TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) - A total of 20 students graduated from a program designed to give them better job training.
The city of Toledo's Brownfield Job Training initiative provides environmental remediation, demolition and construction training. Students take a four-week course for eight hours a day to earn certificates in areas, such as hazardous waste training, emergency response and lead awareness. Toledo was awarded a $200,000 grant in 2012 for workforce development and job training that made the program possible.
Mayor D. Michael Collins attended the ceremony and praised the students' accomplishments. He encouraged them to continue their education.
"The only pathway out of poverty is education and it may not be the academic side, it may be the skill side. But somewhere in between, everyone has to have the ability to exist in our community. And the only way you're gonna do that is with education," said Collins.
"I wanted to have training for myself just to know about asbestos removal for my own personal reasons and also for any way I can help my unemployment, better myself," said graduate Braheem Dahar.
The graduates attended a job fair immediately after the ceremony, where almost all of them received job offers.
