JAY — Sue Cassidy is taking the College Access Class at Spruce Mountain Adult and Community Education to prepare to go to college.

“In my case, the job market has gotten extremely competitive and I don’t have the skills to compete,” the Jay woman said.

She was in management and has lots of experience but that is not enough in the job market, she said.

Carla Neil of Livermore, who builds websites, has the skills but just needs the degree behind it to back them up, Neil said.

Neil and Cassidy both said that by going to college, they are trying to teach their children to aspire to do the same. Neil has two children in college, she said.

Cassidy wants to show her son that education is important, she said.

“I always tell my son to walk the walk, not just talk the talk,” Cassidy said.

The program is updating skills for nontraditional students.

The College Access Class is a partnership with adult and community education programs in RSU 9 in Farmington and RSU 52 in Turner, Spruce Mountain adult education Director Eileen Miazga said Wednesday.

RSU 9 Adult Education Director Ray Therrien, who is heading up the project, wrote and received a grant from the Finance Authority of Maine to fund the classes, she said.

The College Access Class is being offered at four adult and community education sites in Franklin County: SAD 58 in Salem Township, Spruce Mountain/RSU 73 in Jay, RSU 9 in Farmington, and RSU 52 in Turner.

There are four classes offered at each site.

“It’s all geared toward the Accuplacer placement test that a number of colleges use,” Miazga said.

The classes are technology, English, math and college readiness.

“Each site has a set of teachers and we share some of the teachers,” she said. “It is also a pilot project to utilize our staff.”

Part of the college readiness class is filling out applications and talking about the culture of college, she said.

“It’s a scary step when people go from what they know to what they don’t know,” Miazga said. “It’s free.”

Another 10-week class will begin Jan. 16 and there will be one in May, which has not been scheduled yet.

Students can move on to take courses at Central Maine Community College, which has a satellite site at Spruce Mountain High School campuses in Jay and Livermore Falls.

In the classroom at the adult education center, technology instructor Linda Davis was teaching four women how to do a PowerPoint presentation. They will need to do their own as part of the class.

“We started with Word and we’re doing PowerPoint and we will do Excel,” Davis said.

Students in the classes range in age from teenagers to over 50.

The class is opening up Sherri Jewell’s knowledge of what’s to come with a full course load, the Livermore Falls woman said. She was formerly in bridge construction.

Student Alison Welch is taking the class to prepare for college and enrolling courses targeting business.

Cassidy and Jewell also plan to take business courses.

Neil is going for computer science.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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