Walker plan for worker training gets support

From channel3000.com: “Walker plan for worker training gets support” — Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to spend $35 million to help technical colleges train people for high demand jobs is finding support at a legislative hearing.

Backers of Walker’s proposal testified Tuesday before the Assembly’s Committee on Workforce Development. The full Assembly was expected to vote on the plan next week.

Walker wants to spend $35 million to eliminate waiting lists for high demand fields at technical colleges, help high school students get trained for high-demand jobs through dual enrollment programs and support programs that help people with disabilities find work.

Wisconsin technical college system president Morna Foy says she is “stoked” about the possibility of the funding being approved. She says it would definitely result in more people getting trained for jobs in high-demand areas.

Packers Foundation gives scholarships to NWTC students

From fox6now.com: “Packers Foundation awards $500K to civic and charitable groups” — The Green Bay Packers Foundation on Tuesday, December 17th awarded $500,000 to 188 civic and charitable groups throughout the state of Wisconsin in its annual distribution of grants.

Charlie Lieb, chairman of the Foundation committee, made the announcement.

Overall, including a recent $250,000 major gift to the UW-Green Bay Scholarship Fund, $750,000 was awarded this year.

Both the total donation amount and the number of recipient organizations are records for the Foundation.

The groups were guests at a luncheon in the Lambeau Field Atrium, an event that welcomed all the recipients and honored the outstanding efforts and services performed by each of the organizations.

The Foundation now has distributed more than $3.7 million for charitable purposes since it was established in 1986 by Judge Robert J. Parins, then president of the Packers Corporation, “as a vehicle to assure continued contributions to charity.”

Of the Foundation’s contributions Tuesday, 53 grants – aggregating $142,050 – were awarded to Brown County organizations. Additional grants, totaling $357,950, were made to 135 other groups around the state.

Additionally, under the Packers Scholarship Program established in 2002, $15,000 was awarded – $7,500 to Scholarships Inc., for distribution to students in four-year colleges, and $7,500 to Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC) for distribution to students in two-year associate degree or apprenticeship trades programs.

A portion of the scholarship funds come from National Football League Properties which, at the Packers’ request, returns to the Foundation royalty fees paid for using the Packers logo on Wisconsin automobile license plates.

Because the royalties do not fully cover the scholarships, the Green Bay Packers fund the remainder of the amount, a figure which totals $89,000 since 2006.

In the past year, the Packers Foundation also has distributed an additional $57,375 on behalf of National Football League Foundation – $20,000 in “Community Quarterback” awards to civic leaders for contributions to the community, $12,375 in the NFL’s “Coach of the Week” program, which honors successful Wisconsin high school coaches on a weekly basis throughout the season, $20,000 through the “Hometown Huddle/Youth Fitness Zone” program and $5,000 for the NFL National Partnership Grant focusing on efforts related to the military.

In addition, a $250,000 Matching Youth Football Field Grant was received and was awarded to the Ashwaubenon School District for the redevelopment of the Ashwaubenon High School football stadium and practice fields.

“We’re honored to congratulate and thank this year’s recipients for their excellent work in our communities,” Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy said at the event. “Their efforts inspire us and truly provide a positive impact.”

The Green Bay Packers Foundation Trustees include, in addition to Lieb, Tom Arndt, Rick Chernick, Valerie Daniels-Carter, Ricardo Diaz, Terry Fulwiler, Jerry Ganoni, Mark McMullen, Tom Olson and Hon. John Zakowski. Bobbi Jo Eisenreich is the secretary of the Foundation.

The grants and other programs highlighted Tuesday are two components of the Packers’ efforts in the community. The Packers’ community outreach department responded to more than 10,000 requests from organizations and individuals in 2013 with donated autographed items for fund-raising efforts that raised more than $3 million.

These efforts, combined with direct cash donations by the Packers to various charity endeavors, resulted in a comprehensive Packers charity impact in excess of $6 million in the past year.

 

Labor Secretary praises WTCS partnership with business

From jsonline.com: “IT project to train workforce” — By Tom Perez, US Secretary of Labor – Information technology is a driver of the modern economy — in Wisconsin, nationwide and around the globe. But you don’t need to be Jeff Bezos to have a successful IT-related career.

The Wisconsin Technical College System has designed a new project that will allow more adult learners — in particular veterans, laid-off workers and others whose livelihoods have been disrupted by trade — to acquire the skills necessary to get good IT jobs.

During a visit Wednesday to Gateway Technical College in southeastern Wisconsin, one of the partners in this 16-college consortium, I will highlight a $23 million statewide grant that the federal government is making to support this innovative and dynamic curriculum.

I’m eager to see firsthand how federal dollars will improve Gateway’s ability to create a pipeline of workers with the IT competencies needed in advanced manufacturing. I’m looking forward to talking with students, with school officials from several of the community colleges and with the business partners who are essential to the program’s success.

The grant is a part of the U.S. Labor Department’s TAACCCT program; that stands for Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training. As an acronym, it leaves something to be desired. But as an investment in our community colleges’ capacity to prepare Americans for 21st-century jobs, it is critical and unprecedented.

Partnership on several levels is the key to the program’s success; indeed, it is a prerequisite for consideration for a grant. Local businesses in particular are directly involved so that the colleges are aligning their instruction — hand in glove — with local industry’s needs.

This kind of demand-driven approach is the only sensible way to build human capital and empower the workforce. There’s no point in offering a certification or credential in advanced widget manufacturing if no company in the area is hiring widget technicians.

Working in collaboration with several employer partners, the Wisconsin IT project will give people the training required to become everything from human resource specialists to multimedia artists, from web developers to pharmacy technicians. Grant dollars will be used throughout the Badger State — to enhance programs in computer support, to create new career pathways that combine health and IT-related skills and more.

Skills development is a pillar of President Barack Obama’s strategy to grow the economy from the middle out, not from the top down. We have a talented and resilient workforce. But for our workers to climb ladders of opportunity, they need us to strengthen the rungs. They need us to invest in their potential.

Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training does exactly that, helping workers learn precisely those state-of-the-art skills that employers need and that will keep our economy strong for decades to come.

The program is now in its third year, having pumped nearly $1.5 billion total into community colleges nationwide. The latest round of funding, announced earlier this fall, includes 57 grants that will support projects in every state, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. They will expand programs in a range of growing industries including advanced manufacturing, transportation and health care.

The career training program helps businesses stay on the competitive cutting edge in a complex global economy. And for workers, it serves as a springboard into the middle class, catapulting them into jobs that can support a family and provide basic economic security.

We’re proud to help Wisconsin community colleges offer top-notch IT instruction. And the career training program overall is critical to the Obama administration’s mission of creating economic growth, opportunity and widely shared prosperity.

 

NTC Phillips Campus in midst of expansion

From pricecountydaily.com: “NTC Phillips Campus in midst of expansion” — An expansion project geared at better meeting the needs of one increasingly in-demand base for education in the Northwoods is moving forward at Northcentral Technical College’s Phillips Campus.

Each year, NTC completes two major capital projects, and current construction efforts at the Phillips Campus make up one of those projects for 2013.

The overhaul involves an expansion of the manufacturing lab along with the addition of 4,500 square feet of new classroom space to the southwest corner of the campus building.

“What it’s going to mean is that the Phillips Campus is going to be able to support more programs such as the machine tool and the manufacturing technician, which will complement our one-year and one-semester welding programs,” said NTC North Campus Dean Roberta Damrow.

The footings and floors for both areas of expansion are in. Now, the campus is waiting for segments of the actual building to arrive, something project leaders believe will happen in mid-January.

Damrow noted that these project aspects are expected to be wrapped up in April.

It looks like the new spaces will be useable in time for summer classes and then see full scheduling by fall semester of next year, as Damrow explained.

One really nice feature about the classroom addition is that the partition between two distinct classrooms can be opened up to create a larger area spanning 1,700-square feet, Damrow noted. This feature will help cover the campus’ increased need for face-to-face instruction to support expanded offerings in the manufacturing lab while at the same time providing a space different groups can utilize outside of school hours.

“We should be able to support community needs for large groups,” Damrow said.

Four new IVC (Interactive Video Conferencing) rooms will be added along with the large, connectable classrooms.

This will allow the North Campus of NTC to stream more courses offered at other campuses across the college system. Damrow sees this increased distance learning capacity being particularly useful when it comes to meeting community needs for continuing education, something that’s a cornerstone of work in the early childhood field or the food and beverage industry, to name a few career areas.

“Any sort of occupation that needs continuing education. We’ll be able to stream in more classes so people don’t have to travel as far to be recertified,” Damrow said.

Expansion plans also call for the creation of something called a net meeting room, which will hold 16 computer spaces for students taking online and Adobe Connect classes.

This allows for more flexibility in course offerings to meet the diverse needs of different learners.

A new set of bathrooms is also in construction plans for the larger classroom space.

In addition to the building expansions, contractors are putting up a stand-alone storage shed behind the main building to house equipment and materials for use in the manufacturing lab. This structure is on schedule to be completed before Thanksgiving.

“The Price County campus continues to see growth, and we attribute that to the newer campus and the newer programming that we continue to bring in…” Damrow said.

Area residents find in NTC a nearby institution where they can access a range of education options, as Damrow explained.

Instructors at the Phillips Campus sees a number of high school students “getting a jump on their college career” via technical college courses that are transferable to other colleges, as well as students who spent their first year post-high school at the campus and then transfer to Wausau or other colleges across the state.

“It’s a cost effective way to start your education. It’s also a cost-effective way to earn your first degree, and we know that lifelong learning is the way of the future, so we intend to continue to be innovative in offering things that are going to support the local industries,” Damrow said.

The campus is tentatively planning for a spring ribbon cutting to dedicate the new spaces.

 

Mobile labs bring manufacturing equipment to high schools

From greenbaypressgazette.com: “Thriving manufacturing sector shows it stuff at Expo” — The breadth and depth of Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector was on display at the Manufacturing First Expo & Conference.

Clintonville’s Specialized Products Ltd., Middleton’s Meridian Laboratory, Green Bay’s The Lake Companies and many others demonstrated why Wisconsin is the nation’s second-largest manufacturing state. More than 16 percent of the state’s economy is tied to manufacturing, and to hear business representatives tell it Thursday at the KI Convention Center in downtown Green Bay, business is good.

Gina Webster of Specialized Products said a statement that Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector grew 35 percent during the last four years seems right.

“That sounds pretty consistent with what we experienced,” she said. “This year has been down a little, but last year we had a fantastic year.”

The positive attitude among Wisconsin manufacturers also reflects a national trend. U.S. factory activity expanded in October at the fastest pace in 2½ years. Overseas demand and healthy U.S. auto sales appear to be supporting factory output. The housing recovery is also lifting the furniture and wood products industry despite a recent slowing in home sales.

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index for October rose to 56.4 from 56.2 in September. A reading above 50 indicates growth.

U.S. factory activity has now risen at an increasingly fast pace for five straight months, according to the ISM’s index. In October, a measure of new orders rose slightly. And a gauge of production fell but remained at a high level. Factories added jobs, though more slowly than in September.

Factories also expanded in Europe this month, though at a slightly slower pace, according to surveys in that region. Manufacturing indexes have all picked up in China, Japan, and South Korea.

The overseas strength is boosting demand for U.S. factories. A measure of export orders jumped to its highest level in nearly a year and a half in October, the ISM report said.

Meridian Laboratory in Middleton is representative of many small Wisconsin businesses that do precision work for global distribution. A quarter of its rotary-electrical products go to Korea and 20 percent to Japan. It has a growing presence in China, and the rest goes to customers throughout the United States. The company has 11 employees. Most of them have been with the company for 20 years or more.

The company’s willingness to do small precision orders fills a niche, said Sven Krause, new business development manager.

“We are small, specialized and specific,” he said.

Specialized of Clintonville specializes in wire-harness assembly, electromechanical assemblies, soldering, mold production and prototyping, among other things. The company has 130 employees.

“Probably our biggest problem is we’ve grown so fast in 20 years,” Webster said.

For The Lake Companies, the challenge is finding workers with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and manufacturing experience. The software services vendor has 35 employees.

“We have always been challenged at that,” said Karen Sikorski, senior account manager.

One solution has been to hire former employees of customers — they don’t go after current workers — or find people with ERP experience in other industries.

Sikorski said a number of their customers are expanding, adding either work areas or employees.

Creating new manufacturing workers was one theme of Thursday’s event. Northeast Wisconsin Technical College of Green Bay and Lakeshore Technical College of Cleveland were on-site with mobile training labs, and groups of high school students toured the exhibit hall, which had more than 130 vendors.

The mobile labs allow the college to expose high school students to up-to-date equipment.

“As you drive down to the high school level, the biggest challenge you have is facilities,” said Peter Thillman, dean of workforce and economic development at Lakeshore. “That’s the big thing, to get the equipment in their hands.”

Kevin Grabian, instructor for NWTC, said jobs are available to those who want and prepare for them.

“You can come out of TC with an electromechanical degree and have your pick,” he said. “You can’t be just an electrical guy or just a mechanical guy. They want both.”

The expo was sponsored by First Business Bank-Northeast, Insight magazine and NEW Manufacturing Alliance.

 

Tech college dean reflects on career

From ehextra.com: “Calling it a career” — MARINETTE – Pat O’Hara calls today the golden age for technical colleges because the skills students leave with are those employers seek.

“It’s really job-specific technical skills that are a premium in the workforce right now,” he said.

O’Hara added that the workforce has changed significantly during the past 20 years.

“The demand locally, statewide and nationally is that everyone has some post high-school education but not necessarily a bachelor’s degree,” he said. “It could be something even more short-term such as a one- or two-year program.”

O’Hara, 63, who recently retired as campus dean of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College-Marinette after 141⁄2 years, will miss his colleagues the most.

“I’ve worked with some awfully good professional people who cared about their community,” he said.

It’s not the exemplary star student who comes to mind when O’Hara thinks about his tenure at the college.

“It’s the people who really needed the extra help you could affect at a time when they’re in need whether creating a GED program at the jail, working with dislocated workers or starting an emergency fund for students who needed some financial assistance,” he said.

O’Hara, a native of Council Bluffs, Iowa, received a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and a master’s degree in education from Drake University in Des Moines.

He said education wasn’t just a job but a calling in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

“So we were saving the world,” O’Hara said. “It’s hard to lose that mentality that you were put on earth to save the world even though you knew you couldn’t.”

Students had a limited menu of options when he arrived in June 1999.

“Now we’re really a full service, comprehensive college campus,” O’Hara said.

Besides offering more programs and a larger curriculum for students to choose from, NWTC-Marinette also boasts a broader range of support services including academic and financial aid advising, counseling and testing and career services.

“And, of course, I did not do that alone in any way, shape or form,” O’Hara said, laughing. “These are things that happened while I was there. You never do anything alone. There’s no white horse, trust me.”

O’Hara just received a State of Wisconsin Citation by the Senate which recognizes his career and contributions for the past 26 years. During his tenure at NWTC-Marinette, O’Hara added new programs in health, business and trades; developed training programs for dislocated workers, particularly during plant closings during the 2008 recession; worked with the American Association For Community Colleges on bringing grants to the school to promote manufacturing careers and entrepreneurship; oversaw $4.1 million in NWTC building additions to the Marinette campus and North Coast Center on Main Street and increased campus enrollments by 75 percent.

NWTC-Marinette currently has about 430 full-time equivalency students and a total enrollment of more than 3,200 students. In 1999, it had about 250 full-time equivalency students and a total enrollment of about 1,200 students. The college also has about a 90 percent job placement rate in an occupation related to a student’s training within the first six months of graduation.

During retirement, O’Hara will serve as president of the board of directors at the Marinette-Menominee Area Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the Tri-City Area United Way Campaign Committee and intake coordinator for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program through the college and United Way.

He’d also like to return to oil painting, sailing, kayaking, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. O’Hara wants to spend more time with his nine grandchildren, too.

“Unfortunately, I like to eat too much and I didn’t seem to abandon that,” O’Hara said, laughing.

FVTC ag instructor comments on impact of shutdown

From fox11online.com:  “Area farmers affected by shutdown” — APPLETON – The shutdown of the federal government is causing headaches for many.

One group affected by the stalemate in Congress is farmers, and depending on how long the shutdown lasts, you could pay more at the grocery store.

Appleton dairy farmer Mark Petersen told FOX 11 he is ready to put Congress out to pasture.

“No matter what side of the aisle they are, because their job is ironing these things out and sitting down and compromising and talk and come up with a solution. They’re not doing it,” said Petersen.

Petersen and farmers like him rely on the government for a lot of their business planning.

Randy Tenpas with Fox Valley Technical College’s Agriculture Department told us the federal shutdown is frustrating.

“The real impact will be felt the longer we go from this,” Tenpas explained.

Tenpas told us 23 agencies affiliated with agriculture are shut down right now. Even the USDA’s website is offline.

“You’re looking for a federal loan, for example, for expansion. That’s on hold right now,” Tenpas explained.

According to Tenpas, certain permits and subsidy payments will also be delayed.

Tenpas said, however, the widest-felt impact would likely be food inspections. He told us there will still be inspections to ensure national standards, but with fewer federal staff, those inspections will happen at a slower pace.

“What if we can’t ship and export products because it’s not inspected? That’ll have an impact and we may see that in commodity prices,” said Tenpas.

Tenpas told us at this point there’s not much farmers can do but wait and see what happens next.

“Just going to have to have a little patience,” said Tenpas.

Petersen told us no matter what happens in the federal government, farmers are going to keep doing what they do.

“Farmers are going to keep producing and they’re going to keep taking care of their business,” said Petersen.

On top of that, Congress has yet to pass a new farm bill.  An extension expired Sept. 30. That means dairy farmers will have to wait for their checks from the federal milk income loss program.

Participation in job fair shows hiring on upswing

From waow.com: “Job fair in Wisconsin Rapids full of employers” — Hundreds of job seekers headed to Mid State Technical College in Wisconsin Rapids.

The school held its annual job fair Thursday and coordinators say the turnout was better than expected.

According to the latest jobs report, businesses across the country continued to hire new workers in August.

Employers from all over Wisconsin attended the job fair.

From Madison to Green Bay, employers were looking for workers.

The job seekers included students and people of all ages.

57 employers set up booths in the gymnasium on Mid State Tech’s campus.

Organizers tell Newsline 9 that it’s the most booths they’ve had for the fall fair in several years.

“This past spring we had 58, this time we have 57, which is very encouraging and I’ve done this for a number of years and in the fall it’s usually pretty small, but this is our best fall in over seven years,” said Stephany Hartman, Career Services employee with Mid State Technical College.

Mid State Technical College holds two job fairs per year.

School leaders say the next one is in April of 2014.

 

Walker, GOP legislators to focus on job training

From jsonline.com: “Scott Walker, GOP legislators to focus on job training in fall session” — Madison — Ahead of a major jobs report expected this week, Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature’s top two GOP leaders said Tuesday they will spend $8.5 million more in state money over the next year and a half to train the state’s workers for in-demand jobs such as manufacturing.

Walker, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) laid out worker training as one of their legislative priorities for the fall, saying they plan to pass eight Republican and Democratic bills aimed at that goal. Walker said the three leaders would have more announcements in the coming days on creating jobs and improving schools.

One of the bills highlighted Tuesday by the governor would put $1 million more over the next two years into the state’s Youth Apprenticeship program that works with on-the-job trainees as well as high school students. Overall, the new proposals would pull down an additional $14 million in federal matching dollars over the next year and a half.

“People are hungry to do more things to create the economic environment in the state where businesses can create jobs,” Walker said of state leaders.

So far, Republicans have outlined a modest agenda for the remaining legislative session ending this spring, including a bill to allow a mining company to close off its land to protesters, hunters and the public and another to hold private voucher schools receiving taxpayer money to standards similar to those of public schools. Other potential bills include an overhaul of election laws and a ban on taxpayer money covering abortions under public employee health plans.

Over the past 21/2 years, GOP lawmakers and Walker have passed so many elements of their conservative agenda that they’ve been moving slower since they returned to the Capitol this fall. The Assembly chose not to take to the floor in September, putting off votes until next month.

Democrats have criticized Walker and Republican legislators for cuts they made to technical colleges and their training programs two years ago. The current budget gives tech schools $5 million more in state money over two years, but that doesn’t make up for the 30% cut passed in 2011, which dropped state funding for technical schools from $119.3 million a year to $83.5 million.

“It’s inadequate to a state that is significantly lagging in job creation,” Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) said of the proposals highlighted Tuesday. “This is far too little far too late to really have the kind of impact that’s necessary at this time.”

The state’s economy will play a key role in the re-election campaign next year for Walker, who in his initial 2010 campaign promised to create 250,000 private-sector jobs in his first four-year term.

With 16 months left in that term, the state has created 89,882 jobs, according to a PolitiFact Wisconsin analysis of the latest estimates. That’s a little more than a third of the way toward his goal.

Fitzgerald said he hoped to pass the jobs bills by the end of the year, saying they would improve on the state’s current efforts rather than make a radical departure.

“I think what you’re seeing is a fine-tuning of existing programs,” he said.

The bills would:

■ Pay for up to 25% of the cost of tuition for an apprenticeship program, with maximum payments of $1,000 per student.

■ Give incentive payments to school districts of up to $1,000 per student if they developed programs encouraging students to get certificates in high-need industries before they graduate from high school. The measure would initially provide $3 million in additional funding for schools.

■ Provide $4 million in state funds for vocational rehabilitation services for people with disabilities. The program is expected to lure $14 million in federal funding as well, helping to serve another 3,000 people over two years.

■ Create a scholarship program for top students who want to pursue a technical education.

■ Revive a program that allows people to get job training while they are unemployed and continue to receive unemployment benefits while they do so.

■ Allow students to take state licensing exams before they complete their training, with the license issued as soon as they finish their training. This would prevent graduates from having to wait weeks or months before taking a licensing test.

■ Create a new transitional jobs program outside of Milwaukee so low-income people could build their job skills. The program would supplement one for Milwaukee included in the state budget.

In other news Tuesday, Wisconsin ranked as one of the best states in the country in a monthly index of economic activity issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Last week’s report from the state Department of Workforce Development showed that Wisconsin added an estimated 7,300 private-sector jobs in August, though those preliminary numbers are subject to heavy revisions.

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate also declined last month to 6.7% in August from 6.8% in July. The rate fell mainly because several thousand unemployed Wisconsinites quit looking for work, which removed them from the official tally of the unemployed.

Nationally, the proportion of Americans working or looking for work fell to its lowest level in 35 years.

The most comprehensive set of jobs numbers for Wisconsin — a more reliable but less timely report covering the first three months of 2013 — comes out Thursday.

Lawmakers won’t just be considering jobs bills this fall.

The Senate, for instance, has yet to decide what to do with two abortion bills passed by the Assembly this year. One would ban abortions that are chosen because of the fetus’ sex and the other would bar public workers from using their government health insurance to pay for the procedure.

In June, the Assembly also approved a bill allowing online voter registration and doubling the amount of money donors can give candidates for governor and the Legislature. Senate leaders have not determined what they will do with the measure.

An earlier version of the measure included changes to election laws, and Assembly leaders have said they would like to adopt at least some of them later this session. The earlier package would have made it harder to recall municipal and school officials, limited early voting and modified the state’s voter ID law, which has been blocked by a judge.

 

Trailer will bring Nicolet College to area communities

From StarJournalNow.com: “Trailer will bring Nicolet College to area communities” —  The Nicolet Area Technical College district covers more than 4,000 square miles so for those living in the district it may not be easy to get to the main campus located just outside of Rhinelander for certain services.

The college has moved to remedy this with a new trailer that will be taken around to area communities to bring the school to prospective students.

“We can really do anything in the trailer that we can do in our office,” Kenneth Urban, Nicolet vice president of teaching, learning and student success, said. “The only thing we can’t do is testing. But financial aid, registration, we can do that in this trailer.”

Urban was one of the leading figures in trying to find a way the college could reach all corners of the district.

“Our district is 80 percent the size of Connecticut so we have a big area to cover,” Urban said. “It is not easy for people to sometimes get the services they need by coming to the main campus.”

The idea to bring those services to the district via trailer was the logical next step so the college began looking for a suitable vehicle.

Fortunately, they did not have to look far.

“Luckily the Wisconsin Technical College System Foundation is the organization that handles federal property in Wisconsin,” Urban said. “They had a FEMA trailer sitting in their lot in Waunakee.”

The trailer, Urban said, was just a typical camping trailer so the college needed to put work into it to make it a mobile extension of the college.

Again, the school did not have far to go to find qualified help.

“We have some very talented students and staff at this school,” Urban said.

Students and staff went to work on gutting the trailer and putting in the equipment and finishes needed to make the trailer function like the home office.

They removed the bathroom and made that they technology hub and electrical hub that feeds the two computer work stations in the area. They turned a couch into a work surface and installed an oak table with the college’s oak leaf logo.

On the outside, of the trailer, the students modified the main side window and inside built a storage case that houses a flat panel television, one of two in the unit.

“The idea is that you would pull up to where you are going to set up, you put the awing down and set up a table in front and have the television playing behind you with information,” Urban said. “We can customize the message to whatever we are doing that day. If we are there for financial aid sign up, we can have a video about financial aid playing. Or if it is a general visit, we can have a video of information about the school playing.”

Urban said the idea is to have at least two school representatives with the trailer when it goes to events in communities to help people with their needs. But he adds the college is still experimenting on how it best works in the real world.

“It has been out on one official event and that was Rediculous Dae in Rhinelander,” he said. “People really liked it. We learned thought that we need paper weights for the papers on the table outside. But that is where we are at right now, we are experimenting to see what we need and how the trailer works best.”

The trailer will be used for two more events this year though those dates have not been finalized but Urban said he is excited to get the unit out in the public.

“We want to take it where the people that will use the college the most will be,” he said. “We will stay away from tourist events, but you will see this trailer at high school football games where a couple of schools in our district are playing each other or other events where people that use the college will be.”

Lakeshore Technical College building expansion begins

From htrnews.com: “Lakeshore Technical College building expansion begins” — CLEVELAND — Lakeshore Technical College’s building expansion and renovation project, announced in late April, began when ground was broken on July 25. By expanding the college’s Flexible Training Arena and renovating the Trade and Industry building on the Cleveland campus, LTC will help fill local manufacturers’ pressing need for welders, machine tool and industrial maintenance workers while alleviating waiting lists, according to a news release from LTC.

The project will be completed in two phases, the first of which is expanding the 18,000-square-foot Flexible Training Arena to 32,400 square feet. Remodeling of the Trade and Industry building will begin in January. The project will allow for more graduates, and updated equipment will train workers with the machining, welding and robotic skills that manufacturers need.

“Thanks to the support of local business and individuals, we’ve been successful in raising enough private funds to break ground,” LTC President Michael Lanser said in the news release. “Our first additional class will graduate and be employment ready by August 2014.”

Nearly $900,000 has been raised thus far as part of the first capital campaign in the college’s 100-year history. LTC hopes to raise $2.1 million in private funds to help offset the $6.1 million project, and it now will broaden its reach to local communities for support.

“By collaborating with local business and philanthropic organizations to help fund the project, we are able to reduce public funding to the point of not requiring a referendum,” Lanser said. “It allows us to address our local manufacturers’ employment needs more quickly.”

A recent report from the U.S. Commerce Department shows Wisconsin ranks second among all states in manufacturing earnings. Manitowoc County derives 29 percent of all earnings from manufacturing. According to a report prepared for Gov. Scott Walker by former Bucyrus Erie CEO Tim Sullivan, the manufacturing worker shortage will reach a critical stage in 2018 as Wisconsin must fill 925,000 jobs, many of them in the skilled trade area, due to growth and baby boomer retirements. In the Lakeshore area alone, an annual average of 293 openings exists for machinists, welders, millwrights, industrial and maintenance mechanics, electricians and electromechanical workers.

LTC currently has capacity to provide an average of fewer than 100 graduates for those positions, and the lack of facilities further limits LTC’s ability to address the incumbent worker training needs of local manufacturers and creates waiting lists that thwart student interest, the news release states.

“We know that 87 percent of LTC grads live and work in the Lakeshore area,” Lanser said. “Our local manufacturers will benefit from that, and the family-supporting wages they pay to our first group of graduates will add nearly $9.5 million to the local economy in just five years. It may also attract new employers looking for a skilled workforce. It’s a great value.”

Baldwin encouraged about jobs by LTC visit

From sheboyganpress.com: “Baldwin encouraged about jobs by LTC visit” — Sen. Tammy Baldwin says she worries about the middle class and the people whose lives have been irreversibly changed by the recession and job loss.

 

On Monday, she met some of those people at Lakeshore Technical College and was heartened by what she learned.

“Their enthusiasm inspired me,” said Baldwin after touring the campus and its public safety, robotics and advanced manufacturing programs. “They’re really excited about the challenge they have either just tackled or are about to tackle. I know going back to school in one’s 40s or early 50s has got to be incredibly intimidating but again, it really inspired me.”

Baldwin, who has made manufacturing jobs one of the centerpieces of her work on Capitol Hill since she was elected in November, serves on a variety of Senate committees that have an interest in the work LTC is doing.

They include the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and its work with the Workforce Investment Act, the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Baldwin has traveled across the state visiting technical colleges to learn about how they are training students for high-skilled positions, growing their manufacturing programs, and partnering with local businesses and organizations to address local employment and skill-training needs.

“Advanced manufacturing in the 21st century is different than it was last century,” she said. “A lot of folks who were displaced in the deep recession and for other reasons from manufacturing jobs, you would think they are ripe for the picking for advanced manufacturing industries, but (that is) not so much the case. Really, many have had to go back mid-career to get advanced skills. That’s exciting and an opportunity.”

Alan Michaels is one of those people.

Now 51, Michaels enrolled in the LTC’s electromechanical program after his first career in dairy farming ended.

Talking with Baldwin outside LTC’s mobile advanced manufacturing lab, Michaels said his opportunities are already better than they would be if he’d gone for a liberal arts bachelor’s degree.

“The demand for electromechanical graduates is greater than the supply,” said Michaels, 51, of Glenbeulah. “Everybody’s getting two, three, four job offers.”

Michaels and Rich Hoerth, the executive dean of manufacturing, trades and agriculture, also talked briefly about the stigma that still keeps high school graduates out of technical schools like LTC in favor of four-year colleges.

“The problem is, (parents and high schools) are sending them to college and not to a tech school, where the jobs are and the pay is,” Michaels said.

After touring the public safety program facilities, including the props used to teach aspiring firefighters how to handle fires in buildings, train cars, trash bins and vehicles, Baldwin checked out the robotics lab and machine tool lab.

“The reason I ran for the U.S. Senate in the very first place is I want to see Wisconsin manufacturing thrive, I want to see the middle class grow and become strong again,” she said. “We’re a state that historically has grown things and made things and I think we can’t get ahead in a globally competitive future without a strong investment and strong attention to our manufacturing and industrial sector.”

Baldwin said the students she met, including Monica Larson and Michael Nelson, are symbols of what technical education and public-private cooperation can mean in the lives of families and communities.

“As they are trying to improve themselves, improve the future prospects for their families, their children, they’re living the American dream,” Baldwin said. “I want to make sure there’s adequate public support for what they’re doing. Whatever that form takes, I want to be there supporting what they’re doing to improve their communities, their families and their lives.”

Gov. Walker announces apprenticeship grants

From bizjournals.com: “MPS, GPS Education Partners receive Wisconsin youth apprenticeship grants” — Gov. Scott Walker on Friday announced $1.86 million in Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship grant awards to train high school juniors and seniors in the upcoming school year, including students across the Milwaukee area.

The North Central WI School-to-Career Partnership received the largest grant: $225,599. Grants also include $139,871 for Waukesha County STW Partnership, $132,351 for GPS Education Partners and $40,608 for Milwaukee Public Schools.

Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development administered $1.6 million in grants last year for the skills training program, which trained about 1,900 students at more than 1,300 employers. More than 75 percent of those who finished a two-year youth apprenticeship scored a job with the employer that provided their training, Walker’s office said.

“Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship helps students train for in-demand careers,” Walker said. “The program is a key part of our goal to equip workers with the skills employers need and to help workers succeed in those jobs. I am pleased that we will build on the success of this program by serving hundreds of additional students this year through strengthened collaborations and innovation among local partners.”

This year’s grants will go to 31 regional consortia across Wisconsin. The number of student participants is still being finalized.

Those groups include school districts and alternative education programs, such as GPS Education Partners, formerly known as Second Chance Partners for Education, which has been rapidly expanding.

Wisconsin’s Youth Apprenticeship program began in 1991 and includes 40 occupations. Students complete on-the-job training with the employer and receive technical college-level instruction at their local high schools. At the end, they have earned a program completion certificate, potential technical college credit and the skills necessary to be hired into an entry-level job.

 

Grant helps Nicolet College manufacturing program

From wjfw.com: “Grant helps Nicolet College manufacturing” — Rhinelander – Rhinelander – Paying for college can be hard.

New grants can help Northwoods manufacturing students get a head start.

Nicolet College got together with five employers to offer assistance grants.

Wausau Paper, P-C-A, Foster and Smith, Hypro and Printpack want workers.

The companies endorsed the Industrial Mechanical Technician Program as a way for students to get a foot in the door. “It’s a great career path. It can be rewarding,” said Trade and Industry Dean, Brigitte Parsons

“It can allow someone to stay in Northern Wisconsin, stay close to family to resources they grew up around. It’s pretty exciting.”

The average starting wages in manufacturing here range from 14 dollars to 24 dollars an hour.

Parsons has high hopes for the manufacturing industry.

“Regionally employers have identified a need for individuals with maintenance repair type of skills to work in manufacturing sector,” Parson said.

“So we can expect to see many jobs in the very near future with our grant partners.”

Fall semester classes will start August 26th.

 

NTC’s Phillips campus to see expansion

From pricecountydaily.com: “NTC’s Phillips campus to see expansion” — Northcentral Technical College’s (NTC) North Campus in Phillips is gearing up for an expansion project aimed at better meet the needs of community industries and accommodating the swelling number of learners advancing their skills and knowledge there.

“We’re seeing some extraordinary growth at the campus in Phillips,” NTC Dean Roberta Damrow said when introducing the project to city officials at the June 4 meeting of the Phillips Committee of the Whole.

In 2012, the campus served around 1,200 learners, some of them on paths of continuing education and others enrolled fulltime.

Damrow described last year’s enrollment total as “unprecedented” for Phillips.

Beyond student growth, additions aim at addressing the needs of local employees as determined through community meetings, according to Damrow.

Damrow said that NTC “heard loud and clear” that a machine shop was needed along with a means for building technical skills in machining. Reps of the college also picked up on the fact that local industries would like to see a manufacturing technician degree added. The area of study prepares learners to be, as Damrow puts it, “a jack of all trades,” and draws on skill-sets in electronics, welding, and machining as needed.

“So, we’re working on some curriculum development, but what that means is that we didn’t have enough room,” Damrow said.

She presented a printout of the campus to help illustrate to city officials where the two additions are going.

The first part of the expansion project will put 2,300 square feet worth of added flex lab space on the front of the existing lab wing.

A 4,500 square-foot classroom addition is planned for the south end of the building. Key features of the new space include meeting and ITV distance education areas as well as two large classrooms. Able to accommodate up to 100 people at a time, the classrooms will be available for community events outside of instruction hours.

“That’s something we wanted to be able to do to be a good community partner,” Damrow said.

The expansion will bring the total size of campus facilities from 17,500 to 23,5000 square-feet. That’s a great departure from the original campus building, a green number covering only about 5,000 square-feet. This relatively humble building served Phillips learners from the time NTC’s North Campus was founded in 1987 until 2010, when an extensive renovation project wrapped up thanks to the donation of land and a warehouse building by Phillips Plastics.

“So, we’re going to be able to accommodate a lot more learners,” Damrow said.

Last year, NTC’s North Campus in Phillips saw learners from a total of 19 counties and four states.

“People are coming from many different areas to live and work and be in this community, and they’re taking classes to kind of get retooled,” Damrow said.

The project will be funded using money in NTC’s capital budget.

“[Funding] goes to where the demand is, and we were able to show a demand,” Damrow said.

Bids for the project are slated to be opened sometime in July, with a late-July ground breaking tentatively scheduled. The goal is to have the additions ready in time for the start of second semester classes in January.

Skilled trades workers needed for new construction projects

From nbc15.com: “Skilled trades workers needed for new construction projects” — Sun Prairie — Everywhere you look new construction is popping up all over the place in Wisconsin.

While the boom in business is good for the economy, it’s turning into a problem for contractors like Dan Duren.

“Right now, we have people to draw from but we are fighting over those people we have,” said Duren.

He’s the owner of Duren Custom Builders, and has homes to build but not enough skilled tradesmen to work on them.

“There’s concrete work, foundation work, flat work, roofers, siders, insulators, electricians, plumbers, HVAC guys, there’s a whole list,” said Duren.

He’s not the only one on the hunt. Wednesday on Craiglist there were dozens of similar postings. Meantime, at Madison Area Technical College, remodeling instructor John Stephany’s phone is ringing off the hook.

“I already had over a third of our students hired and was fielding calls daily,” said Stephany.

He says the uptick is due to low interest rates, and people deciding to move forward with homes. However, many skilled workers turned in their tool belts during the recession, and now people like Duren are feeling the impact.

“It’s the young guys coming in, the young blood coming into the workforce we’re lacking on,” said Duren.

According to MATC this trend is also happening in other parts of the country like Texas, and Florida, something they believe will only grow in the coming months.

 

Tech colleges create classes that cater to local employer needs

From industrytoday.com: “Wisconsin: Leading America’s Manufacturing Resurgence” — Nimble, connected companies are exchanging information, analytics, lean processes and best practices with the traditional ingredients of skilled labor and machines to create and distribute products to customers across the globe.

Read more from industrytoday.com

 

Grants to WTCS for alternative fuel training

From madison.com: “Grants help fuel CNG growth” — Since 2009, the Wisconsin Clean Transportation Program has been promoting and doling out $15 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy to aid government and private companies with alternative fuel programs.

The grants have helped build 13 private and four public alternative fueling or electric charging stations and has deployed 278 vehicles, with another 35 planned.

Officials estimate the program will displace over 1.6 million gallons of petroleum a year.

CNG-converted vehicles from the program include 19 for Dane County and 26 for the city of Milwaukee.

Another series of grants totaling more than $1.2 million from the Department of Energy is also helping CNG development.

It includes a $500,000 grant for planning, training and infrastructure development in a partnership with the Wisconsin Technical College System and over $764,000 for the Lake Michigan Corridor Alternative Fuel Implementation Initiative that includes Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.

Retiring fire chief serves on MSTC Advisory Committee

From marshfieldnewsherald.com: “Retiring fire chief reflects on 31-year career” — Marshfield Fire Chief James Schmidt retires May 24 after more than 31 years of service to the Marshfield Fire and Rescue Department. I had a chance to sit down with him recently to reflect on his career and more than three decades of service to the city of Marshfield.

A Wisconsin native, Chief Schmidt grew up in the Fox Valley area and attended school in Appleton. His father worked for a large fire apparatus manufacturer in Appleton, and his uncle worked for a fire department in the Milwaukee suburbs. The seeds of a career in the fire service had been cast. Upon graduation, he enrolled in the Fire Protection Program at Fox Valley Technical College, graduating in 1981. He completed the cadet program a Grand Chute and Oshkosh Fire departments. Shortly after graduation, he landed his first full-time career in the fire service with the Kaukauna Fire Department.

A strong work ethic and a desire to serve the public in concert with all the ideologies of a new recruit were met with the realities of recession and budget cuts. After only six months on the job, the new recruit’s position was eliminated.

Newly unemployed in a recession that was affecting most municipalities in Wisconsin, Schmidt began testing state-wide for positions. On April 5, 1982, he accepted a position with the Marshfield Fire Department.

Clayton Simonson was the fire chief at the time. The Marshfield Fire Department was in the process of addressing a referendum regarding the Optional Powers of the Fire and Police Commission, the reorganization of the two platoon shift schedule, and a paid-on-call firefighter program. Firefighters had many questions for Schmidt about his time at Kaukauna, Oshkosh and Grand Chute and the schedules and operations at those locations.

He served as an acting lieutenant/relief lieutenant before being promoted to deputy chief of the Red Shift on Aug. 7, 2001. In that capacity, he was responsible for the city and county hazmat team, the Fire Investigation Team and specialized rescue programs. He secured a grant for the purchase of rescue vehicles, equipment and training as part of a Central Wisconsin Collapse Rescue Team. He was a fire investigator for the city and served on the Wood County Fire Investigation Task Force as secretary/treasurer and president.

Schmidt was instrumental in developing the regional training center in partnership with Mid-State Technical College. The training center is one of his proudest accomplishments. As a fire service instructor, he recognizes the complexities of emergency service response and making sure our rescue workers are prepared.

Schmidt is on the board of directors for the Wisconsin State Fire Chiefs Association, co-chairman of the Wisconsin Technical College System Fire Service Advisory Committee on Education and Training and chairman of the MSTC Fire Service Advisory Committee.

People always are curious about rescue workers’ most memorable calls.

“You remember a lot of calls for various reasons,” Schmidt said. “The calls that seem to stick with me are the untimely deaths of the young, whether it is by traumatic accident or illness.

“If pressed, I would say the Central State Supply fire on Depot Street early in my career was one of the more memorable because I was treated and released from the hospital for smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion,” Schmidt said.

“I also responded to a fatal fire that same year where a young child perished. I can still see vividly the image of the lifeless child being carried in the arms of another firefighter from a second-story closet.”

The downtown Magic Moments fire on April 1, 2005, was the largest multi-agency fire response Schmidt commanded.

In three decades of service, the biggest changes in the Marshfield Fire and Rescue Department from Schmidt’s perspective are the development of the paramedic ambulance service, the advancements in personal protective equipment, firefighter safety and the cost of vehicles.

When Schmidt started in 1982, the annual fire department budget was $800,000; this year it was just under $4 million.

Other notable changes are in training and education. We have a more educated workforce, and advancements in state and national standards have increased the need for more training to meet the many varied emergencies to which today’s fire departments respond.

“I am happy to say the fire service has become more proactive versus reactive,” Schmidt said. “The fire department culture has become more professional and less traditional.

“We have become the risk managers of our community,” he said. “We spend more time identifying potential threats, analyzing the risk, and assessing our vulnerabilities.”

“Through our fire prevention and training efforts, responsive fire codes, improved building design, and cooperation from the general public, the number of significant fires has been reduced,” Schmidt said.

“We still have far too many fires that could have been prevented by adherence to simple fire safety practices,” he said.

Two accomplishments he is proud of are the part he played in the development of the regional training center and the construction of the new fire station. However, he is most proud of his role in changing the organizational culture of the department.

“The high level of cooperation that currently exists within the organization has helped us overcome most any operational challenges we have faced over the past six years,” he said. “The fire service truly becomes your second family, and when the alarm sounds, regardless of any interpersonal conflicts, all members work as a team for the common goal of saving the life or property of someone they typically have never met.”

Schmidt said, “I’ll miss the camaraderie, and I am confident the department will continue to adhere to the basic philosophies: treat people the way you want to be treated, make decisions that are best for the community and department and do what you can to leave the department in a better position than we you got there.”

Lakeshore Technical College celebrates 100-year mark

From sheboyganpress.com: “Lakeshore Technical College celebrates 100-year mark” — CLEVELAND — Lakeshore Technical College celebrated its 100th anniversary Wednesday afternoon with an hour-long program that included a student’s tearful testimonial, a Lakeside Foods representative toasting the college with a can of the company’s peas, and two retired LTC presidents helping to unveil a plaque that will be used on an outdoor centennial monument.

“I never thought I would say it, but I love being in college,” said Alyssa Young, a student in the Administrative Professional program. “I love going to class and that I don’t really mind doing my homework. And it’s all thanks to amazing staff and faculty here at LTC. My teachers are very understanding, and if I have to miss class because my son is sick … they understand because they’ve been there, too. … This place is like a second home to me and it’s going to be … a sad day when I graduate, but I will always be proud to say that I’m a Lakeshore Technical College graduate for the rest of my life.”

Young decided to enroll after seeing her mom and sister graduate from LTC last year. She said she hadn’t been making enough money to support her 5-year-old son and herself, and when she saw her family members graduate she decided she wanted to earn a degree.

“I want to be able to support my son and give him a better future,” she said.

“Please know that you are the reason that we do what we do,” LTC President Mike Lanser told Young after her emotional remarks.

Alumnus success

Dean Halverson, CEO of Leede Research, which has offices in Manitowoc and Minneapolis, attributed the direction his life has taken to his time at LTC. After earning an associate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc in 1980, Halverson decided he wanted to pursue a career in marketing, and someone suggested what then was called Lakeshore Technical Institute.

“A lot of people say something changed their life, but I can honestly say it did change my life,” he said.

As a student, he worked on market research surveys for WCUB radio two years in a row and decided he enjoyed it. The day after graduating in June 1982, he typed 96 letters to Wisconsin radio stations announcing the formation of Leede Research. The company will celebrate its 36th anniversary in June and has a staff of just under 85.

He attributes his ability to make a living through his own company “to what happened here, and really what happened here that was so unique was bringing together students, instructors and thebusiness community and doing it in a way that was very hands-on.”

‘Uniquely adaptable’

Richard Opie, an instructor in the paralegal program, speaking on behalf of the faculty, said technical colleges are “uniquely adaptable to the changing needs of the community. We come up with new programs … within six months of their request. … If there’s a need in the community we come up with it.”

Technical colleges also are open to students of all ability levels and allow students to meet their goals within a year or two, Opie said.

Tom Reilly, senior vice president-human resources for Manitowoc-based Lakeside Foods, which has been in operation for 125 years, provided employer remarks.

“What Lakeside and LTC know is the secret for longevity and success, and that is satisfying your customers, especially with their changing expectations and demands,” Reilly said.

Lakeshore Technical College achieves success through “phenomenal facilities” and “a terrific staff,” he said just before toasting the college with a can of Lakeside peas.

Centennial monument

Retired LTC presidents Dennis Ladwig, who served in that capacity from 1988-2003 when Lanser took over, and Fred Nierode, who was president from 1967-88, assisted with the dedication of a plaque that will be used for a centennial monument. The monument will be part of a garden that will be designed and developed by the school’s horticulture students on the west side of the Lakeshore Building “that we hope to have in place by the fall,” Lanser said. A time capsule will be placed under the monument.

TopTech Awards

LTC used the occasion to present its first TopTech Awards, which will become annual and are designed to recognize K-12 educators. This year’s recipients from Manitowoc County are Ron Schneider and Dave Teske from the Kiel Area School District, and from Sheboygan County the recipient is Ed Hughes from Sheboygan Falls.

Other presenters

The celebration also included the national anthem sung by LTC student Ruby Garcia; presentation of the governor’s proclamation of May 8, 2013, as Lakeshore Technical College Day in the state of Wisconsin by Reggie Newson, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development; remarks by LTC District Board Chairman John Lukas and Wisconsin Technical College System Board President Mark Tyler; and comments from LTC alumna Shirl Breunig and support staff representative Kelly Carpenter.

Forestry program provides graduates for a growing industry

From wjfw.com: “Forestry program provides graduates for a growing industry” — Antigo – The first graduating class from a Northwoods forestry program will receive their diplomas this May, and most of them have job offers.

It’s a program that’s taking the forest industry to another level.

But it’s not just about the trees.

It’s about jobs. “We’re just trying to develop the best possible people for this industry that we can,” said Brown.

Northcentral Technical College’s Wood Tech program is teaching future forest industry employees, right in Antigo.

“The equipment that we have here on the floor, the curriculum that we teach here at NTC is very unique, and it is cutting edge. It’s what employers are looking for when they’re hiring new employees,” said instructor Travis Allen.

The forestry industry job market looks good too.

With almost 60 thousand jobs in Wisconsin in 2011, compared to 52 thousand in 2010, according to the DNR.

Oradei sees it as a sustainable job market too.

“It’s a very desirable industry to be involved with; you’re always working with a renewable resource,” said Oradei.

Brown is happy to see business growing.

“Business has picked up in the united states and worldwide, so it’s getting a lot more fun,” said Brown.

Sixteen students in Travis Allen’s class are hearing from employers too.

“A week ago I had three different employers contact us for skilled employees, and the nice thing is our curriculum is covering exactly what they want to hire on,” said Allen.

Empowering high school girls with welding

From wdio.com: “Empowering high school girls with welding” — While the students of Wisconsin’s Indianhead Technical College are on Spring Break, some high school girls are taking over their welding shop.

The high school students are from Denfeld High and are in the “Girls Restorative Program,” which is ultimately part of “Men as Peacekeepers.” The after-school program is about building resiliency and fostering community among young women.

As part of their program, the girls are learning the basics of welding at WITC in Superior. Holding a torch to steel isn’t something any of the girls thought they’d ever do.

“At first I didn’t want to do it because I thought it was too boyish,” said Donisha, a sophomore at Denfeld High.

But after learning the basics, the girls said they loved the process of getting their hands dirty.

“We’re strong!” said Cynthia, also a sophomore at Denfeld High.

The “Girls Restorative Program” aims to empower young women. Elena Bantle, the program’s coordinator, said working with fire and cutting apart steel is the ultimate form of female empowerment.

Bantle added that welding opens the high school girls’ eyes to a field many people consider a male-dominated skill.

“In a tangible way, you can make a lot of money welding,” said Bantle.

The girls all created their own designs of what it means to be a woman.

“I chose Lady Liberty because I think she is a person for girls to stand up for,” said Donisha.

They will then cut out their designs and weld all of their pieces together to make a large piece of artwork.

No matter the end product, Bantle said there is just one goal.

“I hope they can themselves as strong women who can do anything,” said Bantle.

View video from wdio.com

Walker signs bill providing $15 million in work force training grants

From jsonline.com: “Scott Walker signs bill providing $15 million in work force training grants” — Madison – The state will distribute $15 million in worker training grants under a bill Gov. Scott Walker signed into law on Wednesday.

The measure will also create a system to better and more quickly track jobs data in an attempt to guide workers to in-demand professions. The jobs database is scheduled to be in place by next year.

The measure has broad bipartisan support, passing the Senate unanimously and the Assembly 94-4 in recent weeks. Despite minority Democrats’ support for the bill, they said it fell short and lawmakers should do more to develop workers’ skills.

“We all agree we need to continue to do everything we can to ensure workers have the necessary skills for the jobs available today,” Walker said in a statement. “This bill will help address the skills gap by investing in worker training grants and developing a Labor Market Information System. Altogether, these investments will focus a concerted effort to connect workers with jobs.”

The jobs database and training grants are part of the Republican governor’s platform of improving the skills of the state’s aging labor force and boosting the state’s economy in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. The training plans draw on reports by Competitive Wisconsin and Tim Sullivan, the former Bucyrus International chief executive officer.

Democrats, however, have noted that Walker has proposed far less new money for training workers than the hundreds of millions of dollars that he and GOP lawmakers cut two years ago from the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Technical College System to help balance the state budget.

Walker made those cuts, as well as ones to local governments and school districts, just after approving a measure that all but eliminated collective bargaining for most public workers and required them to pay more for their pensions and health care. He has argued that those savings and the added flexibility offset the cuts, saying the bill he signed Wednesday amounts to new money.

The governor’s proposed budget would provide additional money for state universities and technical colleges, though the increase would be less than the amount he cut in 2011. Lawmakers will decide this summer whether to keep or alter Walker’s proposal on higher education spending.

The competitive grants available under the new law would go to technical colleges, local workforce boards and regional economic development organizations working in partnership with state businesses, which could provide matching funds.

 

MATC hosting sustainability summit

From bizjournals.com: “MATC hosting sustainability summit” — Business and education leaders and sustainability experts from the Milwaukee area and around the world are gathering in downtown Milwaukee to trade ideas on systems and practices that sustain the economy and planet for future generations.

Milwaukee Area Technical College is hosting the 10th annual “Sustainability Summit and Exposition” at the Delta Center. The theme of this year’s summit is “Sustainability – An Economic & Ecological Imperative.”

It used to be called the Green Energy Summit but the name changed to reflect the broadened scope of the conference, a collaboration of people from business, education and government.

The summit runs March 6-8 at the Delta Center, 400 W. Wisconsin Ave. The public is invited and registration is $250 for the full conference or $150 for one day. Students get in free of charge.

 

Senate approves worker training bill

From jsonline.com: “Senate shrugs off snow, approves worker training” — Madison — The Senate plowed forward Tuesday, unanimously passing a $15 million worker training bill in spite of a snowstorm swirling around the statehouse.

The bill, which passed the Assembly 94-4 last week, aims to help Wisconsin’s labor force overcome challenges from overseas competition and its own advancing age. It now goes to Gov. Scott Walker, who proposed the legislation and will sign it.

The legislation aims to launch by 2014 a faster system to track jobs data and guide workers into in-demand professions. It would also provide state grants to groups that would help train workers for those jobs at a cost of $15 million over two years.

“This bill really does care for the working people in the state of Wisconsin,” the proposal’s lead sponsor, Sen. Rick Gudex (R-Fond du Lac), said.

The proposal from Walker is part of his administration’s larger platform for improving the skills of the state’s aging labor force and boosting the state’s economy in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. The governor’s agenda on worker training draws on reports by Competitive Wisconsin and former Bucyrus International executive Tim Sullivan.

Democrats, however, have pointed out that Walker has proposed far less new money for training workers than the hundreds of millions of dollars that he and GOP lawmakers cut two years ago from the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Technical College System to help balance the state budget.

Democratic senators didn’t dwell on that, though, making no criticisms of the bill on the floor and leading with a statement from Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson of Milwaukee.

“While this bill only provides a small Band-Aid to an enormous gash in the budgets of our technical schools, there’s no doubt it’s a step in the right direction,” Larson said.

Walker made the UW System cuts – as well as ones to local governments and school districts – just after approving a measure that all but eliminated collective bargaining for public workers and required them to pay more for their pensions and health care. He has argued that those savings and the added flexibility offset the cuts, and that his proposed spending, including the bill that passed the Assembly on Thursday, amounts to new money.

The governor’s separate budget bill also provides additional money for state universities and technical colleges, though it is still less than the full amount of the 2011 cuts.

The competitive grants available under the bill would go to technical colleges, local workforce boards and regional economic development organizations working in partnership with state businesses, which could provide matching funds.

Last week in the Assembly, Rep. Cory Mason (D-Racine) offered an amendment to have the workforce programs run by the state’s technical colleges rather than the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

Mason said giving the grant programs to the labor department amounted to duplicating work already done by technical colleges. Assembly Republicans voted to set aside that amendment 58-40, largely along party lines. They also tabled several other amendments that Democrats said would add accountability to the programs and make them less redundant as well as reduce the number of state jobs that would have to be created to do the work.

Also Tuesday, the Senate passed a bill to reduce certain routine state audits in order to allow state auditors to focus on problem areas. Lawmakers have been seeking more audits of programs such as one in which a private foster care agency allegedly defrauded taxpayers of millions of dollars.