In his six months as the state’s workforce training czar, Ryan Miller confesses the job is a little like herding cats.
“At times, it seems like we are all running in different directions, often with the best of intentions,” said Miller, executive director of Accelerate Mississippi, part of a new state agency, Mississippi Office of Workforce Development, which was created by the state legislature in 2020. “As an organization with the mandate to coordinate all these efforts, the question is, ‘How do we get our arms around it?’”
Ryan said the biggest challenge facing the state’s workforce development efforts is communication.
“It sounds simplistic, but I really think a lot of it comes down to communication,” Miller said. “We have lots of groups and people wanting to do good things, but we have to be able to communicate effectively across all those groups to develop trust and build colleagueship, if that’s a word.”
Miller said one of the keys to that is helping regions throughout the state bring local workforce educators, employers, potential employees and local policy-makers together to form what he calls “ecosystems.”
“Some areas are doing better at this than others,” Miller said.
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In that respect, the Golden Triangle may be closer to achieving coordination between the various parties than most, and perhaps no better example of that will come next month with a couple of programs at East Mississippi Community’s College’s Communiversity, the region’s $42-million advanced manufacturing skill training center, which opened in 2019.
Communiversity faculty will kick off its FlexFactor program with 209 students at Columbus High School and Golden Triangle Early College High School.
“It’s cool stuff,” Communiversity director Courtney Taylor said. “We go into the classroom and challenge kids to solve a problem in the advanced hybrid electronics. Then we’ll bring the students to Communiversity to look at the equipment and the jobs. It’s also a way to expose students to careers that they’re just not exposed to in high school, like, say, a machinist. How can a high school teacher who has never been a machinist know that?”
The program lasts two months. Starkville High School students will have a chance to participate during the spring semester.
After FlexFactor, Communiversity will host the “FORGE Your Way To A Career Expo” on Oct. 27.
The event, sponsored by The FORGE Foundation, will bring 1,000 middle school students from throughout Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Clay counties to expose students to the construction industry.
FORGE Foundation, an acronym for Family Organizations Recruiting Great Employees, was founded in early 2018 by a group of eight local businesses in construction-related fields — APAC of Columbus, Burns Dirt Construction, Graham Roofing, McCrary West Construction, Thompson Welding Services, TRONOX, Waters Truck and Tractor and West Brothers Construction.
FORGE held its first career expo at Communiversity in 2019.
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“I really can’t say enough about FORGE. It was great exposure for our students,” Columbus Municipal School District superintendent Cherie Labat said of the 2019 Expo. “The feedback we got from the students was wonderful. They had the opportunity to pour concrete, see and use tools, even hammer a nail. Some of our kids had never even done that before.”
Last year’s Expo was canceled due to COVID, but FORGE board member Katie McCrary said there was never any doubt about continuing the event.
“We really enjoyed doing it, ‘’ McCrary said. “We got really good feedback from the kids. They enjoyed the hands-on activities, whether it was laying brick or finishing concrete or even something as basic as hammering a nail. Some of the kids had never even done that.”
“And it’s not just the career expo, either. They are always there to help, both FORGE and EMCC which is really important as we work on our programs for Hunt School,” added Labat. “Both of them have been partners with us every step of the way.”
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EMCC’s commitment to recruiting students in area high school career tech programs was called into question last week when Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins announced his resignation from the East Mississippi Community College Board of Trustees. Higgins said one reason he decided to resign was EMCC’s lack of resources for recruiting those high school students to Communiversity.
“Quite frankly, nobody’s working the high schools to get those kids pipelined (to the Communiversity),” Higgins said, noting enrollment at Communiversity lags. “They’re just not.”
Taylor said that assessment fails to consider the bigger picture, noting that while the total enrollment for credit courses at Communiversity is 185, there are currently 416 students enrolled in career-track studies programs at EMCC’s Scooba and Mayhew campuses, bringing the overall total of career-track students at EMCC to well over 600.
“You have to remember that Communiversity only serves our advanced manufacturing programs,” Taylor said. “High school CTE includes a lot of other fields and many of those students do come to EMCC to continue their education in those fields, whether it’s at Mayhew or our Scooba campus.”
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Local school officials say the relationship with EMCC’s workforce programs, including Communiversity, is strong.
“All I can tell you is that anytime I’ve needed anything or asked for anything (EMCC) has been great,” said Lenora Hogan, director of Starkville-Oktibbeha County School District’s Millsaps Center, the district’s career tech program. “They have a member on every one of our advisory boards and have been very active and connected with what we do here and that even includes our adult-education programs. They provide scholarships and cover fees for programs and assist us in so many other ways.”
Labat agreed.
“EMCC and (President Scott Alsobrooks) have been great partners,” said Labat. “As we put together our plans for Hunt School (which will have a career tech center that will collaborate with EMCC), they’ve been very innovative and helpful. I can’t imagine having better partners than FORGE and EMCC.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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