ROCKFORD Rock Valley College is marrying GED preparatory classes with an introduction to health care careers in an effort to bridge the gap between receiving a high school equivalency degree and landing a job.

Bridge to Health Care started after the Illinois Community College Board directed learning institutions to develop bridge programming to help their students find work, said Amanda Smith, RVCs transitions coordinator.

Its become quite apparent that getting your GED is not enough to get gainful employment, Smith said. Were finding many in our community are not only lacking their GED but basic employment skills, so doing those two things at once seemed natural.

The program includes test prep sessions and visits to local health care providers to learn about careers and what postsecondary education is needed for those jobs. Smith said the students also work with her to identify what services are needed to help them transition from the classroom to the workplace.

The class meets four days a week for four hours a day; the first eight-week session is concluding Monday, Smith said. Another class will be offered in the fall, funding permitting.

Eleven students were enrolled in the class when it began. This week, the nine students who remain were busy preparing for their final exam. Some of them have already begun to take their six-part GED tests; others say they plan to do it this summer and enroll in college-level classes in the fall.

Raisa Curieo, 22, of Rockford has taken four of the six parts of the GED test and hopes to finish her exams soon. This fall, she plans to enroll at Rock Valley with the ultimate goal of becoming a registered nurse.

She said returning to a classroom was a challenge, but the experience has been worthwhile.

It was kind of hard to not be able to be at home or work, but its helping me out a lot, she said. This is stuff I wouldnt learn somewhere else.

Smith said RVC is partnering with two agencies on the program: the Northwest Illinois Healthcare Collaborative, an umbrella organization of Rockfords three health care systems, plus KSB Hospital in Dixon and FHN in Freeport; and the Workforce Investment Board of Boone and Winnebago counties, which administers federal job-training grants.

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GED classes, intro to health care careers together at RVC