{"id":132195,"date":"2020-12-20T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-20T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=132195"},"modified":"2025-05-22T18:14:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T04:14:37","slug":"free-courses-oahu-back-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/12\/20\/free-courses-oahu-back-to-work\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 2,000 free courses provided through O\u02bbahu Back to Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_22884\"  width=\"676\" height=\"676\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"676\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C40ABvKn3yQ?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"More than 2,000 free courses provided through O\u02bbahu Back to Work\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>By the end of December 2020, the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> will have exceeded its goal of delivering 2,000 free courses to unemployed residents through the <a href=\"https:\/\/oahubacktowork.com\/\"><span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> Back to Work<\/a> program. The short-term employment training program funded by CARES Act funds from the City and County of Honolulu <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/09\/28\/oahu-back-to-work\/\">started in early October<\/a> with more than 70 courses offered through seven <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges and <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Outreach College. Program participants are grateful for the opportunity.<\/p>\n<h2>Light of hope<\/h2>\n<div style=\"float:right;clear:right;margin:0 0 0 15px;\"><figure id=\"attachment_132403\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-132403\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-shimada-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Shimada\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-132403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-shimada-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-shimada-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-shimada.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-132403\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sara Shimada<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<div style=\"float:right;clear:right;margin:0 0 0 15px;\"><figure id=\"attachment_132400\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-132400\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-lee-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Lee\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-132400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-lee-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-lee-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-lee.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-132400\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brian Lee<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<p><strong>Sara Shimada<\/strong>, 32, and <strong>Brian Lee<\/strong>, 43 enrolled in an A+ Computer Hardware and Software course offered through the <a href=\"https:\/\/pcatt.org\/\">Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training<\/a> at Honolulu Community College.<\/p>\n<p>Shimada, who worked in the cosmetology and business industries, had been furloughed for quite some time when she heard about <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> Back to Work.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;<span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> Back to Work was kind of like a light of hope in the darkness because, like I said for me, I am a workaholic so even being out of work for a little while was unnerving,&rdquo; Shimada said.<\/p>\n<p>She has since found part-time employment at a cosmetics company, but believes her new computer training will be the foundation for a more stable future with more options.<\/p>\n<p>Lee is now a stay-at-home dad to two young daughters. He owns a business heavily reliant on the visitor industry, and his income from it dropped to zero after the pandemic hit.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If there\u2019s no income then you have to get some kind of education. You just can\u2019t sit there,&rdquo; Lee said.<\/p>\n<p>He has already taken two courses through <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> Back to Work and plans to take two more in pursuit of a cybersecurity certificate.<\/p>\n<h2>Career change<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_132402\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-132402\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-borunda-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Borunda\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-132402\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-borunda-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-borunda-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-borunda.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-132402\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alejandra &ldquo;Alex&rdquo; Borunda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When COVID-19 hit, <strong>Alejandra &ldquo;Alex&rdquo; Borunda<\/strong>, had her hours drastically cut back at a company reliant on the visitor industry. A coworker who had signed up for <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> Back to Work encouraged her to do the same. After being in sales for eight years, the 31-year-old was ready for a career change and jumped at the chance to take a free pharmacy technician class.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Getting back into school does take a lot of money,&rdquo; Borunda said. &ldquo;So that fact that for students it was taken care of was something that was shocking and I was really grateful.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>She envisions herself in some kind of medical helping career in the future.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The fact that this was offered at this time where we are currently in the world, it\u2019s just very, very cool, very lucky.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Shimada added, &ldquo;There\u02bbs not much I can say other than thank you to everyone because it\u2019s unbelievable that all of that was given to us for free.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/uhcc.hawaii.edu\/kulia\/\">Get more information about available <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Community College scholarships.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-132401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/system-oahu-back-to-work-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> residents receive free job skills training from the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,12],"tags":[1411,1416,71,947,56],"class_list":["post-132195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-video","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-uh-helps","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-system","tag-video-2","entry","no-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132195"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216570,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132195\/revisions\/216570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}