Training Agenda: Educate, Motivate
Southern Ohio fields a number of educational and training programs to deliver the workers industry needs.
Among these are Shawnee State University in Portsmouth (Scioto County). With 3,000 students, it has one of the best plastics engineering programs in the nation. The school participates in the Ohio Valley Plastics Partnership, a consulting network that brings problem-solving resources to the plant floor in Southern Ohio.
Hocking College, Ohio's largest two-year technical college, has its main campus in Nelsonville (Athens County). It offers associate degrees and certificates in more than 30 technical programs. Included are programs in energy and automotive technologies, industrial maintenance, automated processes, quality control and one of the nation's best ceramics technology programs. The college's customized training programs are applauded by such industries as ITT Automotive, which uses the new Hocking College campus in Perry County. Training can take place at the college at one of its five branches or at the plant site.
Ohio University, with 19,000 students at its Athens campus and 27,000 at all branches, is not only a major employer but also a generator of cultural and sports activities. The university's five branch campuses spread educational opportunities throughout southeastern Ohio and provide industry with opportunities to collaborate on and share in the fruits of research projects.
Like Ohio University, the University of Rio Grande, in Gallia County, offers excellent industrial training programs.
Southern Ohio's vocational schools take the lead in preparing people for employment. Many, like the Southern Hills JVS in Georgetown (Brown County) will conduct specialized, on-site training for companies.
The Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development, headquartered in Cincinnati and the largest vocational school district in the country, serves southwestern Ohio with a center in Hillsboro (Highland County). Programs for its constituency of 3,200 high school students and 70,000 adults range from one-day seminars to a 2,100-hour aviation training program.
The school literally brings training to companies' parking lots. It operates vans outfitted with a dozen computer work stations. Employees can sit in on training sessions without ever leaving the company's premises. Companies benefiting include Candle-Lite and Johnson Controls in Highland County.
Ohio's adult vocational education systems leads the nation in administering the unique Work Keys program, a new national system of skills measurement developed by American College Testing. The goal of the program is to eliminate the guesswork in hiring. It helps companies plan training to improve the job performance of existing staff, as well as develop customized job descriptions for new workers.
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The company draws up a job profile that numerically ranks the importance of such skills as math, listening, writing, reading for information, applied technology, locating information and teamwork. Prospective employees are tested to measure their skills against those areas.
Great Oaks also coordinates the Project Hire program, which has produced additional workers for such companies as Candle-Lite in Highland County and Airborne, which has a huge package sorting hub in neighboring Clinton County. This coalition of education, government and businesses covers such areas as teamwork, work/family management, budgeting and interpersonal skills -- all critical areas to employee retention. |
Another way employers find workers is through the massive database of the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services. OBES can match employee skills with employer needs. For example, it prescreened 1,500 applicants for OSCO Industries, when that company needed 150 workers to staff its new plant in Scioto County.
Ohio leads the nation in programs to put out-of-work and on-welfare people to work. Jumping federal welfare reform by two years, the state installed programs to remove such obstacles to employment as health insurance, child care and transportation. Training programs, always an Ohio strong point, are tuning in ever more strongly to the needs of industry and workers. The goal is to put 100,000 people to work in the next two years.
Key agencies in welfare reform are the Human Services Depts. in each county. They administer JOBS programs, as well as such support services as day care. The Human Services Depts. are moving aggressively into making trainable labor available to companies needing new employees, says Robert Smith, director of the Hocking County Dept. of Human Services.
"Because of welfare reform, our main charge is to provide temporary financial assistance while we help prepare people for permanent employment," says Smith.
The agencies arrange for the unemployed to enroll in education institutions that lead to a high school degree or to more advanced training at adult education centers or two-year institutions. Most counties are showing significant progress. Perry County, for example, had 700 people on its rolls in 1989; today there are just 300, says Ladonna Watts of the Perry County Human Services Dept.
One way the agencies move people into the work force is through subsidized employment. They can contract with businesses to provide workers for new jobs. The employee, hired for a trial period of several months, gets the chance to earn a permanent position, and the company receives an incentive for hiring.
ITT Automotive in Perry County is one company that uses OBES and the county Depts. of Human Services to find suitable workers. The company has selected many of the candidates offered for its permanent work force. In addition, ITT makes use of Ohio's pioneering "school-to-work" program, whereby high school students experience job training to prepare them to enter the work force after graduating.
