GO FEMALES

by Sheri Plain

Right: The GO Females group at Unifirst, learning skills and rocking a 3.8 cumulative GPA!

The collaboration of local and state industry, workforce, and educational partners led to the design and launch of the GO Females initiative to “skill up” female incumbent workers for advancement in the manufacturing industry. This initiative was funded in part by a National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program grant (Grant No. 1903117) awarded to Owensboro Community & Technical College (OCTC) in 2018. OCTC launched the first GO Females cohort in 2019 in partnership with UniFirst. Twenty female incumbent workers from UniFirst Corporation were selected to participate. By stepping forward as the first GO Females employee champion, UniFirst ensures that employees gain personal and career opportunities that were previously unattainable. UniFirst supports the GO Females initiative by paying participants fulltime wages and benefits throughout the program and providing them eight hours of paid time off each week to attend classes. GO Females provides working adults unprecedented access to education by eliminating financial and accessibility barriers. As a true “work and learn” model, GO Females brings college to the workplace. Classes are held onsite and labtraining equipment is set up at the worksite near UniFirst’s actual production equipment. This allows

All Are Welcome!

instructors to connect teaching to “real world” application. It also allows the students to learn, practice, and apply skills relevant to what occurs on the job. The GO Females cohort completed their first semester with a 3.8 cumulative GPA. Currently, the students are progressing on schedule with the six courses (15 credit hours) they are taking during the spring 2020 semester. In August 2020, GO Females launched a second cohort open to other manufacturing employers. For more information on GO Females program, or how to participate in the next group, please contact sheri.plain@kctcs. edu.