Pacoima : New Skills Center Dedication Today

The Pacoima Skills Center has moved from its previous location in an industrial area on Louvre Street to new quarters on bustling Van Nuys Boulevard.

The facility’s new digs will be dedicated today at a ceremony to be attended by City Councilman Richard Alarcon and others.

The 30-year-old center, part of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s division of adult and career education, provides job placement services and vocational training to several hundred adults each week, said Jamille Kenion, coordinator of the center’s GAIN (Greater Avenues to Independence) program.

Kenion said the center opened at its new location at 13545-B Van Nuys Blvd. on Oct. 11. Two classes--machine shop and welding--are still being conducted at the old location on Louvre Street.

Officials had sought a new location because Louvre Street was out of the way and difficult to access.

“We moved to become more accessible to the community,” Kenion said. “We were kind of tucked away before and not very accessible to public transportation. Now we have more potential to grow and may be able to begin offering additional programs.”

Currently, the center’s course offerings include business education, electronics, VCR repair, cable television installation and GED and high school diploma classes. The most popular courses are medical administration, computer literacy and word processing, Kenion said.

The dedication will begin at 9 a.m. and will include a light lunch and tours of the new building, located across the street from the Pacoima Branch Library and Pacoima Post Office.

For more information, call the center at (818) 896-9558.