Each year there are nearly 500 nursing assistant job openings in Grayson, Fannin and Cooke county.

Grayson College's Center for Workplace Learning, or CWL, offers a certification program that's helping fill those positions, and now is able to provide certification exams on site.

Kinzie Bond and other Sherman ISD seniors participating in the Certified Nurse Aide program will be able to graduate high school with four healthcare certifications; personal care technician, certified nurse assistant, EKG tech, and phlebotomy.

"I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do- I knew I wanted to be a public servant, I loved the health classes, the law classes, but I couldn't decide," Bond said.
The Sherman seniors make up just one class of this program, but anyone 16 and older is able to apply.

"We've seen now, it just started in the last year, but bigger nursing schools, bigger programs like at Texas Tech, where they're requiring students to have completed a certified nurse aide training program before they can even be accepted into their nursing program," Marlene Phillips, director of advising and outreach at Grayson's CWL, said.

Funded by COVID-19 grant programs from the Texas Workforce Commission, Grayson College offers full tuition scholarships for the CNA program. Students who complete the course will be able to work in almost any healthcare setting, ranging from hospitals to long term care facilities.

"It really speaks to the job security that someone can have coming out of these training programs," Phillips said.

Kinzie and her classmates are less than a week away from taking exams; giving them a chance to put their new skills to work, before their freshmen year at college.

"Something that is actually in my career pathway, helping me grow, and it's also going to look amazing on my resume so when I do apply for those forever careers, they'll look at that, and probably won't compare like other candidates would," she said.

The next class will begin May 10 and additional summer classes will be added soon.