The Redding Record Searchlight recently ran a piece about a young Redding Workforce finding avenues to good jobs. This piece is on the forms of non-college education people engage in to find the technically skilled jobs that make up today’s economy. Cloud Wise Academy, and Chris Webber, a graduate of our school, were both featured in the article.
The Local organizations
Several local organizations were showcased in the piece, all trying to make a difference for young people entering the job market.
For instance, the Shasta Union Fire Academy, which teaches high school students the skills and procedures they need to become fully-qualified firefighters. About 80 percent of graduates of this program receive job offers from state and federal firefighting agencies.
One firefighter, Alex Golden, expressed his deep appreciation for the training, saying “I would have been lost without the academy.”
Golden has received a job offer from a local fire station.
The article also mentioned the Career Technical Education Pathways program, which helps students gain first-hand experience in many different professions, Reach Higher Shasta, Shasta College, and Cloud Wise Academy.
Cloud Wise Academy in the News
The article discusses how Chris Webber, a navy veteran, was having trouble finding good-paying work after leaving the military. An injury sustained in the navy forced him to abandon gunsmithing after it provided too physically taxing.
Around that time, he was contacted by Joe Mckenna from Cloud Wise Academy, who wanted him to take the very first coding class.
About a year later, Chris Webber supports his two daughters with his own web-building business. He describes the process of learning to code as much simpler than he thought it would be, and a skill that’s very much in demand.
“There’s so much coding work to do, and not enough people to do it,” he says.
