SAN MARCOS, Texas — For months, the health care industry has sounded the alarm on staffing shortages.
Though it just opened in January, the Williams Career School of Excellence (WCSE) has already graduated 40 students – putting them one step closer to their Texas State Certification as Certified Nursing Aides (CNA).
"I realized just how significant it was to have a trade because then I was able to jump into a career," said Lora Williams, who co-founded the school.
Lora Williams, alongside her husband, Cedric, started planning for the school in 2011. In November 2020, they received approval to start it. Their hands-on classrooms and training areas for the CNA program and an HVAC program – Cedric Williams' profession – sit inside two unassuming office buildings in San Marcos.
LeChean Jones was one of the first graduates from the CNA program.
"I really wanted to get a hands-on experience with as many people as possible," Jones said.
Jones now works with developmentally challenged adults at a facility in San Marcos. She felt the pandemic was the right time to pursue her passion.
"I was working through the entire pandemic, so for me, it wasn't necessarily a challenge in that aspect," Jones said. "It was more like, 'Well, there is a pandemic, this makes sense, I'd rather be working towards providing for the people rather than doing something that doesn't provide anything at all.'"
Robert Negron, who has worked in a senior living facility for more than three years, just finished his Williams program on Tuesday.
"Because the whole pandemic going on, there was a lot of people who have been quitting, [burning] out, it just becomes very hard for, for people who are still currently working as a CNA," Negron said. "They had to make a lot of sacrifices, as far as, you know, do things a little bit different than how they normally would do it in a textbook."
Negron took the pandemic as an opportunity to retrain himself and brush up on his skills.
At the end of the four, six or nine-week CNA program, Lora Williams said her students are ready to take the state certification exams. Jones emphasized the focus on one-on-one interaction during classes while adding that as prepared as she was, working at her current job is not quite as smooth as the classroom setting.
On Wednesday, the first HVAC students graduate from WCSE as well. Williams said both programs can help find jobs pretty much anywhere because of the high demand.
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