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Be selective about schooling in the correct way. Some technical schools are accredited and some are not. I have been working in IT for 10 years and lately all I have been doing is Scanning Documents for the Enrollment Services at our community college. They keep paying me so I keep doing it. At 51 I cant complain too much and at this point no one listens anyway. They have their agenda so I have to go with the flow or go some place else to find employment.
I see a lot of schools that advertise in my area heavily and some of them do not have accredidation. It is really painful to see a student find out his year of education will not transfer. You might consider some other kind of carreer fields that are kind of related. I see some people training in fields like Medical coding and billing or other areas in the medical field. Seems like sick people will not be in short supply any time soon. If you were in programming maybe try networking/Database. In my area we have some other fields like Water Treatment, Process Management for refineries, CAD/CAM, Engineering, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, etc.
It seems that IT departments are the first areas that management start firing people in lean times. My wife worked for bank of America for 18 years as a check processor in the lock box area and they fired her without batting an eye. I think she is going to go into accounting.
You should check out the WIA program as well. Lots of federal dollars flying around. Look at places like JTPA (Junior Training Partnership Act) - they offer training for layed off workers. Sometimes you can start at the community college and look for some ideas in other areas.
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