The initial meeting of a new project for county economic development took place Wednesday morning and began what economic developer Clif Chitwood says could be a groundbreaking program -- unique even on the national level.
Chitwood's office brought together representatives from county industries, public school systems, government entities and Arkansas Northeastern College; the group discussed how best to start up a county-wide job training program.
The idea is aimed at two groups of county residents: students who will soon be eligible to enter the workforce, and unemployed adults who wish to work but are not able to find a job because of their lack of training. Chitwood said there are approximately 6,000 adults in Mississippi County who are not working but not receiving any government benefits, and this group is going to be targeted during the development of the program.
"Those 6,000 people who aren't working but also aren't receiving government support are living on what we would consider impossibly low levels of income," he said. "And they're getting in trouble, a lot of them, because that's what happens when people don't have work or hope to get any. Some of them might not be able to overcome their personal demons, but we do believe that there is a significant number of them who can enter the workforce. Even if it's only 20 or 30 percent of them, that's a huge number and would allow us to support new and expanding businesses, with reasonable confidence that companies could come up with a workforce."
In order to ensure continued economic growth in the future, the county must focus on developing a steady supply of qualified workers, and Chitwood said the area is not far from using up all of the people here who are currently capable of landing a job. After one or two more economic development projects settle in the county, the qualified workforce could essentially all be employed -- thus leaving a gap between the county's unemployed residents and the companies who will not locate in a place where there are no viable workers.
"I think there's a realization that the development of a workforce is now part of the work of everyone," said Chitwood. "There is no place on earth, from Calcutta to Keiser, where you can just find a ready-made workforce with the particular skills that an individual industry would be looking for; and therefore, it's going to be all of our jobs -- government, industry and education, to work together to foster an environment where we have a steady number of people coming out of the educational system not only prepared to work in an industrial setting, but looking forward to it."
The basic plan is to develop a partnership between industry and both the secondary and post-secondary education systems, along with county government. Industry can choose its employees and enter into an agreement with them to receive education and training necessary for being hired. The training can be provided by the schools and the college, and the government (presumably economic development funds) could be used to help pay for the training itself, and possibly help look for private or grant funds to supply a stipend for the students until they can be hired. This would take either a high school student or an unemployed adult from training specific to a job, directly through to being hired at a decent wage.
Chitwood said the initial planning meeting went very well, and he witnessed a high level of cooperation between the participating parties.
"We had a great turnout, and actually it was the best workforce meeting that I have attended in all the years I've been at this," he said. "There was more give and take and more ideas expressed, the schools were very supportive as well as being informative about what they are doing. Everyone came out of the meeting quite hopeful, that we're working together."
The group is currently forming planning committees, and Chitwood said within the next month, the committees and the group at large will meet again.
"We're working on how we can help industry to hire a person with very little skill, with the knowledge that the county will help get them trained to their specifications," he said. "If we pull this off, it will be one of the few times in the United States where there's been this level of cooperation with industry and education and government to develop its own people into a workforce."
sharris@blythevillecourier.com