Task force tackles Northwest Arkansas construction education

BENTONVILLE -- A group of Benton County educators and building industry representatives is working on plans to propel more high school students into construction trades.

The Construction Trades Task Force began meeting in May to develop a curriculum preparing students either for a job straight out of high school or additional training beyond that. The group meets once or twice per month. Its next meeting is Thursday.

Bentonville School District officials have led the discussion, but other Northwest Arkansas districts are participating as well.

"The coolest thing is, it's a collaboration," said Jay Chalk, principal of Gravette High School, who has attended each task force meeting. "A lot of times school districts are off to themselves, being territorial. But I think we've really broken down those barriers."

Bentonville is looking to add construction trades to its Ignite Professional Studies Center program, a partnership involving the district, businesses and the community focused on workforce development. Strands of study within Ignite align with career fields experiencing heavy growth in the region.

Ignite launched this year with a focus on information technology. A construction trades strand will be added to the program next fall.

"During these task force meetings, we've been figuring out what is the industry looking for, what kind of mentoring or sponsorships can we get from local companies," said Bill Burckart of Burckart Construction. Burckart is also a Bentonville city alderman.

Northwest Arkansas is "drastically short" on workers with the skills necessary for construction trades. That includes plumbers, electricians and carpenters, Burckart said.

"We don't have a talent pool coming into the workforce. We have more leaving than we have coming," he said.

The jobs that are available pay well, he added.

Northwest Arkansas Community College also is involved in the task force. The college is rolling out a construction technology degree program next fall.

Keith Peterson, dean of workforce development for the Bentonville college, said the college expects to hear soon from the state about its application for a grant of about $90,000. That would be a planning grant to create courses at the high schools that would link with the college's degree program, Peterson said.

"(The grant) would allow us to bring on a coordinator whose job it would be to work directly with the school districts to determine what their needs are and act as a liaison between the districts, the college and local industry as well," Peterson said.

The task force is considering how the high schools and the college can create a construction trades "highway" for students, with "off-ramps" to work and "on-ramps" back to school -- "something useful to the student based on what their life needs are at the given time," Peterson said.

Two years ago, the Gravette School District started career programs linked with the college. One program allows students to become certified nursing assistants; another offers training in heating and cooling systems. The district will add a welding program next year.

"We realized roughly 42 percent of our graduates weren't going to college, and all they had was a high school diploma," Chalk said. "We had to have something for them."

Task force members' long-term vision is a regional career center that would include construction trades training, Chalk said. The Conway Area Career Center is one example of such a facility; it serves 14 high schools, according to the center's website.

Chalk visited the center in May. The construction trades students there build a house each year that is auctioned off.

"The auction is their budget. The program is self-sustainable because of the money they get from that," Chalk said.

Burckart said he's impressed with the task force's work so far. It's the kind of thing he's been waiting for years to see.

"I'm overwhelmed by everyone's hard work," Burckart said.

NW News on 09/30/2015