NWACC involved in national Adult Career Pathways test study
Posted on Tuesday, July 8, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/63528/
BENTONVILLE Northwest Arkansas Community College is one of eight twoyear colleges involved in a national study to identify, enroll, educate and prepare underemployed adults for high-demand careers.
The effort will bring together manufacturing, transportation and logistics groups to determine the skills needed for their industry and how community colleges can offer career pathways to adult students leading to jobs within those areas. Despite efforts by community colleges and others to train skilled workers, national studies indicate that a lack of a skilled workforce is still a major challenge in nearly every industry and state.
Dr. Donna Wood, NWACC associate vice president for Global Business Development, will attend a July 17 summit at Chicago with the Clements Group to discuss disconnects between the need and availability of adult workers.
Many adult workers dont see that connection or career pathway between community college and goodpaying jobs, Wood said.
This summit will help to address that disconnect. NWACC, along with other colleges and industry leaders, will partner with the Center for Occupational Research and Development to implement Adult Career Pathways.
This program focuses on helping to bring skilled workers to the labor pool by connecting them with the career pathways at a community college, said Dr. Derek Crews, NWACC vice president for Workforce Development.
The premise of adult pathways is to take underemployed workers some who work three jobs to make ends meet and train them to be able to land a skilled job of quality employment, Wood said. Workers benefit by entering a solid career field and industry benefits by having more skilled workers. These workers are typically older than the traditional high school graduate and may have completed some college work, or even graduated, before they entered the workforce.
Crews said the Adult Career Pathways program is a strategy for adults to overcome these barriers, linking educational institutions with their local industries, and bringing together a range of community resources to provide the qualified workforce that is essential to the economic vitality of our community.
The national study fits well with NWACCs plans for a Transportation and Logistics Institute, Crews said. The institute is one of four planned for the Global Business Development Center, which the college will break ground Sept. 11.
The Institute will strengthen the areas vibrant retail and manufacturing industry base by further advancing their transportation and logistics management knowledge (and ) skills, Crews said. All four institutes will develop and deliver credit and non-credit programs and services.
After the July 17 summit, college officials will compile the recommendations and develop ways to reconnect adult workers with a clear understanding of the skilled careers open to them through community college training, Crews said.
NWACC was selected as one of the colleges for the program because it has several of the adult pathway theories in place and has shown leadership in new and efficient workforce and economic development strategies.
The program will be implemented in three stages:
A transportation and logistics industry summit will be held and benchmarks set;
Local and regional dialogue to define local needs and build partnerships;
Implementation of the Adult Career Pathways program.
Interested individuals working in manufacturing or logistics in Arkansas are invited to attend the summit.
For more information, call Dr. Wood at 619-4154 or e-mail dwood 2 @ nwacc. edu.