Our Medical, Dental, and Building Trades Pre-Apprenticeship programs are progressing with an amazing group of motivated students ready to take on the challenge of their new career endeavors. At the end of December, 21 students took their written state board exam for Radiation Safety. Instructor Debbie Martinez is proud to share that not only did every student pass, but they excelled! With the first semester complete, students will now be transitioning into the clinical component of the class which will include how to take x-rays. In addition, students have successfully completed several certifications up to this point, including the Dental Practice Act and Infection Control, and BLS CPR. All 21 students are progressing well and look forward to earning their certificate of completion for Radiation Safety X-Ray during the 2nd semester.
Our Dental Assisting program is also proud to announce that the program has recently been approved by the CA Dental Board to be able to offer another certificate in Coronal Polishing. This certification will provide students the opportunity to further their steps toward applying for their Registered Dental Assisting License in the future. This class will also be offered to our local Dental Community as well.
Lastly, the CALS team successfully submitted our California Apprenticeship Initiative grant application for our Dental Assisting program. If we are selected, this 3-year grant will total $1.02M and will support us in offering paid on-the-job training to a total of 68 students for the project.
Applications for the 2024-2025 school year open in February!
The Building Trades Pre-Aprenticeship Program is very excited to kick off our 6th cohort for the Building Trades Pre-Apprenticeship program on January 22nd 2024! To date, we have held three
sessions at our 399 facility and two at the Rountree facility for the Department of Corrections. We are proud to announce that many of our graduates have found gainful employment as a result of participating in our training program.
Some examples of this include but are not limited to:
- Local 62 Plumbers union
- Local 234 IBEW (electrical union)
- Local 377 Ironworkers union
- Local 505 Carpenters union
- The City of Santa Cruz
- Sandbar Solar
- A variety of local merit contractors
The CALS team continues to work closely with the City of Santa Cruz Workforce Development Initiative and participate in monthly meetings centered around expanding our program’s outreach to applicants as well as local companies in need of qualified candidates for employment.
This fall, the CALS team solidified an agreement with the Local 62 Plumbers union to grant our graduates direct entry into the union upon completion of our program.
In our goal to provide Santa Cruz County a rigorous and relevant building trades program, while maintaining our commitment to the local unions and California’s Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS), our team is happy to announce our new articulation agreement with Cabrillo College. Students will now have the opportunity to earn Cabrillo College credit and continue their education in the Cabrillo College Construction and Energy Management (CEM) program.