Dillard University to offer free job training in hazardous waste management

Beginning inSeptember, Dillard Universitywill offer free job training in hazardous-waste cleanup, green construction, mold remediation, lead abatement and asbestos abatement.

The training initiative, provided by Dillard's Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, receives funding from the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences. It last from Sept. 2 until Nov. 14.

Beverly Wright, the director of theDeep South Center, said that 2014 marks the twentieth year that the job-training program has been available to residents of New Orleans. The program began at Xavier University in 1994, Wright said, and moved to Dillard after Hurricane Katrina.

"Following the 2001 anthrax attacks, we began training people in how to treat mold associated with anthrax," Wright said. "So when Katrina happened four years later, we were able to supply many young men and women trained in the techniques of mold remediation."

Graduates of the program have worked in Jamaica, the West Indies, and throughout the U.S., assisting in cleanup efforts related to the BP oil spill and the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003, Wright said.

Today, the program is available at universities in New York, New Jersey, Houston, Tex., Detroit, Mich., and Savannah, Ga. Dillard University is the only historically black college to offer it.

Candidates must be at least 18 years old, though they need not have a high school diploma or GED. A stipend, bus tokens (if required) and lunch will be provided to participants.

See the rest here:
Dillard University to offer free job training in hazardous waste management