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Shenandoah Valley starts program to provide skilled
manufacturing workers
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Virginia Business
November
2004
Advances
in manufacturing automation have driven the need for
a highly skilled work force in the central Shenandoah
Valley region, where manufacturing is the largest employment
sector. Nearly one out of four jobs in the region —
23.5 percent — is in manufacturing, according
to the Virginia Employment Commission. That figure represents
more than 43,000 full-time employees. In today’s
highly automated environment, manufacturers need technically
skilled workers who understand integrated systems. So
the region launched a program to meet the needs of local
businesses.
“The idea of a manufacturing work force development
program was brought to me by several members of local
industry,” says Jane Fuller, assistant director
of work force services and continuing education at Blue
Ridge Community College. “The real question was
— could we pull this together? We had been running
a summer program for children called Learning Can Be
Fun that introduced kids to robotics, computers and
engineering. This new program is a natural extension
of that, keeping kids interested in engineering through
high school and beyond.”
Recent economic announcements support the need for work
force development:
• Coors Brewing Co, based in Golden, Colo., plans
to build its third U.S. brewery at Elkton in Rockingham
County, investing $160 million to $190 million during
the next three years.
• Hershey Chocolate of Virginia will invest $48
million and create 110 jobs at Hershey’s Stuarts
Draft manufacturing facility in Augusta County.
• Morningstar Foods, a subsidiary of Dean Foods,
will invest $57 million in the Mt. Crawford dairy processing
facility in Rockingham. The expansion will include increased
distribution capacity and a state-of-the-art soy processing,
storage and distribution facility.
To meet the demand for skilled workers, a consortium
of five regional work force training organizations (see
box) joined together to create a comprehensive approach
to high performance manufacturing career development.
The consortium, assisted by a $2.4 million grant from
the Department of Labor, focused on three key employment
areas — health care, information technology and
advanced manufacturing. The grant played a key role
in getting the local business community involved in
designing a program to meet the manufacturers’
needs. The initiative has also been used as an economic
development incentive for prospective employers looking
to locate in the Valley.
“Right now we’re working with a manufacturer
in Waynesboro who is looking to expand,” says
Sharon Johnson, project director for the Workforce Investment
Board. “We are competing with North Carolina [as
a possible alternative expansion site] and overseas.
Our board is putting together a customized training
package as an additional incentive for them to choose
Virginia.”
The program embraces the concept of lifelong learning,
beginning in elementary school and ending with a baccalaureate
degree, an associate’s degree or a certificate
in manufacturing career development. The program is
all-inclusive and piques the interest of young school
children while also meeting the retraining needs of
workers. The program also can be customized to allow
adult learners to direct their own career path with
built-in flexibility, letting participants exit and
re-enter the career lattice as needed.
Participants can start in elementary school with Learning
Can Be Fun — a program for second through eighth
graders covering robotics, computer design, introduction
to machining and CNC programming. This is followed by
the Career College in middle school, covering design,
experimentation and Lego robotics. Finally, the Learning
Can Be Fun Grad Program offers studies for high school
juniors and seniors emphasizing robotics, advanced manufacturing
and systems courses.
Upon graduation from high school or as an adult in a
manufacturing occupation, participants may enroll in
a 42-week, seven-module High Performance Manufacturing
(HPM) Certification Program. By December, 47 employees
from 20 area companies will have completed the program.
These participants will graduate with an industry certification
of Certified Manufacturing Technologist and will have
six credits toward an associate’s degree in High
Performance Manufacturing. The emphasis of the new HPM
degree is on electronic and mechanical skills, team-based
decision making and communications skills. The degree
program was developed with input from the regional Manufacturing
Advisory Council and modeled after a successful customized
program developed for Merck & Co. Graduates of the
HPM program can continue on to complete a baccalaureate
degree in manufacturing or engineering through a distance-learning
program with Old Dominion University that is given through
Blue Ridge Community College. A similar agreement is
currently being explored with James Madison University.
The first certification class graduated in March 2004,
with a second group earning certification last August,
for a total of 36 graduates. Blue Ridge Community College
planned to start a group of about 15 students this fall.
Response was greater than anticipated, and the college
has expanded the original class to two classes of about
23 students each. There are also about 560 manufacturing
firms in the Shenandoah Valley eagerly awaiting their
graduation.
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