Audio clip
Howell Moss
Audio clip
Julie Bennett
KIMBALL, Tenn. — A change in curriculum at the Regional Skills Center on the Chattanooga State Technical Community College campus here coincides with a change in employment for Kelvin Wooten and Cliff Hookey.
“The plant we worked at in Chattanooga shut down Dec. 8,” Mr. Wooten said. “I’d been there for 25 years and Cliff had been there for 20.”
Their skill with an offset printing press doesn’t go far outside the printing industry.
“We have a craft there’s not much demand for around here,” Mr. Hookey said.
They need skills that will land them a job with as good or better wages, he said.
So the opportunity to retrain in the new welding program for the high-tech jobs coming to the region “couldn’t come at a better time for us,” said Mr. Wooten, 46.
Julie C. Bennett, the director of Chattanooga State’s Kimball campus, said changes in the job market dictated the curriculum shift.
“We have converted our air conditioning classroom into a welding classroom,” she said. The first welding class this semester drew 28 students, she said.
“The job market’s out there for those types of certificates and we’re glad we’re able to provide that right here in Marion County,” she said.
Welding instructor Jeff Lowery said students like Mr. Hookey and Mr. Wooten “are looking to get into some of these welding jobs coming to the area.”
Randall Brown, the county’s adult education supervisor, said Adult Basic Education and General Education Development certificate programs go hand in hand with vocational training.
Whatever the career starting point, “people come to us to get their skills up,” Mr. Brown said.
Marion County Mayor Howell Moss said current and potential high-tech vocational jobs drive the need for more training sites.
“The new industry that we think is going to locate here is going to require some high-tech training, as well as companies like Alstom (Power) and Volks-wagen in Chattanooga,” said Mr. Moss, who declines to name “the new industry” because of confidentiality agreements.
Records show the worldwide company Chicago Bridge & Iron bought 60 acres of Tennessee River frontage in 2008. The company now is conducting permitting studies. If it builds a plant, it could generate up to 350 jobs, records show.
If the plant is built in New Hope, officials would like to build a new campus in Kimball soon, Mr. Moss said. If not, officials still might pursue a new campus later. The current site has no room for expansion, he said.
“If you go to Chattanooga and look at the training facilities between Chattanooga and Knoxville, I think you’ll find eight colleges,” he said. “If you leave Chattanooga and head toward Murfreesboro, there’s almost none.”
He said the county has taken an option on 150 acres sandwiched between Kimball’s Main Street and Interstate 24 for a potential new campus.
The County Commission is working closely with Chattanooga State and other state agencies on funding strategies, he said.
“All in all, it’s planning for the future,” Mr. Moss said.
Ben Benton is a news reporter at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. He covers Southeast Tennessee and previously covered North Georgia education. Ben has worked at the Times Free Press since November 2005, first covering Bledsoe and Sequatchie counties and later adding Marion, Grundy and other counties in the northern and western edges of the region to his coverage. He was born and raised in Cleveland, Tenn., a graduate of Bradley Central High School. Benton ...
Or login with:
New Account