Ernesto Bejarano

The mission of the Center for Employment Training (CET), an economic and community Development Corporation is to promote human development and education by providing people with marketable skills training and supportive services that contribute to self-sufficiency. Santa Clara County's immigrant population exceeds 600,000 people, many of whom have not completed a high school education. In this demographic, a lack of literacy and employment skills severely limits cultural integration, employment opportunities, and economic self-sufficiency. The CET Immigration and Citizenship Program has effectively assessed and addressed the needs of this often overlooked population. It has provided citizenship education to more than 60,000 legal immigrants from numerous sites for more than fifteen years and continues to be a highly regarded community resource for citizenship and literacy education. The program's free citizenship, ESL/EL Civics, and Spanish literacy classes address the lack of education in a population often relegated to the margins in employment and the community. By extension, they address a larger community need for skilled workers, active parents, and a population that prizes education and economic self-sufficiency.