Adult Learning Center Brings a Sunny Future to ID
Kristin Satterlee reports on Albuquerque Adult Learning Center's mission, vision, services, and its new home in the International District.
by Kristin Satterlee
Albuquerque Adult Learning Center (ABQ-ALC) has come to the International District. The learning center, previously housed in various locations around town, has moved into the square-edged gray building at 1201 San Mateo Blvd. SE. Big banner signs on the north and east sides, emblazoned with ABQ-ALC’s logo, make it unmissable.
Catch the Sun
This new building is part of a bright new direction for ABQ-ALC. The solar-energy industry is big business in New Mexico, and the Adult Learning Center is helping its students to grab a piece of it with a new program to launch its students into careers in solar installation. The learning center’s solar education and training program will lead to a nationally certified credential, so graduates can work in skilled solar installation jobs.
Gloria Rael, executive director of ABQ-ALC, hopes the NABCEP (North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners®)-certified program will not only launch students into valuable careers, but also help them move toward college degrees in solar technology. “We elected to do this one so that we could help bridge folks into CNM’s programs… it’s all about connecting them to college.”
Life and Career Skills
Rael often says, “We’ve got a lot of work to do.” ABQ-ALC is doing its part. As well as the solar training program, the center has lots of programming to prepare its students with all kinds of life skills: literacy (including math literacy) and high-school equivalency programs, to ready students for GED or HiSET exams; English as a Second Language classes; career pathways services; and even a Family Wellness program to help improve educational, health, and financial outcomes and family relationships.
Graduates of the Adult Learning Center have high job retention rates, and Rael wants the center to be known for that. “We're not just helping folks get their high school equivalency, but we're helping them get that lift up that they need to to advance in their career and for their families, for their lives.”
Home at Last
After years of managing up to nine separate sites, Rael felt it was “high time” for ABQ-ALC to have its own permanent home. Moving the learning center to the International District was no accident. Rael explains, “We did a community needs assessment recently and found that only a fraction of the students we were serving were from this area…. I want to make sure that our services are extended to folks [in the ID].“
Rael is excited to find a home in the International District, reaching out to community partners like Highland High School, hosting Friday night tours of the facility, and working hard to serve the needs of this diverse community. “We're serving a highly immigrant and refugee population. We're catching folks right off the street and they're walking in to see what we offer. So it feels really good that we're of service…. Not everybody gets the word, but I think the signage is big enough.”
Stop in to see what the Adult Learning Center can offer you, or check out the website below.