Former Students Praise Tulsa Workforce Training Group

A big donation on Wednesday will help train more unemployed and underemployed Tulsans. One woman has already benefited from the job training program.

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett presented a $250,000 check to a Tulsa group that provides workforce training, free of charge, to people who want to learn a new job skill.

The donation will go towards the training of 80 Tulsans who are looking to get into the fields of diesel maintenance, welding and commercial driving.

2/26/2014 Related Story: Mayor Announces $250,000 Donation To Tulsa Workforce Development

People who already have new jobs because of the program, shared about their success at the announcement.

Former student, Porcha Thomas, said, "To say that I'm grateful is an understatement, because I just, I never would of imagined that I would of have that type of opportunity."

Thomas left her job in retail looking for more money and found it by learning a new trade, becoming a machinist in the energy industry.

"They helped me get in the door. They completely funded my education to go with CNC Machining and afterwards they helped me get in the door with Baker Hughes and I've just been loving it ever since," Thomas said.

She said the donation will allow others to better themselves.

"It makes me feel elated because now I have people that I can refer them to and they can go through the same process I went through, and to see that happen is an amazing thing," Thomas said.

Organizers said the donation will also attract more employers to Green Country.

"If we are able to solve that problem we will then become, and we are becoming, the beacon where employers will know that they can come to Tulsa, Oklahoma," Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett said.

Ken Levit with the George Kaiser Family Foundation, said, "Mom and Dad have to have good jobs, grandma and grandpa need to have good work so they can support the family, and that's why this project has been so important to us."

The George Kaiser Family Foundation also added to the donation allowing another 40 people to be trained. For more information about the program, you can call 918-442-2200.