Business Is Booming

Episode 18-Kerry Wright.mp3
Narrator: [00:00:01] Business is booming. From the small mom and pops to the big industries. Our local businesses drive our economy and provide the products, services and jobs we depend on. Our host, Jennifer McCurdy, brings us these stories as she visits with the business owners and leaders of Fort Payne and DeKalb County, Alabama. And now here's Jennifer.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:00:25] Well, today on business is booming. I have Kerry Wright, dean of workforce development at Northeast Alabama Community College. Welcome, Kerry.

Kerry Wright: [00:00:35] Thank you, Miss Jennifer. It's a pleasure to be here. Long time in the waiting, but I've been trying to get you on.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:00:39] For a while. You're a busy person.

Kerry Wright: [00:00:41] Well, you know how things are.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:00:43] I do, I do. I wanted to get you on today to talk more about all the wonderful programs that Northeast Alabama community College, especially around workforce development.

Kerry Wright: [00:00:53] Okay. Well, that's my favorite topic. And I like to talk about it.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:00:56] Well, I'm just going to sit back and listen then.

Kerry Wright: [00:00:58] Here we go. Workforce development is is one of the kind of signature points of community college now and Northeast is right in the middle of it. We're in the process of of constructing a new workforce development center on campus which will house primarily our manufacturing and building construction programs, which are among the three highest demand, highest wage programs in North Alabama and regionally and even nationally. The skilled trades for years has kind of taken a back seat to a lot of other academic approaches. And, you know, for years we've we've, you know, told our students and our young people that you have to go and you have to seek out that four year degree if you're going to be successful. And what has happened over time is we have a limited focus on on getting skills that are valuable today. And now we're in a situation where with a low workforce participation rate, combined with a higher demand for all the things that we we hold dear, we like our houses. We like to be able to go out and purchase things that are manufactured. And obviously health care is a priority for everyone. These particular career paths are limited now, so what the community college and is doing statewide is initiating ways to get people into high demand, high wage career fields.

Kerry Wright: [00:02:29] And at Northeast particularly, you know, we have a concerted effort to build our manufacturing programs, you know, machine tooling, welding, industrial maintenance, our design and design modeling processes that, incidentally, are a part of a new program this year at the college, advanced design and manufacturing has been essentially developed to replace the the antiquated drafting and design program that's been around for years. So bringing that program up to, you know, current to meet current demands and the higher skill levels and higher technical components that go into that, that concept, into a modeling stage, into a manufacturing phase is where we are right now. You know, welding and fabrication is huge in DeKalb County. And really the entire state with with all the the different things that are built in Alabama, you know, those skill sets are are timeless and they're they're very, very high demand now. And, you know, as a result, our programs have nearly 100% placement rate for graduates. We hardly ever have a student leave a technical program at northeast without a job, unless they just don't want one.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:03:45] You do a great job with relationship building and understanding what the industries need. I know that they can come to you, and I've seen it happen when we've been in meetings and talk about problems they may have or not just problems, but a shortage in an area. And you've always said, how can we help? What can we do and what program do we not have that maybe we need to start looking at to address some of these issues. And that's that's key, I think, is being able to know what is needed, needed within your industries and understanding that and not only that, but addressing those needs. So that's appreciated.

Kerry Wright: [00:04:19] And that's one of the most powerful things that we can do as a college is listen. If we listen to what the industry is telling us, it helps us to to prepare the programs to be relevant tomorrow. If we continue doing the same things we've done for the last 30 years and prepare people to not be employed, we're not helping the situation any way. So that's that's what our our aim is, is to to serve industry in the ways that we can and to keep them connected to us through the advisory committees that you and many others in Fort Payne are a part of, to help us stay on top of what's coming next as best we can. You know, typically at the community college. Level. We we don't get ahead of industry because industry drives what the need is, but we try to stay as close to it as we can so that we stay current and relevant in what we're teaching. If we're teaching, you know, obsolete skills that's not doing anyone any good. It's not helping the students, not helping the employer. So that's that's one of our key focuses to to stay in touch with what our local needs are.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:05:26] And you even have short term certificate programs. What are those?

Kerry Wright: [00:05:30] All the all the programs in the technical fields are built with short term certificates and into the degree plan. And that hierarchy is actually set up to be benchmarks, so that when a student completes the requirements for a short term certificate, they have a skill set that is based on a defined set of parameters. An employer can look at that certificate and understand that when they hire that person who has earned that certificate or short certificate, that they have a defined level that they can put them in, it helps them to initially start employment as it goes on. It is kind of it's kind of like a marker for the student. They've met this level a little bit further. They can reach the next part and then it works on up to that degree level, which is ideally what we promote because of what we know about how valuable the degree is. Maybe not today, but a few years down the road. That degree is going to separate individuals from those that don't have it. So when it comes time for advancement or promotion. That person with a degree typically is going to have an advantage because they've they've met a benchmark that that says, yes, I can complete more difficult things, I can start a task and I can see it all the way through. Not to diminish the certificate or short certificate because they are in, in, in, in that hierarchy and they have value for those individuals that may be where their, their, their goal is.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:07:01] Kerry, what are some examples of a short term certificate?

Kerry Wright: [00:07:04] One good example of a short term certificate in our building construction program, we have a six defined pathways that a student can earn a degree in. Those six degree options are also available in the certificate program as well. What separates the certificate and the degree is essentially about 3 to 4 general ed courses that are not required in the certificate that are required in the degree. If we back it up to that short certificate in our same building construction program, we have 14 short term certificates that are built around skills like heavy equipment operation, concrete finishing or masonry, or even carpentry or plumbing. And what that is, in each of those certificates, the student has to earn 12 credit hours of instruction to earn that short term certificate in either of those career path fields. Each of those fields go into one of the degree options as well. So it starts out with just a very broad base where a student can explore and see what they want to do, and then they can take a step to go into a more focused direction in their studies.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:08:16] Can high school students take advantage of that, or do you have to be post-high school?

Kerry Wright: [00:08:20] Yes. And our dual enrollment programs with the high schools, the the degree options that a high school student chooses also gives them the option of earning that short term certificate, many of them in while they're still in high school. Our goal as a college is facilitating dual enrollment. We want those students to earn that short term certificate before they graduate at least. I heard in your earlier broadcast with Mr. Jett, he mentioned or you mentioned some students are in an associate degree before they graduate high school or at the same time. And we've had that happen with some of our students in in workforce development programs. It takes a very dedicated student to do that because there's a lot of work. But, you know, and the opportunity to earn a degree or get close to a degree is is very well defined for high school students now. So we're actually giving them the chance to get started earlier so they can get finished a little bit earlier and get into the workforce a little bit earlier.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:09:15] And there are so many students now that their families rely on them as well, as soon as they graduate to start helping support the family. So that's an awesome opportunity for them to gain skills that they otherwise wouldn't have to go straight into the workforce. Right.

Kerry Wright: [00:09:30] And it's giving them the opportunities to to experience this in high school before it cost them a lot of money out of their pocket. It also gives them a chance to to get an early start on deciding what it is they want to do. And one of the things that we promote heavily in our workforce development programs when we're recruiting students is come in and and experience something. Come and try this. We have, you know, a lot of entry level courses that we offer throughout the year that's open to most anyone to come in and do a little preview and see if this is something you're interested in. If it is great, we've got a pathway for you to follow on that. Or if it's not great, mark that off your list, you know.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:10:12] Move on to the next thing.

[00:10:13] Move on to the next thing. If it's not for you, try something different. Explore it and give them a chance to do that at an early age. And hopefully, you know, by the time they do finish high school, they will have a pathway either into a college program or into a workforce where they can find gainful employment. Yeah.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:10:30] What other programs are going on at Northeast that around workforce development? Well, and what's what's coming up that we we don't know about yet.

Kerry Wright: [00:10:39] What's new. What's new on the what's on the in the pressure cooker right now? We have just recently submitted an application to add Dental Hygienist as a new degree program, adding that to our allied health program with medical assisting, EMS, registered nursing, licensed practical nursing. That's just going to be another offering for students to hopefully, you know, attract more students into the program and attract a different group of students. Yeah, there are a lot of a lot of our students in health care programs. They they know that they want to be in health care. But, you know, as high school students, they get to experience some of the dual enrollment, but they don't really get to to explore a lot of different things. So, you know, with dental hygiene. Back to your earlier comment about us staying in tune with the community. We've heard from lots of dental offices over the past couple of years that there is a huge shortage in dental hygienist. And when we get to looking, you know, regionally and even statewide, we see that there's there's a shortage statewide.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:11:42] Now that's a two year program too. It's a two-year degree program. That's great.

Kerry Wright: [00:11:47] So that if everything plays out the way we have it planned, that program will start hopefully in the fall of 24. Wonderful. So that's another instructional program that we're looking at. We are currently working with a community Dr. Campbell put together just actually last week. And he charged us with with determining where we need to go next. So me along with several others are working on.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:12:16] If you've got outside people on that committee and you didn't ask me to be on that committee, Kerry.

Kerry Wright: [00:12:21] That's inside.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:12:22] Okay. Okay, I'll let that slide then.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:12:25] You know, I've got lots of opinions, Kerry.

Kerry Wright: [00:12:30] We always asked for it. We always ask for it.

[00:12:32] You're very nice when I give those, I appreciate that.

Kerry Wright: [00:12:36] No, that is one that has been. Dr. Campbell had put a committee of several of us together to just, you know, do some think tank stuff and, and see where we need to go. And of course, once we narrowed that list down, when we'll be reaching out to you and industry people in the area to see, okay, is this something that you're going to hire people from? And, you know, ultimately that's what's going to drive the decision on what comes next is who's who, who's going to hire these students when they finish their degrees. If no one's going to hire them, we're not going to put them in place. It's not for us. So and, you know, hopefully in a in another month or so, I'll have more information to share on that one. But right now that's we're in a in a planning process to see what comes next. Well.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:13:17] Speaking of Dr. Campbell, I know he's always been very forward thinking. Um, always. I mean, I lived close to the community college growing up, and it is amazing to me how much it's grown. I mean, it's been a long time, but still, it is huge now compared to to what it used to be. I mean, and even when I was a child, I remember it was I could ride my bike around campus. There was no cars there. Nothing was happening. Now it's booming. I mean, things are always happening there. You're always adding programs. Got the softball fields coming up. You've got a golf team now.

Kerry Wright: [00:13:52] Cross country.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:13:53] Cross country, tennis.

Kerry Wright: [00:13:55] Don't have tennis yet, but.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:13:57] There's tennis courts.

Kerry Wright: [00:13:58] There. The tennis courts have been recently updated to facilitate pickleball.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:14:05] Of course it has.

Kerry Wright: [00:14:06] So you've got we've got pickleball courts on campus. And you know, we're trying to encourage, you know, students in the community to come and use that because it's just really nice, really nice update to the tennis courts. And you know, there I don't know anything about pickleball, but.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:14:20] I have to admit I'm starting to, I'm getting into it.

Kerry Wright: [00:14:23] I've seen it on TV a couple of times, but I've not played yet. It's fun. Looks like it looks like tennis with a ping pong paddle.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:14:30] It is. And but I have to admit, I'm the last one picked. Always.

Kerry Wright: [00:14:37] I mean, you'd end up on the same team and we get beat.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:14:39] It would be bad. It would be bad. I'm the first one eliminated every time.

Kerry Wright: [00:14:43] But with, you know, the softball, you know, our area has had for years just tremendous, you know, high level competition in women's softball. And you know, that's the it was just a natural next fit. And and you're right.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:15:01] Next though should be basketball.

Kerry Wright: [00:15:02] Right. Well I don't know about that. That's Dr. Campbell question there.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:15:05] But we got it all planned out. Dr. Campbell.

Kerry Wright: [00:15:08] I will, I will, I will say, you know, you know to your your comment, you know, the college has grown and, you know, Dr. Campbell has been president there for a lot of years now. And and his vision has been played out in front of our eyes. And, you know, I remember when way back in the 1900s when I went to northeast and, you know, I think then the library was the new building. So you know, and that was there's been so many things that that have been added, you know, since I was there. It's almost unbelievable. I remember, you know, where the Pendley Building and the Lyceum is now, I remember when that was a wooded area between the backside of campus and highway 35. So, you know, now it's opened up and it's one of the more picturesque community colleges in the state. And it's a really beautiful place and workforce development building that's going up. If you haven't been by and seeing that lately.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:16:02] They've already started building?

Kerry Wright: [00:16:04] Yeah, it's starting to take shape of a building. It's out of the ground now and we've got walls going up. And it's really exciting to just see how big that space is going to be when it gets done. And and you know, the impact it's going to make for years to come. You know, we may not see the, you know, we won't see the full impact of what that does for, you know, students 20 years from now. Oh yeah. And you know, the opportunities that they're going to have to continue getting the skills that, you know, are for the foreseeable future are going to be very high demand and probably a shortage of those skilled workers that we're we're we're targeting now to train, you know, our our training goes beyond the, the degree programs because we're running non-credit skills programs now trying to draw people in to come in and get some skills and get some motivation.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:16:51] So what's a non-credit program you're talking about?

Kerry Wright: [00:16:53] Well, we're running actually the next one we've got coming or actually got started today. Starting today is heavy equipment operator. Okay. And I've seen that that's a two week, two week program where students will come in, they'll come in on campus and they'll spend some time working through OSHA ten training. They'll leave. They'll leave campus with OSHA ten certification in their pocket, along with some training on a simulator that we have on campus. And then they'll go on site and spend one full week, 40 hours of their time on a piece of equipment, learn how to operate it.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:17:29] So so if you're a business and the DeKalb County and you haven't reached out to Kerry and said, here's what we've got going on, here's the kind of the deficit or some problems we might have in our facility. Why not? Why have you not reached out to Kerry yet? Because he is ready to answer your questions and to be of assistance to you. Please. I mean, I want people to call you because I know you've got solutions for them and can help them address their issues. You don't have to do it alone. That's why Northeast is there. That's why the Workforce Development Center is there to help. So please, what's the tell them how to call you. What's your phone number?

Kerry Wright: [00:18:09] You can contact me. Go to our website okay. Www.NACC.Edu and look for workforce development. And all of our contact information is on on those web pages you can see the programs that we have in place. You can see the instructors that teach the programs. So you can drill it down to if you want to find out how to get a welding certification, you can dial it on down into to how to reach out to, to reach out to for that. And you know, by all means contact me. You know, my phone number and email is on the website and I do. I'm waiting. Yeah. I wake up every day hoping that I can impact someone and and and someone calling to say, we need assistance with this. I may not have the answer, but I'll do everything that I can to to help find a solution to whatever training issue that there is. And that's the way we work. We hardly say, we don't say no. We say how right. And and that's just the way our approach is now at northeast. And, and everyone at the college is the same way. You know, that's our approach is to serve the community. So serve our local industry. But, you know, serve the people that come to us and, you know, we're trying to make, you know, better, a better world, one person at a time. And that's, that's that's what motivates me to to get started every day.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:19:30] I love it now. I haven't told you this yet, Kerry, so you're hearing it first. Today from me, we have a new website for seniors only high school seniors. Okay? I wasn't talking about you. Okay.

Kerry Wright: [00:19:44] Thank you. Thank you for pointing that out.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:19:47] Thanks for laughing. And so it's senioryearcollective.com. And what it is is a platform for businesses to put job shadowing opportunities, job shadowing opportunities, internships, jobs, career readiness opportunities. Northeast could put things on there about their workforce development programs, things that high school seniors can tap into that would benefit them. And it's just a one stop hub for all, any, any high school senior. And actually anyone could look into it. I mean, if you're a 10th grader and interested, you could still go on to that website and see what opportunities are out there. It is very new though, so we don't have a whole lot posted on there yet. But the more. Businesses. And if you could put some things on there that would help, because that would give students options and a way to just kind of easily access information. We have over 400 high school senior emails and close to 100 cell phone numbers for seniors. So that will also serve as a great way for us to keep in touch with them as they move on to their next year after their senior year. And maybe we can keep in touch with them, and they'll come back to DeKalb County and work hopefully. Or maybe they'll attend northeast. You have a program they may not have known about that they'll find on this website and attend that program and then stay in DeKalb County, which would be great, right? So senior year collective.com.

Kerry Wright: [00:21:16] Senior living collective.com.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:21:19] Not senior 55 plus 55, high school seniors.

Kerry Wright: [00:21:24] If I ever get that old I'll go and check that out.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:21:26] Hey, I found myself. Now I'm almost to the point. Not quite. I'll be like, hum the AARP discount. When does that kick in? Is it 50? Is it 50?

Kerry Wright: [00:21:35] Yeah, it's 50 and it's worth it.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:21:36] I'm close.

Kerry Wright: [00:21:37] I'm there. Hotel discounts are way better than anybody else's. Really?

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:21:41] Yeah. And you probably get 25 cent coffee or something.

Kerry Wright: [00:21:44] You can get free stuff at McDonald's every now and then.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:21:48] That's the. That is an advantage to getting old, right?

Kerry Wright: [00:21:50] Getting old has its benefits. So that's one of them.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:21:53] But for you seniors in high school, just go ahead and live it up now while you can.

Kerry Wright: [00:21:57] Yeah, growing growing up fast is a good thing, but you know it. Usually that first day after high school is when when high school seniors think I had it made.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:22:07] Wait a minute. What? Really? For me, it was after college when I'll never forget going shopping for the first time after I graduated. And my mother is like, yeah, that's cute. You should get it, you should get it. And I pile it up on the counter and she walks away. Yeah. So there I was. I had to pay for it myself. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that was a shocker.

Kerry Wright: [00:22:28] So and then reality starts.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:22:30] Yeah it does, it does. Well thank you for joining me today.

Kerry Wright: [00:22:34] This has been fun.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:22:35] I'm glad. Did you have anything else you wanted to add? I like to just chatty chat.

Kerry Wright: [00:22:38] So the one thing I tell every everyone I encounter, whether it's a student or a business industry or just someone I meet on the street. If you don't know what Northeast can do for you, ask us.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:22:50] Because they can do something for you for sure.

Kerry Wright: [00:22:53] There's the college can can provide a service for just about every one and every entity. And there's a lot of them that are not a lot of services are not widely known. And, you know, in workforce development, we can touch so many different areas of business and industry. A lot of business industry simply does not know that. And we encourage you, you know, ask us if we can do something for you. We will. If we can't, we'll tell you we can't and try to help you find someone that can.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:23:21] And you really don't know until you ask.

Kerry Wright: [00:23:23] So do you ask. And it doesn't cost a thing in the world to ask the question. And, and we'll try to do the best we can to give an answer that that gets you headed in the right direction.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:23:33] Well, Kerry, thanks for joining me today. Thanks for having it.

Narrator: [00:23:36] You've been listening to Business Is Booming, a podcast brought to you by Fort Payne Chamber of Commerce. The host is chamber director Jennifer McCurdy, executive producer Stephen V Smith, our engineer is Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studios. Business is Booming is a production of Rare Life Media.