Workforce focus of Hot Topic
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 26, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Greg Wildman, operations director for SPX Corp., talks about what it was like to participate in the Teachers at Work program.
Innovative new programs designed to introduce students and educators to the world of industry and to the possibilities industry holds for the next generation of workers were the centerpiece of a Thursday panel discussion.
The panel that focused on the workforce and how it affects the economy was the subject of the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce's Hot Topic lunch program.
The Wayne County Development Alliance was the presenting sponsor for the event held at Lane Tree Conference Center.
Will Collins, assistant secretary N.C. Department of Commerce and executive director of NC Works and Lew Ebert, president and CEO for the N.C. Chamber, provided a statewide perspective of resources.
Sue Breckenridge, executive director for the N.C. Business Committee for Education, and Greg Wildman, operations director for SPX Corp., provided a look closer to home.
"We are doing a brand new five-year strategic plan for economic growth and development here in Wayne County," said Bob Kornegay, Wayne County Development Alliance chairman. "Our major theme running through the veins of this plan is workforce development.
"An available highly skilled, highly trained workforce is an essential component to growth and development for our community, our state and our nation. It affects the ability of our existing industry to grow and to expand."
The N.C. Business Committee for Education was established 33 years by then Gov. Jim Hunt because he saw the value of having a business voice at the table in forming education decisions, Ms. Breckenridge said.
Any business can join the statewide organization that is working to bridge the gap between business and the classroom, she said.
About six years ago, Bob Eaves, husband of then Gov. Bev Perdue, saw there was a high school dropout rate at that time, she said.
"He thought we have got to start capturing the attention of students, and we have got to start doing it early," Ms. Breckenridge said. "So he designed a program we call Students at Work where we bring middle school students into your place of business to show them jobs.
"It is one thing to talk about jobs. It is another thing to capture their imagination -- actually show them what is available to them in their community if they stay in school."
Over the past six years 150,000 middle school students in almost every county across the state have participated in the program, she said.
Ms. Breckenridge said one of the teachers who participated in the program told her the students loved the program.
But the teacher said she had a question.
"She said, 'I drive by six or eight businesses every morning, and I have absolutely no clue what they do. But I am teaching their employees. How can I have that experience?'" Ms. Breckenridge said.
From that grew the program Teachers at Work that gives educators insight into the types of skills that businesses need and that students need to enter the workforce, she said.
It started out three years ago with seven teachers and seven businesses, she said. The teachers are brought into the business to learn its ins and outs, she said.
Ms. Breckenridge said that what is exciting is that businesses and others are now coming to them. That includes the Golden LEAF Foundation that asked that the program be expanded in a "significant" manner in eastern North Carolina, she said.
An 11-county area, including Wayne County, is now part of a pilot program to develop a "deeper, richer" program for the teachers, she said. The pilot program has 12 businesses and 24 teachers, including career coaches from the community colleges.
In the second year of the program, the teachers' students will either go into the business or business officials will go into the classroom, Ms. Breckenridge said.
"Maybe (students) will stop asking the question, 'Why do I have to learn this,' because they will be able to connect it to a job," Ms. Breckenridge said. "Over the years we have found there is much more of an appetite from all of you to be more directly involved in transforming education in North Carolina.
"That is really the critical piece. Just now we heard Will and Lew talk about the skills gap and the organizations and software and programs that exist in the state. There are also all of these opportunities for all of you to actually be involved and touch the students and the teachers and help them understand what you needs are."
One of those businesses is SPX in Goldsboro.
Greg Wildman, operations director for SPX Corp., followed up on her comments.
Wildman said the company had been skeptical at first, but by the time the programs ended that everyone on his team wanted to participate again.
SPX already had been involved in some other programs involving middle school students, he said.
"What we got from those programs was that a lot of students, No. 1, did not know what was out there and available to them," he said. "They had no idea that there are marketing jobs. There are engineering jobs. There are production and planning jobs. There are those types of jobs out there.
"So it kind of shocked me. I have been in industry 25 years. Then I remembered back -- I didn't know what I wanted to do 25 years ago. So it did kind of resonated and came back. We felt that we, as a business, were not doing enough to enhance that and grow that and let them understand what is available to them."
SPX had recognized previously there was a definite skills gap whether it was a student graduating from high school or college, Wildman said.
"They were not prepared for the workforce," he said. "Some of the things we recognized, the students had the technical skills, they are not even prepared for the soft skills -- the communications, the critical thinking, the decision making."
The program has been challenged to reach 150,000 middle school students and 10,000 teachers annually, Ms. Breckenridge said.
"There are ways to do that and it is only with business involvement that we are going to be able to accomplish that goal," Ms. Breckenridge said. "It is going to take resources. It is going to take strategic planning.
"It is going to take commitment, but what we are doing is making a difference and helping our students and our teachers fill this skills gap."