Walmart tests store
manager fast track
Walmart Inc. is testing a program this summer that will put recent college graduates and students who are close to graduation on a fast track to becoming store managers, whose annual pay averages $210,000.
Walmart employees who meet those criteria are also eligible for the program, called College2Career.
The first session, which starts in June, is already full, a Walmart spokesman said. But he said applications for future sessions, which start in January and next summer, are available at careers.walmart.com.
Participants in College2Career get classroom training, hands-on experience and one-on-one mentoring with company leaders. At the end of the program, Walmart said, top performers will be offered the newly created management job of emerging coach, with a starting salary of at least $65,000 a year.
College students, who must be within 12 months of graduation when they start the program, can begin the emerging coach job after graduation. Recent graduates can start right away.
College2Career aims to move the emerging coaches into store manager jobs within two years, the company said in a news release. The coaches will take part in a 12-week Walmart Academy training program.
-- Serenah McKay
Agency sets seminar
for business owners
The U.S. Small Business Administration is offering a free seminar Thursday to small business
owners in 10 counties seeking to improve operations or grow their companies. The session begins at 10 a.m. at the University of Arkansas -- Cossatot in De Queen.
Resources and programming are available to small businesses in Polk, Howard, Sevier, Pike, Montgomery, Garland, Hot Spring, Clark, Grant and Dallas counties.
The event will include an overview of SBA programs that offer initiatives related to business counseling, federal contracting, access to capital, the agency's surety bond guarantee program, exporting assistance and leadership initiatives. SBA's free services also include small business consulting, contracting and technical assistance.
The university is at 183 College Drive, and the session will be held in the Weyerhaeuser Room in the school's skilled trades building. More information is available at sba.gov/ar.
-- Andrew Moreau
Arkansas Index up 6.38 pts.
as investors snap up deals
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state closed Monday at 718.59, up 6.38.
"Stocks rallied on Monday as investors snapped up beaten-down shares such as banks after the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched eight straight losing weeks," said Chris Harkins, managing director at Raymond James & Associates.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.