Industries across Arkansas are being more aggressive in encouraging the state's community colleges and career-education centers to provide the training and skills the next generation of employees need to succeed in the workplace.
That campaign has motivated the schools' leadership and instructors to better align their job-training programs to meet the specific needs of employers so that students are ready to step into jobs immediately upon graduation.
It's an unprecedented approach to workforce development in Arkansas that economic development officials and business leaders hope will improve job training, lead to well-paying careers for Arkansans and build stable economies both locally and statewide.
This new approach is evident at the Arkansas Tech Career Center in Ozark, where 72 high school students are training to work on manufacturing lines at Rockline Industries. Every Friday, Rockline employees go to the school to direct specific training that will prepare students to produce baby wipes at the company's Russellville plant. About 20 students from the program will be hired by Rockline and continue to complete their degrees at Arkansas Tech.
It's a first-of-its-kind approach for Arkansas Tech, according to Pat Edmunds, director of the career-training center.
"This is our first opportunity to go this in-depth," said Edmunds, who has run the school's career-training center for a decade. "This is not commonplace. We've done many things with our industry partners but never to this extent."
Edmunds believes the Rockline initiative can be expanded to other industries and other areas of the state. "Education has to partner with industry, especially to keep manufacturing jobs in our state," she said. "We're kind of ahead on this and I hope we identify any obstacles so that it can be a smooth transition to other areas and industries."
For Rockline, the training program creates a pipeline of workers who can fill immediate production needs and learn more about building a career with the company, which has three production facilities in Arkansas.
Students hired from the Arkansas Tech program will work on a new production line beginning Oct. 28, said Mark Clarke, general manager of the Russellville plant.
The collaborative training with Arkansas Tech is a comprehensive effort to introduce students to potential careers at Rockline. "This has really evolved into a workforce development program as opposed to just providing part-time jobs for students," Clarke said. "We're not just bringing in kids and having them pack baby wipes in a box. We're teaching them how to be an [equipment] operator and learn some manufacturing skills."
Even more, Clarke said, the program exposes students to other areas in Rockline such as accounting, human resources, quality control and engineering.
"We believe that the more people we can get in our plant to see what we do, they're going to be excited about developing a career in manufacturing," he added.
Public-private partnerships, like the one between Rockline and Arkansas Tech, have been building momentum for the past five years and the effort is at a critical stage, according to Randy Zook, president and CEO of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.
"The demand for skilled employees is much greater and industry has turned the volume up on schools," Zook said. "Businesses are being more outspoken about the training needs that are not being met, and that's resonating with the community college leadership They're hearing the message from industry and local businesses, and most of them are being very responsive."
Every major job sector -- manufacturing, health care, construction, transportation, retail, logistics -- is scrambling to find skilled workers ready to step into jobs immediately. Officials with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission estimate there are at least 11,500 open manufacturing jobs in Arkansas, up from 10,000 just 18 months ago.
Across Arkansas, industry executives, economic-development officials and educators are collaborating to build innovative programs that align job training with the specific needs of industries.
"Industries are recognizing they have to be more involved in education and training so that you get a workforce that's ready to go from age 18," said Rodney Ellis, technical education liaison for Tyson Foods. "Educators are coming along and starting to see the needs out there and they're acting to get the right training programs implemented."
Tyson Foods has invested about $4.2 million in training efforts across Arkansas, mostly in communities near where the company has processing operations. Tyson has 22 plants in Arkansas. "We target workforce development so that when kids turn 18, they can come in as an intern and turn into a long-term employee," Ellis said.
The Career and Technical Services program affiliated with Clarksville High School is another example of the work being done in Arkansas.
When the city's new high school was built, designers included an 11,000-square-foot building that is primarily dedicated to workforce training, though it also has standard classroom areas. At the start of the current semester, about 60 students were enrolled in a new industrial maintenance program that was supported with a $750,000 contribution from Tyson Foods. Students spend three periods a day focused on job training.
"Manufacturers in the region have been telling us that there are a lot of jobs in this area and they don't have the candidates they need to fill them," said David Hopkins, superintendent of Clarksville schools.
"You can make a lot of money and have a very rewarding career in technical fields," he said. "We're trying to show our kids what those opportunities are here in the area."
Tyson Foods, Ellis said, contributed to the Clarksville effort to build a steady stream of workers to meet current and future needs. "We form partnerships like this to basically create a talent pipeline," he said. "We're creating opportunities for folks to stay and thrive in their local communities."
In Blytheville, Arkansas Northeastern College has a unique partnership with a German steel manufacturer to provide advanced skills training to steel-workers in North America, the only training satellite the company has established outside Germany. The Arkansas Steelmaking Academy offers 40 hours of training on a specific topic -- subject matter is adjusted based on the needs of a business -- to steel industry workers from the United States and Canada.
"It's designed so that people from around the country can come in for one week and then get back on the job," said James Shemwell, president of the college. "It's very intensive training on a specific topic. They can then take that knowledge back home and put it to work."
In addition, the steel academy this semester began providing online training for its steel tech program. "People living anywhere in Arkansas can now get a degree from the program," Shemwell said, noting that graduates can enter the workforce and earn an annual salary of $93,000.
Arkansas Northeastern also has formed a workforce development consortium with community colleges to provide job training in seven counties. In September, the group was awarded $2.3 million through the Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities federal initiative.
Industry-specific training in the truck-driving and construction industries will be provided along with education to teach basic employability skills like how to get a job and keep one and how to earn credentials that allow workers to advance in their careers.
The program also will survey the market so the schools can train for jobs that develop quickly. "If we know who's hiring in the next 60 days, we can gear training toward that company," Shemwell said. "We try to stay nimble enough to meet needs as they arise."
Industry-led training programs abound in Arkansas. Entergy Arkansas stepped up to contribute $50,000 for a lineman training program at Pulaski Technical College. Utilities from across the state are contributing to the 17-week training program, according to Bentley Wallace, dean of the school for professional and technical studies at Pulaski Tech.
Pulaski Tech had about 100 applicants and only 15 were accepted into the program. "It's a real competitive proving ground to see if you have what it takes to be a lineman," Wallace said. "Entergy came to us and said the industry was at a crisis point in finding talent to fill those jobs and they wanted to build a program to find workers."
The initiative exemplifies how community colleges are allowing industry executives to guide curriculum.
"We're not the subject matter experts on things like this -- they are," Wallace said. "We sit back and let them tell us what the curriculum needs to be and we deliver that. We are responsive to those employer needs."
There are significant workforce development efforts underway that extend beyond training programs for workers. The Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce has begun compiling a supply-and-demand analysis for various industries in central Arkansas. The data helps align labor supply and industry demand within key sectors.
"The data analytics that we now use -- for an existing company, expanding companies and new companies looking to locate in this area -- are far more sophisticated than they were even five years ago," said Jay Chesshir, president and chief executive officer of the Little Rock chamber.
The chamber has compiled analyses for the health-care, information-technology and financial-services industries. More are underway, including a dive into manufacturing, construction and energy.
Workforce development, according to Edmunds of Arkansas Tech, is more than providing training to fill jobs that are open now. "This is about educating students and parents alike so they know there are options out there to make a great living in the state of Arkansas in skilled and technical jobs," she said.
SundayMonday Business on 10/13/2019