INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS Education
he explains, is able to work with people in the industry and, in a relatively short period of time, develop a certificate providing timely training to fill
that gap.
In developing these short-term programs, the
college can move quickly and nimbly, partnering
with its credited side to offer learning that will take
root and grow professionals for the burgeoning
industry. As Hardy says, “It’s a beautiful marriage
inside a community college.” It’s not necessarily
about just developing courses: It is creating opportunities and developing schedules, filling a needsbased opportunity driven by students coming back.
How do they identify what’s needed? Hardy says
there’s a plethora of ways to know what classes
are needed, including examining labor market data
and even reading help wanted ads. Many times, it’s
not training for a job, but rather training for a skill
set, since job titles change but skill sets ensure a
career path.
By working with chambers of commerce, Collin
College is able to train not only for one post, but
also for large areas. By being able to provide customized training, Collin College is able to provide
full-time solutions. As quickly as industry moves, it’s
imperative to move at the pace of industry. Higher education is reinventing themselves for what
is needed in the industry. There are people taking
classes at Collin College that have degrees yet want
to retrain, and sometimes their companies need
them to retrain.
Collin College also works with businesses to do
customized contract training. Whatever is needed
to train one person or 300 people, they find it,
whether it’s customer service or leadership roles,
cyber security or steam machines. If they don’t have
instructors needed for that specialty, they contact
businesses and experts in the field or community to
instruct the classes. “We even teach truck driving,”
said Hardy. “We have the ground covered from
the managerial office position to the over-the-road
trucking industry.”
Dr. Pohlen with UNT points out that with the
increased use of trucking to fill the needs of mov-
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ing goods through the supply chain, being a truck
driver has now taken on a new respect. As the
economy recovers, there will be more of a demand
for drivers. Driver pay increases and nontraditional
sources for drivers, such as minorities and women,
will need to be given a priority. Companies will be
redesigning their driver programs so drivers are not
away from home long periods of time, as it’s the
lifestyle that causes people to stay away from the
profession.
Pohlen says it’s imperative to work with the industry and establish programs to educate drivers,
focusing heavily on security and safety on highways, and to establish good driving habits, as well
as using IT to manage resources. Currently there
are 600,000 trucking companies in the U.S. and
94 percent operate six or fewer trucks, resulting in
many small companies under pressure to deliver at
a minimum cost. That usually comes at the expense
of the driver. But this will change with the demand
of intermodal movement in North Texas.
“The driver shortage will be solved by managing
drivers and trucking companies much better than in
the past, by educating drivers to take care of themselves and their families better, and by raising the
professionalism of the driver,” Pohlen says. “Taking
care of them will make them want to take care of
their customers.”
This change is coming from all areas of education -- from producing better executives that make
better decisions, to training effective managers, to
creating a work atmosphere that values the employees, to being a conscientious employee. Everyone matters in the workforce chain.
And, if you’re a smart recruiter, you begin to
groom your talent at an early age. You look to your
college graduates, to your vocational education
programs, to your junior colleges and to your middle and high school students.
Middle and high schoolers?
That’s right, and North Texas’s White Settlement
Independent School District’s (WSISD) program is
one to watch. Regina Watkins of WSISD’s Brewer
High School Career and Technical Education (CTE)
explains that they are expanding their current energy, power and transportation classes to add
transportation systems, which will include heavy
logistics, and will also be adding courses based on
demand and direction of the program -- like aviation technology and logistics, planning and management -- a