Two adult students at Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES are proving that it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

Aiden Tardif and Wakeson Zidor enrolled in the Auto Body Technology program, one of 19 Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs offered at BOCES. Their enrollment was made possible through the CTE for Adults program, which provides adults with the career training and skills needed to be productive employees.

“I learned about this opportunity from my family, and the more I thought about it, the more I knew I’d like it,” said Tardif. “In this program, I’m learning a skill I can use for the rest of my life.”

Zidor said he decided to join the program because of his love of cars and noted auto body repair as a growing field to enter.

“It’s a good career path and a good program. There’s always a lot of opportunities out there in the auto body industry,” he said.

Tardif said he would recommend CTE for Adults for anyone who is interested in learning a skill and furthering their careers.

“Find out which program you’d enjoy because you’ll always be better at something you enjoy,” he said. “We get a lot of great training, and we get to network with the industry. We have technical schools visiting, which is a good way to learn more about opportunities after the program is complete.”

Thanks to one of those visits from the Universal Technical Institute (UTI), Tardif will be attending UTI in Houston, Texas this fall to study collision repair.

“I would definitely say attending this CTE program helped me get into UTI,” Tardif said.

Zidor said he plans to re-enter the workforce once he completes his CTE program and acknowledged that he hopes to pursue auto body repair in the future.

To learn more about career training opportunities for adults, visit cayboces.org/adulted.