My goal in life is to put my name on something. I want to be able to say 'I did this.'
When the staff at the Volkswagen Academy’s mechatronics program in Chattanooga talk to potential recruits to the apprenticeship initiative, they try to learn a key piece of information.
“What we like to say is ‘If you’ve gotten into trouble taking stuff apart, that’s the student we want,” says Ralph Gwaltney, coordinator of the academy program located at the German automaker’s assembly plant.
The training at Volkswagen is seen as vital as the carmaker seeks to fill the highly skilled jobs maintaining and fixing the factory’s robots and other technical posts. With unemployment low, some manufacturers are finding it challenging to find qualified candidates to fill positions.
Chattanooga State Community College last year helped about 100 companies in the region with their workforce training needs, says Lulu Copeland, the executive director of economic and workforce development at Chattanooga State. Copeland says the current high-employment economy offers an opportunity for companies to train employees to help the companies grow.