
Ajahnae Padgett has been searching for work for two years. The 33-year-old single mother from Atlanta earned an EKG certification in 2023 through a Clayton County program, but despite her credentials, employment has remained elusive.
“I’m a single parent. I’ve had some setbacks, and I think this is a great community event that will help people like me who are hungry for the next level, but just need opportunity,” Padgett said Saturday as she toured the newly opened the Workforce Career Center (WCC) in West Midtown on a cloudy Saturday afternoon.
Padgett’s story illustrates exactly why Atlanta’s newest workforce career center exists. The Workforce Career Center at 1073 Huff Rd. N.W. opened its doors with a promise that resonates deeply in today’s economic climate: providing real skills for real jobs, without the burden of traditional college debt, and more importantly, ensuring students have the support systems needed to transition successfully into employment.

‘God said build it, and they will come’
Marion Skinner, the visionary behind the Atlanta campus, stood among the crowd of supporters and prospective students like Padgett with evident pride. “God said build it, and they will come,” Skinner reflected, watching as community members toured the newly opened facility. “I appreciate the support of the community behind me. I’m just here to train and upskill all these individuals.”
The training center is a comprehensive approach to workforce development that addresses Atlanta’s critical skills gap while providing accessible career pathways for underserved communities. For people like Padgett, who already have certifications but lack the connections and support to find work, the center offers something different: direct partnerships with employers.

‘Education needs to evolve’
What sets the Atlanta Workforce Career Center apart from the program where Padgett earned her unused certification is its network of industry partnerships that create direct pathways from classroom to career.
Shanetha Culbertson, workforce development manager for Grady Health System, emphasized the importance of these connections. With 18 months in her current role and 20 years in workforce development, Culbertson sees the partnership as crucial for building a health care pipeline. “WCC has health care programming, and they would like to partner with us to create a pathway for their students who complete training to have a pathway into Grady Hospital,” she explained.
For someone like Padgett, who earned her EKG certification through a much smaller Clayton County program with only six to eight students and no employer partnerships, this direct connection to Grady represents exactly what was missing from her previous training experience.
Microsoft’s involvement brings a technology component to the training programs. Darrell Booker, Microsoft’s tech community acceleration lead, highlighted their “train the trainer” model. “We work with Marion and the workforce team by training some of their trainers to ensure that they can deliver not only digital literacy training, but also some of the more skilled things, such as AI,” Booker said. “When we think about getting and obtaining jobs, one of the fastest ways right now is to obtain certifications.”
The Microsoft partnership, which began development eight to 10 months ago, builds on successful workforce programs the team previously implemented in Texas. For Booker, the Atlanta expansion represents a natural evolution: “Education needs to evolve, and it needs to change, and it needs to meet with the times. It needs to focus on the actual jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past.”
‘I’m here exploring my options’
Padgett is considering both transportation and health care certification options, determined not to let her previous setbacks define her future. Her EKG certification expires soon, but rather than seeing this as another obstacle, she views the Workforce Career Center as a chance to start fresh with better support.
In May 2025, The U.S Bureau of Labor statistics posted that Georgia has approximately 333,000 job openings with a job‑openings rate of 6.3%, significantly higher than the national average of 4.6%. While that may seem like a positive indicator, it actually reflects a growing gap between available jobs and a workforce equipped with the skills to fill them, a gap the Workforce Career Center was built to address.
“I’m here exploring my options,” she said, watching other prospective students tour the facility. The difference between this center and her previous training experience is immediately apparent, not just in the state-of-the-art equipment, but in the visible connections to major Atlanta employers.
‘When you come in, you want to be here. You want to learn’
The facility itself reflects the center’s commitment to student success. The immersive learning environment features modern equipment, from a fully equipped commercial kitchen to computer labs loaded with the latest technology. The design philosophy prioritizes creating a space where students want to be, rather than feeling obligated to attend.
“They’ve created something that’s very immersive to where, when you come in, you want to be here. You want to learn,” Booker observed. “This is the type of environment that people are really going to excel and gain those needed skills and move forward.”
The contrast with traditional workforce programs is intentional. Rather than feeling like a last resort for people who couldn’t succeed elsewhere, the center aims to be a destination of choice for people seeking practical, high-value skills.
A whole new way of life
By focusing on recession-proof industries and maintaining a zero-debt model, the center offers a practical alternative to traditional higher education paths.
For Atlanta residents like Padgett, ready to “provide better for their family,” as Skinner puts it, the Workforce Career Center offers more than training, it offers a pathway to a new way of life, complete with the support systems that make the difference between earning a certificate and building a career.
For more information about programs and enrollment, visit www.workforcecareers.com.