Macclesfield woman discovering new career through JobsNOW at Edgecombe Community College

For The Daily Southerner

Mellonie Webb is giving herself a present this holiday season: a future

full of new possibilities. She is learning new skills for a career in medical coding at Edgecombe Community College.

Webb is taking classes through the college’s JobsNOW program, which began earlier this year as an initiative by Gov. Beverly Perdue to help rebuild the state’s economy.

ECC offers 16 different JobsNOW programs. All of them are short-term training programs that lead to jobs needed locally.

Webb works full time for a local business, but she was looking to make a change. “I am approaching 50,” she says, “and I wanted new skills, something stable that I could count on for the future.”

She found out about the JobsNOW program in ambulatory billing and coding through an online search. “I requested information from ECC through an online form and received a phone call. I was excited toreceive a phone call from an actual person.”

That person was Robin Pigg, dean of the Division of Health Sciences at the college. Pigg outlined the program to Webb and explained that she would learn the basics of medical coding through classes in medical terminology, computers, and biology. Jobs are available in doctor’s offices, clinics, hospitals, and other health care settings.

Webb signed up, and she will complete all the courses needed for a certificate next spring.

“I have already heard from someone who says to call when I complete my certificate, that they may have a job for me,” she says.

JobsNOW is a 16-month statewide program that unites community colleges and the Department of Commerce to train workers with skills that are in demand locally and across North Carolina.

All N.C. community colleges were charged with developing 12 programs that could be completed in six months or less. ECC has developed 16:

• Ambulatory Billing and Coding

• Building Operator Certification

• Residential Weatherization

• Nursing Assistant I

• Nursing Assistant II

• Medication Aide

• Phlebotomy

• Medical Office Administration

• Tire Manufacturing

•Warehouse and Logistics Associate

•Warehouse and Logistics Leadership Skills

• Automotive Alternative Systems Technology

• Facility Maintenance/Green Energy Systems Technology

•Manufacturing/Energy Management Systems Technology

• Historic Preservation Trades

• Autobody Repair

Start dates for each of the programs have fluctuated, with courses and programs beginning each month since September. Since September, 119 individuals have enrolled in a JobsNOW course. At the end of November, 96 students had completed a JobsNOW course. Also through November, 125 students had received a credential or license.

“We did the studies, determined what jobs were in demand in our service area, and put together classes to meet those needs,” said George Anderson, JobsNOW/sustainability coordinator at ECC.

“Now we’re seeing people completing the classes, and they are telling us that they are getting jobs.”

He and other college officials are currently tweaking JobsNOW programs. In historic preservation trades, for example, the college will offer a course that will be applicable to general carpentry as well as carpentry in historic dwellings.

Also, Anderson explained, “We will offer a five-day course in residential weatherization that will qualify an individual to begin weatherizing homes right away. We will still offer a three-month course in residential weatherization that will give students more advanced skills, but the public was interested in a shorter course.”

Other programs of particular interest have been nursing assistant, tire manufacturing, phlebotomy, ambulatory billing and coding, and medical office administration.

Mellonie Webb is in class for four hours, two nights a week, butshe is certain that the sacrifices will pay off. “Eating, sleeping, working, and studying are about all that I do, but what I will gain at end will definitely be worth it,” she says.

After she completes her certificate in ambulatory billing and coding, she hopes to continue her education at ECC and earn a two-year associate degree in health information technology. “JobsNOW has been a wonderful opportunity for me,” she says.

For more information on how ton receive training through JobsNOW programs at ECC, call 823-5166.

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