Learning center plans unveiled at Rotary meeting
http://columbiadailyherald.com/articles/2010/02/15/top_stories/06rotary.txt
State Rep. Ty Cobb, South Central Tennessee Workforce Alliance Director Jan McKeel and former GM/Spring Hill Manufacturing Planning Administrator Tom Brewer said they hope a facility on the grounds of the GM plant in Spring Hill will soon be a training center for the region’s unemployed or underemployed workers.
The three officials spoke Friday at a meeting of the Columbia Breakfast Rotary Club.
The Learning Center at Northfield is now being used exclusively as career retraining center for displaced General Motors workers and those from Penske, Premier, JCI, Ryder and other GM/Spring Hill Manufacturing suppliers who also lost jobs as a result of the plant’s idling.
Brewer, now serving as interim director of the Northfield facility, worked for General Motors for 34 years, including 24 at the Saturn/GM Spring Hill plant.
Brewer said he hopes the 2,000 GM/Spring Hill Manufacturing workers and 3,000 supplier’s employees put out of work by the plant’s idling in November will take advantage of the training available to them at the facility.
“These sessions are so timely, because they can get this training at no cost while they are collecting unemployment benefits. It is completely funded by state and local grants,” Brewer said.
Since last September, nearly 900 displaced employees have attended workshops at the facility and/or received help with resume-writing, interview skills, job readiness certification and other skills to better prepare them to re-enter the workforce.
Throughout 2010 eligible autoworkers also will be able to attend classes to train for new careers in healthcare, education, technology and a variety of other jobs. Planned courses include medical records coding, LPN, green jobs technology, HVAV and more. The South Central Tennessee Workforce Alliance, which administers the training program, has committed $1.7 million received from federal stimulus and state dislocated worker funds to pay for the training and is now negotiating with General Motors to lease the facility for at least the next three years, so it can provide the same training to the general public.
“We hope to come to an arrangement within the next few months so we can begin offering these services and more to all eligible citizens of Tennessee as soon as July,” McKeel said.
McKeel said none of the Tennessee Career Center facilities in the SCTWA region are large enough to handle anywhere near the capacity of the Northfield Learning Center. When and if the facility opens to the public, it will need additional funds beyond those coming from stimulus money or the state.
Cobb, D-Columbia, said he would hope to secure about $50,000 from the county, $25,000 each from Spring Hill and Columbia, and an undetermined amount from Mt. Pleasant for the project. He also plans to approach surrounding counties for additional support.
Cobb told the Rotary gathering he saw the need first-hand for a technical learning center in Maury County while still a student at Columbia State Community College because courses as a firefighter were not available here.
“Like myself, many other local residents had to go to Volunteer State or elsewhere to find the courses they needed to pursue their chosen careers,” Cobb said. “I’m glad to see we are getting close to where that won’t have to be the case in the future.”
