{"id":16,"date":"2014-11-10T14:01:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T14:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/2014\/11\/10\/october-event-connects-educators-to\/"},"modified":"2017-06-20T16:16:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T16:16:16","slug":"october-event-connects-educators-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/2014\/11\/10\/october-event-connects-educators-to\/","title":{"rendered":"October Event Connects Educators to Local Manufacturer&#8217;s Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By: Brad Phillips<br \/>\nVice-President Marketing Communications<\/p>\n<p><b>Workforce Development:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\nWorkforce education and skilled labor supply are quickly<br \/>\nbecoming &#8220;hot button&#8221; workforce development issues around Northwest<br \/>\nArkansas as well as across the nation. The Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of<br \/>\nCommerce is working hard to address these issues which represent important<br \/>\nfactors<br \/>\nthat contribute to the continued future growth of our area. On October 14, the<br \/>\nChamber&#8217;s <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">K2J<\/i> (Kindergarten-to-Job) <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">Connect<\/i> event brought area educators together<br \/>\nwith local manufacturers to discuss and learn more about these issues and to showcase<br \/>\nwhat modern manufacturing careers<br \/>\nare all about.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\nEducation<br \/>\nSystem Part of the Skilled Labor Solution<br \/>\n<i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">K2J Connect<\/i> was hosted by Kennametal in<br \/>\nRogers, a company that delivers productivity to customers seeking peak<br \/>\nperformance in demanding environments by providing innovative custom and<br \/>\nstandard wear-resistance solutions. The event offered the 20 educators in<br \/>\nattendance (including principals, teachers, college professors, and guidance<br \/>\ncounselors) an opportunity to learn about the workforce needs in our area, tour<br \/>\nthe facility, and have an open conversation with local manufacturers about how<br \/>\nthe skilled labor issue may be addressed through the education system. Raymond<br \/>\nBurns, President\/CEO of the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce stressed the<br \/>\nimportance of events like this saying, \u201cWorkforce issues impact all industries<br \/>\nacross Rogers and Northwest Arkansas and our job at the Chamber is to help<br \/>\naddress them and find solutions before they become a serious problem.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\nEducators<br \/>\nLearn Importance of Manufacturing Careers<br \/>\nThe <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">K2J Connect<\/i> attendees started the<br \/>\nday by hearing from Mike Harvey, COO of the Northwest Arkansas Council who<br \/>\nworks closely with the region&#8217;s chambers of commerce to help carry out the<br \/>\nmission of delivering high-quality job growth. Harvey spoke on the types of<br \/>\nworkforce in Northwest Arkansas and importance of trained workers with skills<br \/>\nthat area employers need to fill open positions.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<br \/>\nHe pointed out that helping employers fill these needs will help grow the local<br \/>\neconomy. Harvey also showed statistics of job growth in Northwest Arkansas over<br \/>\nthe past 20 years and explained what fields had experienced the most job growth<br \/>\nand most job losses.&nbsp; His presentation<br \/>\nwas very well received by the educators and enlightening. For example, one<br \/>\neducator commented that he had not thought much about the future impact of our current<br \/>\nworkforce retiring in 10 to 20 years and the need it creates for younger<br \/>\nworkers to eventually replace those that are retiring, especially in<br \/>\nmanufacturing.&nbsp; Another educator<br \/>\ncommented about the opportunities available in manufacturing, \u201cAfter seeing<br \/>\nthat the average wages for these manufacturing jobs in the area are so high, I<br \/>\nthink I\u2019m in the wrong career.\u201d&nbsp; It&#8217;s a<br \/>\ntestament to the new, modern manufacturing careers available to young people<br \/>\ntoday.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\nC.E. Murrell, Plant Manager of Kennametal, took the<br \/>\neducators on a plant tour to show that modern manufacturing is much different<br \/>\nthan many people believe.&nbsp; One educator<br \/>\ncame back from the tour and said, \u201cIt was so clean and orderly.&nbsp; I could have worn a white dress, walked through<br \/>\nthe entire facility, and come back without a spot on me.\u201d&nbsp; Another educator commented on the impressive<br \/>\nmachinery found throughout the plant and said that he didn\u2019t realize the high<br \/>\ntech nature of manufacturing today.<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\nManufacturers<br \/>\nExpress Workforce Needs<br \/>\nFollowing the educators&#8217; tour, executives from Rogers-based manufacturers came<br \/>\nin for a facilitated small group discussion with the educators. The dialogue<br \/>\nbetween the manufacturers and educators focused on the needs that employers have<br \/>\nand the difficulties faced in filling open positions. The educators talked<br \/>\nabout what they could do to help get students more interested in manufacturing-related<br \/>\ncareers and the types of positions that are available throughout Northwest<br \/>\nArkansas. Whitney Yoder, Vice President of Development for the Rogers-Lowell<br \/>\nArea Chamber of Commerce said the event was successful at starting the conversation,<br \/>\n\u201cIt was great to see ideas being exchanged and discussions taking place between<br \/>\nthe manufacturers and educators. This is a huge step in the right direction for<br \/>\naddressing these issues facing our area.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\nThe K2J Connect event is a Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of<br \/>\nCommerce initiative and a very big<br \/>\n\u201cThank You\u201d is in order to Kennametal for hosting the first event at their<br \/>\nfacility.&nbsp; Regarding the event, Burns<br \/>\nnoted that, \u201cThis is just the beginning of our process and more of these types<br \/>\nof events will continue to be done addressing workforce development needs of<br \/>\nthe region.\u201d&nbsp; Yoder added, \u201cThe feedback<br \/>\nwe received from the attendees was exceptional and demonstrated an interest<br \/>\nfrom both educators and manufacturers in doing more of these <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">K2J Connect<\/i> events in the future.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\">\nIf you or your business are interested in hosting a future <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">K2J Connect<\/i> event or having educators<br \/>\nand students tour your facility and speak to you about your workforce needs, contact<br \/>\nWhitney Yoder or Steve Cox at (479) 636-1240.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Brad Phillips Vice-President Marketing Communications Workforce Development: Workforce education and skilled labor supply are quickly becoming &#8220;hot button&#8221; workforce development issues around Northwest Arkansas as well as across the nation. The Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce is working hard to address these issues which represent important factors that contribute to the continued future growth [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chambernews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8RhO8-g","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions\/118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}