Jay Jones, interim chancellor at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, has witnessed the population decline in southeast Arkansas over the past few years.
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The effects of that decline hit home this fall as enrollment fell at the university, he said. But the effects on the region have been worse.
The region is home to some of the highest unemployment rates in the state, data show. And while it would help to have more businesses move their operations to southeast Arkansas, Jones said, the region needs to fix a related problem: getting adults the necessary skills to fill the available jobs.
Now the university, school districts and industries in Drew County -- along with those in five neighboring counties -- are trying to change the outlook. The various entities banded together and proposed one of 21 projects awarded more than $1.4 million in state funding for workforce training.
All the projects have the same goal: fill the gap between employers' needs and the skills of the workforce. And to do that, the state's colleges and universities, school districts, economic development offices, chambers of commerce and businesses are getting on board.
Teams across the state turned in 33 applications for the Regional Workforce Grant, a newly created funding mechanism created through the Workforce Initiative Act of 2015.
The act was sponsored by Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock, and backed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
In a September address, Hutchinson noted that current statistics show some 236,000 adult Arkansans lack the proper education credentials for employment.
"That is the challenge that we face," he said at the time. "This is a jobs gap. It is an economic development challenge, and this gap is holding Arkansas back. We need to reverse that. We need to make that as our top challenge."
The idea isn't a new one. Community colleges have worked hand in hand with businesses and industry to ensure course and degree program offerings align with skills employers are seeking.
"The grant program was designed as a way to focus more closely on a few high-need areas and to extend programs beyond what is typically offered on the community college campuses," said Brett Powell, director of the Arkansas Higher Education Department, which awards the grants.
"As part of the pathways focus of the grant programs, institutions have identified ways that they can connect with students still in high school, through technical concurrent credit courses, and connect students to degree options beyond associates degrees, which is where universities fit into the program," he said
The workforce grant program will give students options from high school credits to technical certificates, associate degrees and bachelor's degrees -- all of which can lead to employment, he said.
The program also pumps some funding into the process.
For some, including UA-Monticello, the amount of funding requested was not fully awarded, however.
The UA-Monticello team asked for $99,810 but received about $15,000 less, Jones said, adding that he thought the team could restore the full funding from other sources. The team includes the university's campuses in Crossett and McGehee, along with companies including Georgia-Pacific Pulp and Paper and JB's Diesel Doctor.
According to the group's application, manufacturing is among the top industries in the six-county area. Jobs in demand include maintenance technicians and welders.
The proposal includes adding an associate degree program in diesel training at the Monticello campus and an electromechanical technology program at the university's McGehee campus. Other proposals have included adult-education programs to help those already working acquire further skills.
Other workforce grant proposals that were funded have a similar focus.
Arkansas State University-Mountain Home was awarded funding for two projects. One aims to increase the number of computer programmers, while the other targets the manufacturing sector.
The college plans to create a computer-programming degree with the first $71,290 grant. The grant application notes that Hutchinson's effort to require high schools to offer computer-coding classes has led to the enrollment of more than 1,300 students in those types of courses this fall.
"As secondary students discover career opportunities in the fields of coding and programming, demand for training and education beyond high school will increase," the application states.
Officials at ASU-Mountain Home will review high school course offerings, identify potential classes and create a pathway allowing high school students to begin college computer-programming courses, said Karen Heslep, dean of the School of Business and Technology at the college.
Like UA-Monticello, the north Arkansas college has witnessed businesses' struggle to recover from the economic downturn. Manufacturing employers are looking for a workforce with troubleshooting skills, along with basic competence in such areas as math and technical writing, that grant application states.
The application also stresses the need for employees who are highly trained in technical fields.
ASU-Mountain Home wants to tailor its degree programs to better fit employers' needs, Heslep said. Part of that will include simulating the work environments of manufacturing plants for learning laboratories and increasing the number of trainers.
"The mechatronics learning lab will be designed to accommodate fast track workforce development training during hours that are conducive to industry needs," the grant application states. "This plan of training expansion will allow regional industry partners to focus on current and ongoing expansion efforts."
The technical programs that ASU-Mountain Home wants to put in place would require students to have strong math and science foundations, officials said in the application. But many incoming students and the existing workforce aren't ready for college level courses, the application states.
Because of that, the college is proposing a co-remediation program, which would allow students to take remedial courses to get them up to speed but also enroll in the college-level course. For technical courses, the college plans to use a computer lab dedicated to remedial efforts.
The college has tried co-remediation "to a limited extent" in some noncredit courses, Heslep said.
"Those have produced promising results, but are extremely basic and don't cover much of what would be required for a true remediation course," Heslep said. "There will have to be a lot of research and collaboration to find a solution that meets the needs of the student and the employers."
In the next year, each of the 21 teams will have plans to match the workforce training to employers' needs.
At ASU-Mountain Home, the groups will identify immediate and long-term needs and work to develop curriculum and delivery of new programs, Heslep said.
UA-Monticello will hold sessions as the year ends to listen to employers and has planned site visits for the first quarter of 2016. The Monticello school wants to have a firm implementation plan in place by April, Jones said.
"In so many rural educational institutions, you have students who come to you, and a lot of times you're training them for jobs that do not exist in your community," Jones said. "In certain disciplines, they go outside the region to fulfill employment," he added.
"For us, it's how do we attract industry and businesses in this area so that we can employ the people who come to us for training and the people who grew up in southeast Arkansas."
Jones said during a recent Monticello Economic Development Commission meeting that officials discussed a business that had a sign up for several years advertising for one particular job, he said.
"This is a major issue for us," Jones said. "I think perhaps more than ever, UAM has an opportunity to be a catalyst in this region."
Metro on 10/18/2015