Free IT training for unemployed

Jeff Foster saw the writing on the wall a year ago when he was laid off as a project manager for a construction company in North Carolina.

Foster was earning $85,000 a year, and as the construction industry was fading, his company saw fewer jobs. The small company, which Foster had joined only six months earlier for better pay, had essentially put all of its eggs into one basket by relying on a grocery chain for work.

But for Foster, 46, the layoff has allowed him to get training in a field he had been interested in for years -- information technology, or IT.

He now gets free training through the Comp TIA Education Foundation, which provides free IT training and certification to people in need, such as dislocated workers who have lost their jobs, U.S. military veterans and people with disabilities.