NEWS
Seven Graduate From Inaugural Heavy Equipment Training Program
It was a day of celebrating achievement at the Wyoming Women's Center in Lusk on Thursday. Seven inmates graduated from the first ever heavy equipment training program conducted at the state women's prison in Lusk.
The seven women were awarded certificates from the National Center for Construction and Education Research. NCCER certification allows the women to travel and work anywhere in the country as heavy machine operators.
All the women are mothers with kids at home and all are within months now of being released. Iva Hueske, one of the graduates, explained why she signed up for the five-week training program, "I got into this program to secure a future for myself and my family, to make a good living, to do good work, and to be proud of what I do."
Devin Ellis of Gillette, another graduate, said she's ready to head back home, "I plan to go back home up to Campbell County and probably go back to the mines. I have family that works up there, I've grown up around the mines my whole life."
The program is a cooperative effort of the Wyoming Department of Corrections and the Department of Workforce Services. Joan Evans, Director of the Department of Workforce Services said this is the first time ever two state agencies worked together specifically to create a job skills training program. She said, "It is so unique that we are delivering a training program there on site that wouldn't have been possible without partnerships."
Those partners included Wyoming Machinery, the Wyoming Contractors Association and the McMurry Training Center, all in Casper who provided the equipment and training instructors for the program.
Phil Myer, unit manager of the women's center said the program is an investment on behalf of the state to give these women vocational skills that when they are released from the facility they can go out and earn a living wage to support themselves and their families. He said they no longer have to be a burden on the citizens of Wyoming as far as being on public assistance and other welfare programs.
Listen to the audio from Iva Hueske, one of the graduates.
Listen to the audio from Devin Ellis, one of the graduates.
