Federal training leads mom to steady job, time for home

Beverly Ann Dobmeier has been a self-employed wallpaper hanger, a receptionist at $4.50 an hour, and a clerk at the same pay. But now she's heading into what she hopes is ``a career,'' with the help of the federal job-training program -- Jobs Training Partnership Act. She has just completed a 10-week training course at Martin Marietta under JTPA funding.

``This has been a very positive experience for me,'' says the divorced mother of a 12-year-old girl. Of her fellow trainees she says: ``We're not kids anymore; we're looking to support ourselves.''

Previously she had completed a year of college, but no specific job training. None was required for the JTPA training, just an aptitude for mechanical and math skills. The program was ``everything to answer a prayer,'' she said here recently during a break in her final days of training.

Now competent as an electro-mechanical assembler, she's just landed a job with Martin Marietta as a missile assembly worker at $4.67 an hour.

``I love it,'' she said. ``The only drawback is getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning.'' Her shift begins at 7 a.m., but the job gives her a steady income for a change as well as afternoons and evenings with her daughter.