those needed skills and move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contrast with traditional workforce programs is intentional. Rather than feeling like a last resort for people who couldn\u2019t succeed elsewhere, the center aims to be a destination of choice for people seeking practical, high-value skills.<\/p>\n

A whole new way of life<\/p>\n

By focusing on recession-proof industries and maintaining a zero-debt model, the center offers a practical alternative to traditional higher education paths.<\/p>\n

For Atlanta residents like Padgett, ready to \u201cprovide better for their family,\u201d as Skinner puts it, the Workforce Career Center offers more than training,\u00a0 it offers a pathway to a new way of life, complete with the support systems that make the difference between earning a certificate and building a career.<\/p>\n

For more information about programs and enrollment, visit\u00a0www.workforcecareers.com.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ajahnae Padgett (above) has been searching for work for two years. \u201cI think this is a great community…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[42757,28,42758,42759,42760,134,42761,1281,42762],"class_list":{"0":"post-56724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-ajahnae-padgett","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-clayton-county-program","11":"tag-darrell-booker","12":"tag-grady-health-system","13":"tag-jobs","14":"tag-marion-skinner","15":"tag-microsoft","16":"tag-shanetha-culbertson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}