business backgrounder | education & workforce
“ This is exactly what an apprenticeship is . Go to work for awhile , go to school , go work for awhile , go back to school . This kind of model is what the country is after , they just don ’ t recognize the work being done before apprenticeship was the buzzword . This is how workforce training works !”
— Jerry Anhorn , dean of workforce at Walla Walla Community College
He points to three brand-new tractors available to students that are each less than 100 days old . The students get to put them through their paces , programming them to drive themselves around a field on the campus .
John Deere also gives them containers full of engines , power trains , transmissions , gearboxes and other training components .
Jerry Anhorn , dean of workforce at Walla Walla Community College , notes that this is basically an apprenticeship model , one that has been successfully employed for 25 years .
“ This is exactly what an apprenticeship is ,” Anhorn said . “ Go to work for awhile , go to school , go work for awhile , go back to school . This kind of model is what the country is after , they just don ’ t recognize the work being done before apprenticeship was the buzzword . This is how workforce training works !”
Anhorn has a special connection to the program , which is built on land that was once his family farm . “ I grew up irrigating the land we ’ re standing on ,” he told Washington Business . His family ties go even deeper . His father was vice president of the college and helped start the John Deere program a quarter century ago .
Having watched it from the beginning , he said the key to this program ’ s success is the partnership with an international corporation standing behind it with a commitment to build and sustain the program through the years .
“ That ’ s the kind of partnership we would love to have in more of our programs ,” Anhorn said . “ At this point in time we don ’ t .”
It ’ s exciting to have a program that is so expansive beyond the immediate community , said Lindsey Williams , director of the Agriculture & Natural Resources Center of Excellence , which is housed at Walla Walla Community College . It ’ s a great match , she said , for the vision and mission of community colleges , which is to develop connections to train and put people to work .
“ John Deere is a model for how that can happen with the right training and communication ,” she said . “ Most workforce programs have a required internship component . Andy ’ s program , how he runs it , the communications and the relationships he ’ s built , are an excellent testament to what community colleges are and should be .”
“ We are here to develop young men and women to work in the service departments and many of them move up through the dealership . The sky ’ s the limit .”
— Andy Winnett , coordinator of John Deere programs and the director of trades and technologies at Walla Walla Community College
34 association of washington business