The sudden end to Carrie Blair’s 24-year career seemed like a nightmare to her, but everything turned out like a dream thanks to the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Dislocated Worker Program.

Most people who work for a single employer for more than two decades feel fairly secure and look forward to their approaching retirement. Carrie certainly did. She had settled comfortably into her job as a bookkeeper and office specialist at a Whitesburg-based coal, water, and soil-testing company.

That all changed in December 2001. The company downsized its operations, and Carrie was a victim of that cut. Comfort and a secure future disappeared, replaced by the daunting prospect of restarting a career at age 43.

“Initially you’re scared of that kind of a change,” Carrie says. “But I’m pretty adaptable and flexible, so I just kind of jumped into gear because I knew I had to do something.”

Three years later, Carrie now considers the layoff a blessing in disguise. She had an associate’s degree, so she seized the opportunity to go back to college and finish the two years required to complete a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Upgrading her degree opened the door for an accounting job with the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration.

The seeds of Carrie’s recovery were planted just days after her layoff when she visited to the Kentucky Office for Employment and Training (OET) in Whitesburg. An OET representative told Carrie the WIA Dislocated Worker Program could help her toward a new job or career.

Carrie says the choice was simple. “Getting a four-year degree had long been one of my goals in life,” she says.

With that decision made, Carrie visited the Whitesburg offices of the L.K.L.P. Community Action Council to learn how the WIA could help her achieve her goal. WIA is administered throughout eastern Kentucky by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP) and provided locally through L.K.L.P.

WIA Career Adviser Irene Turner says she could sense Carrie meant business upon their first meeting.

“We often work with a lot of these 18- and 19-year-olds just starting their careers, and they tell us that they don’t know what they really want to do,” Irene says. “But Carrie knew what she wanted and went for it right away.”

However, sometimes knowing what you want to do and being able to afford to do it are two different things, Carrie says. The WIA Dislocated Worker Program quickly stepped in and erased her financial barriers to becoming a college student again.

The program would fully cover her tuition and textbook costs, and provide funding for college-related transportation and meals. With that support in place, Carrie enrolled in classes at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise in January of 2002 to begin her final two years of work toward her bachelor’s degree.

The Dislocated Worker Program support provided made it possible for Carrie to enroll as a full-time student without having to work part-time to make ends meet. And Carrie found contending with her daily 80-mile, round-trip commute to classes was easier because the program was covering her fuel costs.

“I was driving from Whitesburg to Wise and back every day, and I was a full-time student and not working,” Carrie says. “One of the greatest benefits of the WIA was the financial support it gave me that allowed me to concentrate fully on my studies rather than having to also keep working.”

That cushion turned out to be more important than she had imagined. Carrie admits that her decades of experience in her chosen field did little to prepare her for the rigors of finishing her degree work. For starters, she wrote a whopping 13 term papers in her first semester, in addition to completing five projects and a presentation.

“Plus, in my Spanish class, my teacher spoke nothing but Spanish the whole time,” she says with a laugh. “Starting my classes was a bit overwhelming—especially in the accounting program—because the homework was just continuous. There are a lot of rules and guidelines you have to learn that apply to a variety of accounting jobs, and it’s all very detailed and complex.”

Her life experience, however, helped her considerably.

“I think at my ‘nontraditional’ age, you take college a lot more seriously and you focus on it a lot more than many typical college-age students do,” she says.

Carrie’s focus and determination paid off in May 2004 when she graduated and immediately began sending resumes to potential employers. Job leads in the region were few, so she had no choice but to broaden her search.

On a whim, she applied with the State of Tennessee. Soon she was contacted and asked to take a test for general accounting skills, which she passed. Carrie says she was surprised when she then received responses for not just one job opportunity, but two. Carrie decided to interview for each of the jobs, both of which would be based in Nashville.

“That was the first time my husband and I had been to Nashville,” Carrie says. “We were talking about the possibility of having to relocate if either one of those jobs worked out.”

They soon had to make that decision. The state’s Department of Finance and Administration made Carrie an offer she could not turn down, and she accepted the job and moved to Nashville. The WIA was even able assist Carrie and her husband with funds to aid in their relocation.

Only three months after her graduation, Carrie settled into her new job. She works in a group that runs the accounting system that tracks and controls all of the state government’s accounting and financial information and transactions.

Had Carrie been told three years ago that things would go as smoothly as they have since her layoff, she might not have believed it. She is a believer now, both in herself and the Dislocated Worker Program.

As a WIA career adviser, Irene could not be happier to see Carrie succeed with the program’s help.

“Sometimes when people have to start over late in their careers, they think they’ll not get what they want, but Carrie never did fall victim to that attitude,” Irene says. “I think it’s never too late to follow your dreams, and the WIA helps make those dreams come true.”

Carrie agrees.

“I was able to complete one of my goals in life by earning my four-year degree, and based on that degree I should be able to remain self-supporting the rest of my life,” Carrie says. “The WIA definitely has impacted my life.”