Program helps adults gain skills to get better jobs

• By KORAN ADDO
• Advocate Westside bureau
• Published: Dec 12, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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PLAQUEMINE — Ruben Prestly, who once dreamed of becoming an architect, worked a number of low-paying jobs in the 14 years that elapsed since he quit school in the ninth grade.

Prestly, 28, still holds on to his dream of becoming an architect, but spends his weekday mornings hunched over a computer screen learning and relearning the lessons he said he should have mastered as a teenager.

Prestly is one of more than 300 adults enrolled in the state Department of Education’s Iberville Consortium Adult Education program, which has 11 chapters in Iberville, West Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee and West Feliciana parishes.

The free program seeks to group adults who come from similar socioeconomic backgrounds together and prepare them to take the General Education Development Test, which measures high school-level skills and knowledge.

The program in which Prestly is enrolled began in September and is similar to another adult education program offered in East Baton Rouge Parish since 2004.

Students who have trouble finding transportation to and from the program sites also have the option of taking classes online for free.

Adult education classes are a major need in rural parishes such as Iberville where high school dropout rates are typically higher than in urban areas, said Janet Marionneaux, executive director of the Iberville Parish School Board.

In 2007, Louisiana’s average school dropout rate was 6.9 percent statewide, Marionneaux said.

Iberville Parish’s dropout rate in 2007 was 9 percent, she added.

Of Louisiana adults age 25 and older, nearly 75 percent have high school diplomas, according to figures supplied by Marionneaux.

In Iberville Parish, 65 percent in the same age group are high school graduates, Marionneaux said.

In Iberville, Pointe Coupee and West Baton Rouge parishes, adult education classes are conducted in Louisiana Technical College facilities.

Students enrolled in the adult education program usually take GED preparation courses in the morning, said Mary Stewart, a campus administrator with Louisiana Technical College system in Iberville Parish.