Craven Community College is working with New Bern-area industries and businesses to turn local community members into valuable assets for a workforce hit hard by the pandemic.
The school is offering numerous courses like welding and forklift safety in order to prepare people to fill vacant jobs at places like BSH, Moen and Volvo.
“A number of our industrial partners had to shut down for a little while or quarantine and have been dealing with staffing shortages,” said Sarah Sawyer, executive director of career programs at Craven Community College. “We don’t know what lies ahead, and ultimately, people are ready to get back into the workforce. Our partners are ready to go and have major needs to fill. I think we can work together and accomplish that.”
Eddie Foster, executive director of the college’s Volt Center, said that a lot of the companies the school partners with are in need of 20 to 50 employees.
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Through the Volt Center, the school’s workforce development program, and internship/apprenticeship programs, the college has more than 20 local industry partners including Chatsworth Products, Carolina Technical Plastics and White River Marine.
In June 2019, the college opened its doors to the center in an existing 7,500-square-foot electric plant on First Street.
“We are centrally located in an area where the population has a lot more difficulty getting to college and so forth, so it’s centrally located to help a lot of people that may have challenges being able to go to school,” Foster said.
Since then, the center has had more than 1,400 students graduate from over 15 classeson carpentry, plumbing and small engine repair.
The result: around 400 known job offers to people right here in Craven County. With 119 students currently, and 75 enrolled in upcoming classes, that number is bound to increase, Foster said.
“The goal of this center is to really help the residents within the community find great job opportunities and career advice,” Foster said. “We are here to be a network, being able to take training to the next level for employment and that’s why we’re here, getting people the experience needed to get those types of jobs.”
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The five main types of courses offered are HVAC, electrical work, construction, plumbing and welding. The largely hands-on classes consist of three levels amounting to an average of 800 hours of learning. The center’s grant money allows out-of-pocketcosts to be less than $50 in some cases.
The students range from 18-year-olds just starting out, to self-employed 60-year-olds looking to pick up a new trade. The classes are offered year-round.
The Volt Center focuses on giving students entry-level experience in various industries through simulations of work-place environments and on-site visits to local facilities.
When a student graduates and starts their job, they will not have the usual “first-day shock experience,” which helps businesses retain employees, Foster said.
Craven Community College offers internship programs in conjunction with local companies.
Meeting local and regional economic needs through filling skill and labor gaps is the goal of such programs, Sawyer said.
“It gives them (students)a success, drive, motivation and financial security while also benefiting our industrial partners in our region, feeding those skills back into a really great type of symbiotic alignment of what we need to do to create that additional layer of success and efficiency for Craven County and for economic development projects going around,” Sawyer said.
The students are able to benefit from work-based learning and apply those skills directly to their curriculum courses, Sawyer said.
Carolina GSE, a supplier of new and used aircraft equipment, developed a paid internship program with the college this year to give students experience working on projects in its distribution and service center.
Carolina GSE is currently accepting applications for fall 2021 from students interested in the repair and maintenance sector of the aviation industry. They will continue to take on interns as needed throughout the year and high-performing participants could be hired upon graduation.
In New Bern, and all over the country, restaurants are experiencing labor shortages.
Hotels and bed and breakfasts are not much better off.
This year, the Volt Center added two new courses to meet the needs of Craven County’s hospitality industry.
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Starting in September, the center will offer 24-hour hospitality and bartending classes on an alternating monthly schedule.
“We know that there’s a demand out there … and they really want people that have at least entry-levelknowledge of what that job is going to require,” Foster said.
Foster said he met with the New Bern Area Chamber of Commerce to develop a curriculum that would meet the needs of local establishments.
The course will teach participants the importance of tourism to downtown as well as personal and greeting skills.
Looking toward a future of uncertainty, Craven Community College will continue to design programs and courses that fuel New Bern’s local economy, according to both Sawyer and Foster.
“It’s all about us taking the time to listen,” Foster said.
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