Career success doesn't require degrees, Springdale teachers and officials say

SPRINGDALE -- A college degree isn't the only path to a successful and fulfilling career, business leaders, economists and educators across Northwest Arkansas say.

Seeing opportunities outside a university has become a consistent theme among school districts and chambers of commerce in recent years as the region keeps growing and needing people to work in health care, construction, manufacturing and other fields. Unemployment near 2 percent has led many businesses to recruit skilled workers from other states, train locals on their own or do without.

The latest refrain in the theme came this week with the Springdale Chamber of Commerce's Academy for Career Educators in Springdale, where several state legislators and dozens of teachers spoke about how to get more students interested in so-called middle-skill jobs and how to better prepare those students for the work.

"You can just about pick an industry and there's a shortage of labor," State Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, said Wednesday, the last of the conference's three days. "We have to change our mindset."

[EMAIL UPDATES: Get free breaking news updates and daily newsletters with top headlines delivered to your inbox]

More education tends to lead to higher pay throughout the economy, but a nurse or a welder in Northwest Arkansas can earn $40,000 a year or more with an associate's degree or other training with lower cost than a bachelor's and chances for promotions, Hendren and others pointed out. The conference included a tour of a new Tyson Foods egg incubation center.

Angie Anderson, a family and consumer science teacher at Har-Ber High School, teaches career-minded classes on food safety and clothing management, but she said even she didn't know about the variety of opportunities at companies such as Tyson.

"It's opened my eyes," she said of the academy. "I wanted to make connections with industry so I could find out what I need to implement for my students."

Several groups are trying to build just those kinds of connections around the area. Pea Ridge and Bentonville schools partner with companies for training that earns school credit, for example. The Springdale chamber for two years has brought together high school students and employers at its Workforce Summit. Several high schools send hundreds of students to take Northwest Technical Institute courses as well.

The legislators spoke on some statewide changes in the same direction. Hendren sponsored a bill this year allowing multiple school districts to form regional career training centers individual districts couldn't afford on their own, for example. Bentonville, Decatur, Gentry and Gravette hope to do so, and Bentonville's School Board this week endorsed hiring a development specialist to see if the plan can work.

But the push also needs to change the perception of middle-skill jobs as less worthwhile or interesting than ones requiring higher education, several participants said. Hendren and State Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock, said classes in advanced welding and the like should have the same weight as Advanced Placement courses, earning nods from teachers around the room.

"My goal is that we start with kids in elementary school," showing them the whole spectrum of career options early on, English said.

The push to look outside the standard four-year college route is part of a societal debate over what should come during and after public schooling. Many parents hope or expect their children to go to four-year colleges and get jobs the parents couldn't, said Kim Oliver, a teacher in Har-Ber's teaching academy.

But if college is out of reach for reasons of finances or grades or interest, students and their parents should know they're not doomed to dead-end jobs, she said.

"There's so much more," Oliver said. "There are wonderful opportunities outside of college."

NW News on 06/22/2017