By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Wood County industries have had one primary complaint in recent years – where are the workers they need?
“We keep hearing from our employers here in Wood County about the workforce,” said Mary DeWitt, workforce administrator with OhioMeansJobs Wood County.
The problem is so serious that it convinced several large industries to sit down in the same room to come up with a solution.
“We’ve got to think outside the box,” DeWitt explained. “So we got a group of employers into a room and brainstormed.”
The result was the creation of the OhioMeansJobs/Wood County Apprenticeship Consortium to address the labor shortage here. The program is focused on developing apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships to help meet the workforce needs of the local business community.
“It is way cool,” DeWitt said.
“No one company was large enough to support an apprenticeship program,” she said. “It’s exciting to see the employers working together.”
The industrial maintenance apprenticeship program will begin in Bowling Green on May 3.
Companies participating in the program currently include TH Plastics, GKN Automotive Limited, Betco Corporation, Lubrizol Corporation, Fresh Products, Curation Foods, and Phoenix Technologies.
The workers will be trained in automated industrial maintenance, which includes skills in electricity, motors, controllers, welding and pipe cutting.
“They will be a jack of all trades,” which many industries are reporting a need for, said Pete Prichard, of Northwest State Community College.
“These guys are going to be the ‘fix it’ guys,” Prichard said.
While the apprenticeship program will help the 10 people involved in the initial training, the benefits will be much larger, DeWitt hopes.
“So employers will stay in Wood County and not go somewhere else,” she said. “I want to make sure Wood County has the best workforce available to employers so they don’t go elsewhere.”
If the first round of training goes well, more will be offered.
“We’re looking to expand this and start a new round in August,” DeWitt said.
Participants will earn a living wage while receiving the hands-on and classroom training. Classes will be held at the Big Fab Lab in Bowling Green with trainers from Northwest State Community College.
The members of the consortium include OhioMeansJobs Wood County, Bowling Green Economic Development and Northwest State Community College. Over a dozen local companies provided input for program planning with an eye on developing a successful workforce and attracting future employers to the area.
The training will be conducted two days a week for 18 months, with those who complete it earning 30 college credit hours.
“It is an intense program,” Prichard said.
The program is being funded by incumbent worker training funds provided by OhioMeansJobs Wood County and the Wood County Department of Job and Family Services.
For those interested in more information, contact Mary DeWitt, workforce administrator at OhioMeansJobs Wood County at mary.dewitt@jfs.ohio.gov or 419-373-6970.
