3 months ago
SACRAMENTO, CA - It's a story we've heard several times: laid off workers going back to school to learn something new, hoping to find new work.
And we found those students again, but this time in an usual place.
At the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Sacramento, formerly known as the Kitchen Academy, hundreds of students fill classrooms everyday.
But here's the icing on the cake; some of them are also there to survive the economy.
"If I see any parsley on your potato, any carrot on your onion, that's points off okay!" yelled Chef Sandra Washington in one of the first classes students will take.
"These are all newbie students," she said. "These are what I call my babies; they have no idea where they're going what they're doing from here. I get to mold them."
And among the babies is 58-year-old Betty Pi, no pun intended.
Betty was laid off from her job in biometrics and for a while didn't have much on her plate.
"My son said, 'Mommy, you're a good cook, you like to cook, why don't you go learn more, it's good for you'." she said. "And I said, 'Okay, let me try'."
She tried and succeeded. And with the help of $10,000 a state retraining loan Betty's unemployment has become anything but frustrating.
"From the beginning I got that kind of feeling," she said. "But since I started here I can tell you, I'm happy."
But many of the students there learning to make two kinds of bread and butter found they were supposed to be there all along.
"A lot of them had a passion for this long ago," said Chef Michael Cross, the School's Director of Education. "They're very happy to be able to come back into it and make a living."
Cross says thanks to the popularity of the Food Network and federal and state student loans enrollment is up 16%.
"It is definitely a skilled profession and here at the school we give them the foundations for them to move forward in the industry," he said.
But it's not just their program where enrollment is up.
Chef Brian Knirk from American River College says his program has increased about 25%, mainly from students retraining.
But to Betty Pi it's not about how many classmates she has. Instead it's about her recipe for success: education and perseverance.
"You have to have confidence in yourself," she said. "You always have to tell yourself, 'Go for it'. If you want something, go for it."
Like mentioned, state and federal dollars are available as a loan to help pay for retraining.
Betty's case is a unique though; usually only $5,000 is available from the state. But $9,500 could also be available from the federal government.
News10/KXTV
