Vicksburg Warren School District officials have taken another innovative step in improving education with the Education to Employment program, or E2E, a program designed to help adults improve their education and increase their chances of getting a better job.

The program is a joint effort of the school district, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Mississippi Department of Human Services. The program is open to anyone over the age of 16, who is receiving SNAP benefits though the state of Mississippi and has a child enrolled in VWSD. Applications must be filed through DHS, which makes the final approval. Under the program, the school district has expanded its new career academies to parents during night classes four days a week.

The 15-week program is free, and follows much of the same track as the academy programs at the high schools. The parents presently enrolled are taking a keystone class, which will help identify careers they are interested in. They will then be split into the same three academies as high school students — ACME (Architecture, construction, mechatronics and engineering), CAB (Communications, arts and business) and HHS (Health and human services).

The parents will also have the ability to participate in job shadowing and up to 480 paid internship hours through the Win Job Center.

Lucy Derossette, the VWSD’s Director of Innovations, said by the time the course is complete the goal is for each parent to either be on track to finish their GED or enrolled in Hinds or Alcorn.

With the changing economy and the changes in technology over the past 10 years, more and more adults are returning to school to be able to improve their education and acquire new skills that will enable them to qualify and compete for new and better paying jobs that are becoming available as technology changes.

And the fact the Vicksburg Warren School District is offering an opportunity for the parents of their students to be able to do that at no cost is a major benefit.

“We know it’s easier for parents to parent when they’re not under the financial stresses brought about by poverty or working two or three jobs,” Derossette said “We feel like it is a two generational approach to improving our schools. By improving the parents’ lives, we improve the children’s lives.”