Workforce development: State, local leaders get primer on city’s efforts

A 45-member delegation including Indiana’s governor, state officials and lawmakers received a one-day tutorial on Columbus’ efforts to align its educational system to workforce needs, a process the state is considering for possible roll-out as a best practice on a wider scale.

In a program hosted Friday by the Community Education Coalition at the Columbus Learning Center, Gov. Eric Holcomb listened as several Columbus students explained their pathways to high-technology careers in engineering, computer-aided design and robotics. Most of them have been working full time for a Columbus industrial partner helping finance their college education.

Learning about the students’ journey into full-time jobs at Cummins and NTN Driveshaft was described by Holcomb as “an hour of inspiration,” saying their stories surpassed all his expectations of what a community could do to link the educational system to future employment.

“Our urgency and our mission is to scale this up around the state of Indiana,” Holcomb said. “I’m not just taking notes — this is our to-do list.”

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To the legislators in the room, which included Indiana lawmakers representing education committees at the Statehouse, Holcomb mentioned that although there are only about four weeks left in the short session of the Indiana General Assembly, they have a lot to do in assessing programs and making sure the state is aligning the educational system properly into pathways to jobs.

Student success stories

Dustin Rodgers, a Columbus East High School student, told the audience he participated in a paid, six-week summer manufacturing internship at Faurecia Clean Mobility in Columbus. He is thinking about aeronautical engineering and a possible Air Force career. But at Faurecia, he was put to work looking at the ergonomics challenges encountered at Faurecia’s newly opened plant south of Columbus.

Already accepted into Purdue University’s engineering program, Rodgers said the Faurecia experience was important to his understanding of what an engineer does in an industrial setting.

Three young women impressed the group with their stories of pursuing high-tech careers, all working in apprenticeship or school-to-work internships with local industry.

Iannelli Olivares is working toward a mechanical engineering technology degree at Purdue Polytechnic Institute in Columbus, and she’s also working full time at Cummins as a product design engineer in fuel systems integration even before she finishes her bachelor’s degree.

Her career pathway began at Columbus North, where she discovered the C4 program after becoming interested in drafting. After enrolling in the apprenticeship program with Cummins, Olivares received tuition support and rotated through three different teams at the diesel engine manufacturer while continuing her college education.

She began working at Cummins while in high school, spending four classes during the day at North, and then four classes at work at Cummins, receiving course credit and experience that she now uses as she finishes her college work.

“Cummins paid 90 percent of my degree,” she said.

Olivia Clarkson is also in a school-to-work program at Cummins as she begins her college career in mechanical engineering technology at Purdue Polytechnic as a freshman. She’s now working as a warranty analyst for Cummins, and is thinking about eventually pursuing a career in robotics or electrical engineering.

Emily Sandlin, enrolled in the automation and robotics technology program at Ivy Tech, took networking, machine programming and electrical courses at a career and technical education center, and then moved on to a school-to-work program at NTN Driveshaft, working in maintenance.

She acknowledged she’s the only woman in NTN’s maintenance department and right now is the only female in her robotics classes.

But her pathway working at NTN has allowed her to finish her college debt-free and now she is considering moving forward to earn an electrical engineering degree.

Instructors learning, too

The group also heard from instructors at IUPUC, Purdue Polytechnic, Ivy Tech and the high school C4 program based at Columbus North, who have participated in summer externships where they visit local company plants and learn how to tailor their instruction to the work being performed in local industry.

Jessica Davis, who teaches engineering at C4, explained the relationships that are built with the externships result in connections between schools and engineers, who are then willing to volunteer their time to help students in projects and classes.

Guillermo Garcia, who teaches physics at IUPUC, said some of his students come to class wearing clothing with NTN or Cummins logos and he can tailor what he learned from his externship to what is happening in their workplace.

“I can show them the real-life applications to what students see on the job,” he said.

Holcomb was in the midst of a three-day workforce development tour which continues through Monday.

On Thursday, he visited the Gene Haas Training and Education Center in Lebanon and learned about the Vincennes University Haas Technical Education Center there, followed by the visit to Columbus on Friday. He will tour the Purdue Polytechnic Institute in Anderson on Monday.

What visitors learned

During Friday’s session, state officials learned details about the Community Education Coalition’s EcO (Economic Opportunities through Education) Regional Network, and CivicLab, and the organizational structure and process the coalition uses in its work.

The EcO Network is a regional network of 10 counties established in 2007 to create economic opportunities for more than 300,000 people in southeast Indiana, including Bartholomew and adjacent counties.

EcO’s objectives are to move residents up one level in their education, training and/or job placement, coordinate and align a regional learning system and become a catalyst for regional leadership, said John Burnett, Community Education Coalition CEO.

EcO now has more than 40 manufacturing network industry partners, including Cummins, Inc., Dorel Juvenile Group, NTN Driveshaft, Faurecia and Toyota in Columbus.

State officials were shown a map detailing the educational pathways, labs and networks that have been created through EcO.

Those programs in Columbus have included:

The Advanced Manufacturing Center for Excellence and the 27 post-secondary manufacturing, engineering and technology degree programs offered through IUPUC, Purdue Polytechnic Institute and Ivy Tech Community College — Columbus.

The 25 post-secondary, healthcare-related pathways at IUPUC and Ivy Tech — Columbus.

Automotive and robotics technology at C4, Columbus Area Career Connection at Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.

Manufacturing and Engineering Immersion programs at CSA New Tech and Columbus East and North high schools.

In the past 18 months, nearly 4,500 learners enrolled in targeted education and employment pathways aligned with priority industry sectors, Burnett said.

Nearly 2,800 individuals received employability skills training, and 747 earned dual/college credit, he said. Almost 1,200 individuals engaged in a work-and-learn opportunity, he said.

CivicLab was created to explore what makes community collaboration work, document what is discovered and teach and share the process.

In explaining “The Columbus Way” of collaboration, state officials learned about The Stakeholder Engagement process designed to help people work together to achieve a goal.

When Mayor Jim Lienhoop was asked about how government fits into the collaborative model, he said Columbus was fortunate to have Burnett, Jack Hess, who leads the CivicLab, and education coalition executive director Kathy Oren as part of the leadership team.

“You’ve got to get some good folks to be successful,” Lienhoop advised, adding, “and you can’t have ours,” which drew laughter from the audience.

Describing what was happening in Columbus as “enlightened self-interest,” Lienhoop said it is in the self-interest of employers to grow their own employees as the future workforce.

Lienhoop said that while talent attraction is important, Columbus and its leaders are thinking about talent retention by creating a pathway to a career that’s close to home for students.

After the session, Holcomb said it was a privilege to come to Columbus, known for its innovation, including refining the educational process so it works seamlessly with employers. Having the process move to a regional outreach was impressive and something that Indiana needs to look at in the future, he said.

Holcomb said he was particularly impressed to see young women stepping forward to seek high-tech careers, something he said Indiana needs to see more of in the future.

And he hopes that Indiana’s flagship educational institutions — Purdue, Indiana University, Notre Dame, Rose Hulman and others — will continue to connect with Indiana industry so students who graduate in Indiana decide to stay in the state for a career.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About the coalition” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

What: Community Education Coalition

Where: Based in Columbus

When: Founded in 1997

Why: Partnership of businesses, education and community leaders to align and integrating community learning systems, economic development and quality of life

How: Promote value and importance of a seamless learning system that offers accessible, affordable education for students of all ages. Serve as a catalyst for establishing Columbus as a regional center for higher education and workforce development. Foster a strong link between economic development and education initiatives.

Website: educationcoalition.com

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What: Economic Opportunities through Education (EcO) Network of Southeast Indiana

When: Started 2007

Where: Initiative of Columbus-based Community Education Coalition, it serves 10 counties: Bartholomew, Dearborn, Decatur, Franklin, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Ohio, Ripley and Switzerland.

Why: To create a system of lifelong learning for residents of the 10 counties

How: Move residents up at least one level in education, training or job placement; coordinate and align a regional learning system; be a catalyst for regional leadership and collaboration

Source: educationcoalition.com

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