Published November 2001

Tech centers plan discounts for dislocated workers

Herald Business Journal Staff

Recent layoff announcements by the Boeing Co., Goodrich Corp. and other Snohomish County companies have prompted two area technology training centers to plan class discounts for dislocated workers.

Through June 30, Edmonds Community College’s Business and Technology Center will offer a 20 percent discount on all its courses to laid-off workers. And at Bothell-based Puget Sound Center, discounts for laid-off workers are on the drawing board for the winter quarter.

“The entire staff was brainstorming on what we could do to help out displaced workers with our programs. We all agreed that cutting our prices would enable the affected companies to offer training to more of their employees,” said Steve Hailey, a former Boeing employee and a technical trainer at the Business and Technology Center. “In the current environment, everyone is doing what he or she can. This is our way of giving back to the community and helping out.”

The center has put together several high-tech training packages to retrain laid-off workers, including A+ PC Service Technician, Cisco Certified Network Associate, Cisco Certified Network Professional, numerous Certified Internet Webmaster courses, Information Technology Fundamentals, Microsoft certification courses and Network+, among others.

At the Puget Sound Center, two new Oracle classes, Introduction to Oracle 8i — SQL & PL/SQL and Oracle 8i Database Architecture and Administration, already had been discounted by a third for all students, Executive Director Bill McMeekin said. Now, with the layoff announcements, other course discounts are under consideration.

“Definitely for winter quarter, we will be discounting for laid-off workers,” McMeekin said, adding that the amount of the discounts will be class dependent.

For more information, call the Business and Technology Center at 425-640-1840 or visit www.btc.edcc.edu on the Web, or call the Puget Sound Center at 425-640-1950 or visit www.pugetsoundcenter.org on the Web.

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