KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
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Ares CDL Institute and Kansas City Kansas Community College have joined forces to allow students to enroll in Ares’ six-week CDL training courses and earn a CDL license.
KSHB 41’s Rachel Henderson visited the institution in December, where she spoke with the founder and president, Harold Fears.
“When you get approved by secondary education and then have a university or a college on top of that say, ‘Yes, we think your program is great, we think your program is worthy, we think your program will help the community,’ it gives you a good feeling,"' Fears said.
The 180-hour training program includes a mix of classroom instruction, hands-on driving, mentorship and job placement assistance.
Ares has supported veterans, people looking to change careers and formerly incarcerated people.
The new collaboration does not offer college credit, but students who enroll have access to financial aid and support resources meant to make the course more affordable.
“You come out in six weeks, within a year, year-and-a-half, you’re making $120,000, 130,000, with no student loan debt,” Fears said.
Fears said the partnership also aims to address the current truck driver shortage. The shortage has reached over 80,000 vacancies nationwide.
“That 'C' in community is a big C,” said Dr. Fabiola Riobé, the vice president of Educational Innovation and Global Programming at KCKCC.
Riobé said Fears approached her with the idea of collaborating with such intention it was hard to resist the opportunity.
Plus, KCKCC is all about unique, non-traditional partnerships, she said.
“It’s meeting our partners and our community where they are, figuring out what’s happening in different spaces and leveraging the college as a resource for the entire community in being collaborative,” Riobé said. “There are many students that are looking for programs that are very specific in nature, short-term and offer opportunity for economic transformation.”
Graduates of the program can expect starting salaries between $50,000 to $70,000, with many moving on to launch their own logistics businesses or become owner-operators, Fears said.
That was a large motivation for Emmanuel Jordan II, 22, who is in his third week of the program.
“I'm actually doing this instead of school, currently,” Jordan said.
Despite life’s twists and turns, coupled with his "non-traditional" path, Jordan said the mix of support and stability he’s gotten at Ares is leading to a path of success.
“These are the foundational years of my life, so I'm looking to build something of myself," Jordan said. "So I feel like this is going to open up that doorway to set myself up for the future.”
As far as Fears is concerned, the opportunity to expand and benefit the KCK community is priceless and aligns perfectly with his mission.
“This is history,” Fears said. “I don't see any reason not to do it.”
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