For 14 years, Greg Seals spent his days in the coal mines. He worked hard, day in and day out, to support his wife and four children. But when Blackjewel, a coal mining company with operations around the country, filed for bankruptcy and ultimately laid off…
Are you an analytic thinker who likes solving problems and troubleshooting hardware or network issues? Do you speak techie? But then are you able to pivot and speak non-techie to technologically-challenged parents? If any of these questions resonate with you, the IT industry may be a…
A new year means new goals for 2020. While exciting, goal setting often brings feelings of anxiety. We asked our experts. FastForward Career Coaches across Virginia share their top tips to set – and achieve – career and training goals. Start small. Going back to school…
When Matt Newman stands in front of a room of high schoolers to talk about life after high school, he likes to share the story behind his Mountain Empire Community College ID cards. That’s right. Cards, plural. The path to where he is today, a FastForward…
Up until a few years ago, Allen Miller’s only experience with asphalt was driving and shooting hoops on it. He didn’t think about the process behind combining a semi-solid form of petroleum with aggregate particles through a highly controlled mixing process. He didn’t pay attention to…
Moving into a new year is like hitting the reset button. It’s a nice time to pause and reflect on the previous year and see what worked and what didn’t. And for some of us, what didn’t work may be our careers. While our primary goal…
Have you ever been told, “You’re a people person?” Are you able to spark up a conversation with almost anyone you meet? Then a career in the Business and Customer Service industry may be a good fit for you. Or maybe you like to be behind…
Going through workforce training doesn’t have to be complicated. A little planning and organization can go a long way. Before you reach out to your local FastForward Career Coach, here are three things you can do to make things run as smoothly as possible. Do some…
If you have a passion for helping others, a knack for biology, enjoy working with your hands and want to have a job where you are making a difference in people’s lives, the healthcare industry might be for you, and timing couldn’t be better. Healthcare is…
When we say that welding and manufacturing is the foundation, or the backbone to our daily lives, we mean that both literally and figuratively. Almost everything we interact with in our daily lives has at one point met the hands of a welder or manufacturer. From…