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| Willis Potts, Retired, Temple Inland, addresses Workforce Summit |
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Northwest Region Workforce Summit Held at CVTC
Coosa Valley Technical College (CVTC), Georgia Power, and Northwest Region Tech Prep hosted a regional workforce summit recently at CVTC. The summit was organized to discuss the challenges and opportunities for Northwest Georgia in the area of workforce development. Attendees included teachers, counselors, graduation coaches, principals, and superintendents from local high schools; technical college faculty and staff; local and state government representatives; and leaders of private industries.
Jerry Garland, District 2 Director, Georgia Department of Labor, provided labor facts and statistics for the region. Don Rhodes, Maintenance Planning Manager, Southern Company Generation, added insight about projected growth in the power industry and the need for more skilled workers in the workforce. The Southern Company estimates the demand for skilled workers will exceed the supply in 2008.
Al Hodge, President/CEO, Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce, led a panel of industry leaders in a discussion about the workforce issues and critical needs of the northwest Georgia area. The panel included Jeff Franklin, Northwest Region Vice President, Georgia Power; Don Waterhouse, Manager of Human Resources and General Affairs, TOYO Tire; Curtis Adams, Training Coordinator, TOYO Tire; Darcy Harold, Human Resources Director, F&P Georgia; Don Rhodes, Maintenance Planning Manager, Southern Company Generation; and Joel Portwood, Business Liaison, Atlanta and North Georgia Building Trades.
Franklin addressed the energy industry’s difficulty finding a skilled workforce that can pass basic skills tests. He stressed the importance of graduating our high school and college students with marketable skills. Waterhouse and Adams said the biggest challenge they see in potential employees is their lack of a technical background and education and the right attitude. “Toyo needs employees with a positive attitude,” stated Waterhouse. “Employers are looking for problem solvers not problems.”
“F&P Georgia needs multi-skilled workers that have the desire to make a safe, high quality product, stated Harold. “Absenteeism and employee turnover can be problems until the employee exceeds their six month anniversary with the company,” she added. Portwood spoke of the growing shortage of workers in the construction industry. This shortage will increase with many of the current workers reaching retirement. He asked teachers and counselors to encourage young people to choose construction careers.
The summit continued with Stacy Egnor, Senior Maintenance Specialist, Georgia Power Company, addressing the attendees on the opportunities for women in non-traditional careers. “The biggest challenge is cultural,” Egnor said. “Opportunity is out there for young women through technical classes at schools like Coosa Valley Tech, they just need to be utilized.”
Debra Lyons, Program Manager, Governor’s Office of Workforce Development, explained Georgia’s Work Ready program. The program will be a tool available for local communities in Georgia to help validate the availability of a workforce ready to fill the hiring needs for both existing and new industries. The program uses ACT Work Keys to assess potential worker’s skills in a standardized way. Industries can use these test results to match a community’s workforce with their employment needs. Improving the high school graduation rate of a county and offering free training to low-scoring workers are other elements of the plan. Coosa Valley Technical College, and the state’s other technical colleges, have been tapped to do the free worker-assessments and create profiles of different jobs for comparison. Coosa Valley Technical College will be providing the assessments for workers in Floyd, Gordon, and Polk counties.
The summit concluded with Willis Potts, Retired, Temple Inland, making a call to action for our community and our country. He believes the United States can compete with the rest of the world for jobs, but we have to understand our part in the world economy. “We have to work very hard in this country to protect the things that can’t be exported,” Potts explained. “We must put enormous energy into education. A radical transformation of our educational system is necessary.” Potts said that business and industry need to help the education system understand and produce good employees. “If anything is learned from today’s meeting, it should be the need for communication.”
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