KCC Stories: Mom Karen Kelley is working toward her journeyman card

KCC student Karen Kelley poses for a photo at the Regional Manufacturing Technology Center campus in Battle Creek.

Registration for the Spring 2018 semester is open now! For information about signing up for spring classes, visit www.kellogg.edu/registration. To apply to KCC online for free, visit www.kellogg.edu/step1.

When Karen Kelley started the Essential Skills Demanded by Great Employers (EDGE) Program at Kellogg Community College in the spring of 2016, she was having a hard time finding a job. She’d been a stay-at-home mom for 13 years and had been living out of town for the past year.

The EDGE Program, offered in conjunction with Goodwill Industries, gave Kelley and others like her access to job readiness training, including training through KCC’s Advanced Manufacturing Assembly (KAMA) Training Program. The training included OSHA certification and forklift training, among training in other manufacturing and professionalism concepts.

“I absolutely loved it,” Kelley says of the EDGE Program. “I definitely took a hold of every opportunity to move forward in my life and maintained a positive attitude, just knowing that all of these opportunities would be available to me when I got done. … I would definitely recommend it.”

Today, Kelley is a printer’s assistant at Coveris in Battle Creek, which develops packaging for products in a variety of industries around the world. She’s also back at KCC to study in the Industrial Machining Technology Program, through which she hopes to earn her journeyman card.

“It’s just another opportunity to better myself and to learn more,” Kelley says. “I’m grateful for every opportunity that’s been presented to me.”

Join the KAMA Program

For more information about KCC’s KAMA Program or other manufacturing training programs at KCC, visit www.kellogg.edu/work or contact Workforce Solutions Career Coordinator Casey Fairley at 269-565-2804 or fairleyc@kellogg.edu or Career Coach Roy Tooke at 269-565-7979 or tooker@kellogg.edu.

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