Colleges, Agencies Bolster Workforce Skills
Published Feb 19, 2009
The West Texas Training Center in San Angelo offers a variety of training programs, such as welding, where demand for skilled workers is high.
Workforce training experts throughout the Texas Midwest are working to ensure a steady stream of well-trained, competent workers.
On the collegiate side, institutions such as Cisco Junior College’s Abilene Educational Center offer a broad array of continuing-education courses and have added certificate and degree programs in red-hot areas such as welding, where demand continues to outstrip supply.
“For that program, we entered into a partnership with the Development Corporation of Abilene,” says Dr. Carol Dupree, provost. “We’re turning out a dozen welders from every class, and the wind-energy companies are taking every one of them.”
Other industry sectors routinely turn to the college for training and development, and new credit and non-credit programs. Add in plans to grow the emerging biotechnology sector, and it’s easy to see why the campus parking lot stays full.
“We are anticipating several more biotech companies coming into Abilene, so we’ve put together a credit program that will train people as technicians at the entry level,” Dupree says. “We’re working with the high schools so we can get students with a good science background. We want them to have that foundation by the time they get to us.”
The idea is to partner with other higher-education entities to provide students a career pathway that allows for work and school, and the ability to opt out anywhere from the certificate to the four-year graduate level.
The state also takes an interest in workforce training and development, operating its Workforce Solutions programs at centers across Texas.
The centers provide everything from counseling for start-up entrepreneurs to assistance in getting funding and other needs once a company is up and running, says Johnny Griffin, executive director of the Concho Valley Workforce Development Board.
“We had a pretty significant shortage of nurses and health-care workers a couple of years ago,” Griffin says, “so we spent some time and money on that.”
That meant working with health-care providers to assess their needs and reaching out to school systems to create opportunities for students to learn about health careers.
While there’s still a need for nurses, the shortage has become less critical. The organization has been able to take that model and use it in other sectors, such as truck driving and wind energy, where workers are in short supply, Griffin says.
The fast-track welding program at Cisco is meeting the wind-energy sector’s needs, says Mary Ross, executive director of Workforce Solutions of West Central Texas in Abilene.
“It crosses over into the construction, oil field and other employment areas, so it’s something that we continue to do in partnership with our community colleges and other economic-development partners,” she says.
The agency also administers its Workforce Investment Fund, created in 2003 to provide grants for training and development, and job creation. It gives up to $50,000 per grant and awards those four times a year.
“We have awarded several million dollars, to everyone from single-person businesses up to larger manufacturers, although our focus is small to medium-size businesses,” Ross says. “It has been a very successful, popular program.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by J. Kyle Keener
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