Training Grants

Russell attended National Park Technology Center (NPC) while still in high school. After graduation, Russell was awarded NPC’s Promise Scholarship to continue his education. According to Russell, “From NPC, I took with me determination and a strong work ethic. NPC prepared me to succeed at a four-year university.”

Russell is continuing his education at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith’s (UAFS) Department of Criminal Justice. He was recently presented with an Academic Excellence Award for his hard work at UAFS. He credits NPC for his continued success, “I would like to thank the Criminal Justice faculty at NPC for all that they have done and all they continue to do for their current and previous students.”

Russell W

National Park College

Always passionate about graphic design, after graduating from high school Candyce discovered that National Park College (NPC) in Hot Springs offered the classes she needed to continue her education. Candyce credits her success, in part, to NPC “Not many people can say they got their degree that got them their dream jobs right out of college at 20 years old. National Park College was just the college for me…a welcoming campus, great teachers, and access to financial support.” Candyce is currently a graphic designer for Cromwell Architects Engineers, Inc. in Little Rock. “Now, every day as I go to work at a job I love, and I thank NPC,” said Candyce.

Candyce C.

National Park College

OSD’s ReSkill Arkansas gave me the training and career counseling services I needed to pursue high-paying jobs in this field. I encourage anyone who is “non-techie” to apply to the program because the ACDS team is there to help you every step of the way.

Malana V.

I strongly encourage anyone interested, or simply curious, about IT or Computer Science to take some of the ReSkill courses offered by ACDS & OSD. The self-paced coursework was presented in a format that proved to be perfect for a person like me who had absolutely no experience with Cybersecurity.

Calvin C.

The COVID-19 pandemic ended my 20-year career as a hairstylist. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to attend classes from home at my pace and to take advantage of the personalized career coaching. I’m confident the ReSkill program will prepare me for my next career.

Angelo M.

Ryan, a former USAF Missile and Space Maintenance Technician, is now a Security Operations Center Analyst at Simmons Bank. “I’ve always been around computers and have been kind of “the IT guy,” but never the super technical IT guy. I was just interested in the technology, so I decided I wanted to get an IT job. I also knew cybersecurity was where I wanted to go… In the apprenticeship program [at Simmons] I learned a lot of different programming languages, and I found a whole bunch of new resources. ….…It’s interesting work. I like the puzzle of figuring out why this got on the system, or how it got on the system.”

Ryan S.

Simmons Bank

Justice apprenticed as a QA test engineer at Metova in Fayetteville. “Basically, what I do for Metova is try to break things. That’s what I tell everyone. I test software for both mobile and web. So I test applications on the phone, for IOS for iPhones and for Android. I also test for when you get on your desktop or your laptop and you go to a website. We do this for many different companies, in industries from healthcare to banking. I just try to make sure everything is working as it should, and I report any bugs or defects. It’s really fulfilling work—I would say it’s the best job and job opportunity I’ve ever been given, for sure. I love it.”

Justice B.

Metova

Hannah was homeschooled and, after college, she started medical school with a full scholarship; however, she quickly discovered that medicine was not for her. After trying several other career options, Hannah discovered her passion at Hytrol in Jonesboro. “Hytrol was a definite turnaround moment…[it] solidified it for me because I got to work in the environment of a real job, so I knew I liked it…I’m doing a data science apprenticeship, all the course work was virtual and right now [I am working on projects that] optimize some current functions using data science.” Hannah has finally found her passion in life with the help of a Hytrol apprenticeship,

Hannah B.

Hytrol

Jodi Ann earned her MBA in 2019 and was awarded an apprenticeship at Arvest Bank. She is a senior reporting analyst at Arvest Bank. “I’ve learned so much over these last six or so months. I’ve taught myself a bunch of things. I’ve had to interact with literally all levels of our organization. I research data problems to develop analytical solutions. Again, I love data. I love touching it and cleaning it and I know most people hate that. I love getting in there and seeing what there is to see. I love visualizations. The actionable insights we can uncover improves the customer’s experience and drives innovation.”