PITA launches Reno training center

The Professional Institute of Technology and Accounting has opened a training facility in Reno at 2700 Mill St., Suite 400.

PITA provides training in accounting and bookkeeping, information technology, Microsoft Office and clerical training, medical front office and graphic design. Several trainers relocated from Las Vegas, and the company seeks to hire up to six full time instructors to maintain its needs over the next few years.

PITA draws students to the facility through its connections with Job Connect, Nevadaworks, JOIN, ProNet and other workforce-related agencies.

"Most of our students come through that avenue, or they come through worker's comp, where they are injured workers and need to re-train in another field," says Sean Clemens, site director for the Reno PITA facility. Clemens' parents, Laurie and Steve, founded the Professional Institute of Technology and Accounting in Las Vegas three-and-a-half years ago. That training facility serves about 150 students on a daily basis.

Programs cost between several hundred dollars for office courses and several thousand dollars for the more intensive IT training. Programs run daily for four hours and vary in length from one week to two months. Fees cover the cost of books, instructor-led training and testing.

Sean Clemens says expansion to northern Nevada was a natural step because PITA already had all the connections in place.

"It was a much easier transition than expanding out of state," he says. "We had counselors on the state and federal side (in Las Vegas) that had worked with counterparts in the north that said there was need for a training center here specific to a career-style student."

The Clemens family worked with Stan Thomas at the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada to ease their transition northward. David Woods of the commercial brokerage firm CBRE assisted the company with site selection.

PITA currently employs eight to 10 employees, and within five years could employ between 12 to 20 employees within the next five to 10 years depending on growth in student population.