About Center for Employment Training

CET’s purpose is to create educational and employment opportunities for our trainees so that they achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency. In an atmosphere of mutual respect and partnership, we assist individuals with overcoming their barriers and reaching their goals and objectives.

We achieve this by providing a professional environment that addresses the need for support services, skill training, and career development.

The Center for Employment Training is designed to serve anyone who wants real training with life changing results. Consequently, CET does not have entry requirements unlike most colleges, universities, or other training institutions. Each trainee is treated as an individual with unique aspirations, needs and abilities. Training is short-term and intensive—the goal is to get trainees a job as quickly as they are qualified.

Trainees can expect openness from our staff. Throughout their training, trainees will receive guidance, counseling and support. Trainees will receive periodic progress reviews to let them know how they are doing, and can receive assistance with resources to assist with personal and family issues. CET hosts a caring staff who understands the trainees’ needs and who will work hard to help them succeed.

In the 1960’s, Reverend Bill Neuroth, assistant pastor at Corpus Christi Church, saw the need for an agency to meet the needs of the economically disadvantaged people who moved into the Newport, KY area. In 1966, Reverend Neuroth responded to that need by founding Brighton Street Center. In 1968, Robert Brewster began as a volunteer at the Center and became its director in 1969. In August, 1971, Brighton Street Center acquired new quarters, away from Brighton Street, changing its name to Brighton Center, Inc.

Brighton Center is a private, non-profit, community based organization. Over the last 50 years we have offered employment-training programs to youth and adults. In an effort to continually improve, Brighton Center conducted research and spoke with staff, area employers and community residents. This search for information led us to the Center for Employment Training (CET), a nationally recognized employment-training program based in San Jose, California.

The original Center for Employment Training, in San Jose, California, offers trainees a comprehensive skill training and human development program. It provides trainees with a variety of services including instruction in English and Math, basic skills improvement, the opportunity to get a GED, resource advising and other support services. The goal is to graduate trainees with marketable skills and a permanent, unsubsidized job that leads to their economic self-sufficiency. In May 1996, Brighton Center was awarded replication assistance by the Department of Labor to start the Center for Employment Training in Northern Kentucky. Brighton Center’s CET program opened on April 14, 1997, and in February 2001, CET received accreditation by the Council on Occupational Education.

CET offers a competency-based employment training program which emphasizes skills most needed in the workplace. A trainee moves through the curriculum at his or her own pace, moving on to a new concept when ready. Over sixty percent of training is hands-on, using equipment similar to that used in the workplace.

CET promotes good work habits through simulation of a business environment. We require consistent attendance, and trainees sign in and out to simulate workplace attendance procedures. Tardiness and absenteeism are addressed as they occur, in recognition of the importance of punctuality and good attendance on the job.

CET’s skill divisions prepare trainees for occupations that are in demand in the local labor market. The training has been designed in close cooperation with local employers to ensure that CET graduates will be in demand in the workforce. Because job conditions change quickly, CET continually checks job requirements and updates curricula and classroom equipment to meet industry needs. Although class size varies due to CET’s open-entry/open-exit design, CET maintains a trainee-to-instructor ratio of twenty-to-one.

Upon entry into the CET program, each applicant starts an orientation period during which time the applicant can investigate each skill area to determine the best fit. The applicant can change his or her skill area of interest during the orientation period. He or she will be officially enrolled into the skill area of choice once the orientation period has been successfully completed.