How One Indiana Program Models Obama's Plan For Skills Training

It’s been six years since businesses suffered from the country’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Now that the economy is back on track, some employers say they can’t fill jobs fast enough.

President Obama is encouraging colleges and universities to acknowledge the need, and find a way to help fill it. Pushing that message was one focus of his trip to Indianapolis last week. One program in Elkhart County that’s working to match students with potential jobs from day one.

Rather than paper and pencil, the tools in this class at the North-Central campus of Ivy Tech Community College, include tape measurers, hammers and drills.

Sixteen students – ranging in age from 18 to 76 – are working in teams of two, building what resembles the exterior wall of a typical recreational vehicle, or RV.

Although it’s only day four of the class, instructor Mark Hoeflinger says the group is catching on quick.

"We’ve got 12 people that have really never done this before. They’re coming along pretty well," he said. "The RV companies are having a hard time finding people who can do just easy work – motor skills with their hands, use power tools."

Those RV companies rule Elkhart County. Eighty-five percent of all the trailers, campers and mobile homes built in this country are built right here. It’s the biggest industry – and therefore the largest employer – in the area.

"When things are good for the RV industry, it’s good for the county," said Julie Foster, president of Ivy Tech's North-Central campus.

She says training programs like this one are exactly what community colleges are for: helping local businesses develop their workforce.

"We’re here because the community sees a need for advanced training beyond the secondary level," Foster said. "It doesn’t do us any good to create a program where there’s not a need for it out in the community, where students can ‘t go out and get a job."

And jobs are what students come to Ivy Tech looking for. Students like 26-year-old Brittany Wade.

"I just got out of prison in January, and I want to learn some skills to help me get a job, because it’s a lot harder when you have felonies," Wade said. "Figured I’d give it a shot. 50 bucks to learn some skills isn’t too bad."

That’s all it takes for this program. $50 dollars and 40 hours of training gets you certified as an “RV Industry Production Associate.” It’s a deal Ivy Tech worked out with three local RV companies, who say they need workers fast.

Jeff Pitman directs HR for one of those companies, Lippert Components.

"I think you’d be crazy not to at least try it and hopefully we can show that it’s successful and maybe we’ll get some other schools such as Ivy Tech that want to try to partner and do the same thing for their students," Pitman said.

This is exactly the type of partnership President Obama touted when he visited Ivy Tech’s campus in Indianapolis last week.

"The program that they have set up looks like something that’s going to be helpful for us in finding people that have at least some prior training, some knowledge of the RV industry, know what they’re getting into," Pitman said.

But knowledge isn’t the first thing Pitman says he looks for in an employee.

"The main this is are they going to show up everyday? We look for people that are going to show up, that have a good work ethic, that can work as part of a team," he sasid. "What kind of a work ethic you have? Again, are you adaptable?
 
In between sawing wooden planks and assembling parts, students are honing these types of “soft skills” during class.

The hope is to expand this program to service other local RV companies, and ultimately to drum up enough support to build a Workforce Training Center on campus. That way, Ivy Tech can expand into more industries with the help of other community partners.

That’s something else the Obama administration wants. In his budget request to Congress last week, the president asked for money to create 100 new job centers around the country. Their focus would be to help people gain the skills to work in fields with growing numbers of middle-class jobs, like energy, IT and advanced manufacturing.

Wade says she’s excited to translate what she’s learning into a job. The certificate she’ll get when her session of the RV program ends this week will help keep her on her feet.

"I’d still like to start in this thing because I’m restarting," she said. "I have a very strong support system, and I don’t want my mom to have to support me for the rest of my life."

Wade says she's confident she could walk into any local RV company next week and land a job.