While hearing the stories of triumph, the Tennessee Council for Career & Technical Education (TCCTE) has a loaded agenda coming up for the future.
The TCCTE convened inside the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) – Elizabethton campus in Stoney Creek on Friday to hear stories, tour the facilities and provide insight in what routes can be taken to have a suitable workforce to delve into manufacturing jobs across the state.
TCAT – Elizabethton Director Dean Blevins is no stranger of working with the TCCTE, serving as the group’s vice chair.
“It has been my pleasure to serve on the Council for a great number of years,” Blevins said. “To bring it here to Northeast Tennessee to our college’s campus is a very exciting thing for us to do. We can hear the local flavor of the CTE programs, at the secondary and postsecondary level, and the good things going on in our area. I’d say the closest we’ve been to this area was about four or five years ago and that was in Gatlinburg, so this is a great opportunity to have this event locally.”
As a whole, the TCCTE is a appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam and works to help prepare to the workforce while working with students – from high school and onward – according to TCCTE Executive Director Chelsea Parker.
“We serve as an advisory board for the state’s Department of Education, Tennessee Board of Regents, General Assembly, and state Board of Education,” Parker said. “We have a unique position in that we can look across agencies to see how students are supported … all the way from high school through postsecondary and onto the workforce and work on the pathways to help them pursue careers.
“Our focus and reason for coming here today is to see the efficiencies and where we can make recommendations on what students have, their skillsets to have them on a trajectory for them to obtain a job with a high wage to support them and their families for the years to come. We want to make sure that no matter where a student lives in the state, that they have an opportunity to have these career paths and a lot of our students don’t know what’s out there.” One of the guest speakers during Friday’s meeting included TCAT – Morristown Director Jerry Patton, who served at the Elizabethton campus as director until 2009.
“I was the director of this school for almost 10 years,” Patton said. “I was asked to speak here today because we have been successful in receiving not one time, but twice now the LEAP grants from the state of Tennessee.They wanted to know how we got those LEAP grants and how we got the money.
Patton discussed the successes of implementing the work ready diplomas at the high school levels within three school systems – Hamblen, Hawkins and Grainger counties. With the second LEAP grant, the additional counties include Hawkins, Cocke, and Sevier. The Elizabethton Board of Education members had also recently voted on a measure on wanting to adopt a similar type of diploma at the high school level. Patton went on to describe the history of the diplomas’ inception.
“About two years ago, we met with the Hamblen County Board of Education and invited industry leaders down there and we told them we had the opportunity to go after a $1 million LEAP grant but how should we structure this and how we can go about it if we get this money?,” Patton said. “I’ve gone to a lot of the high schools in East Tennessee and the sad thing is, if you look at the CTE programs at the high schools, there’s very little equipment to train on. Most of the jobs in our area are manufacturing jobs. Many times, the students don’t understand the opportunities that are offered by following this career path. Where I’m currently working, we have ten Fortune 500 companies, ten international companies and over 100 businesses and industries. Most of those companies are in an expansion mode, but can not get enough skilled workers. That’s what the TCAT is about.”
Patton added that he is hoping the diplomas will be able to span statewide, and the further initiatives, included Work Ready Community program provided by ACT, based out of Iowa, are looking increase the job readiness in the community, according to Kathy Piece with the Alliance for Business and Training (AB&T).
Each of the members went through a daylong meeting but were treated with lunch and an opportunity to tour the campus.
“I was fortunate enough to make it to the Battle at Bristol football game and this was the first time I’ve been in Johnson City since 1993,” Andy Nash, with the TCCTE and Farmers Bank in Portand, Tenn., said with a chuckle describing his previous trip to the region. “I drove 320 miles but I wanted to make sure I came by to see this facility. Dean does an incredible job with the facility and I’ve heard some much about it.”
Tonya Shortt and David Dykes, with MAHLE Engine Components USA, Inc. in Morristown are a nationally-recognized company that offers various types of employment opportunities for students that come from schools like TCAT. The duo stressed the important by saying it is key to continue educating individual to fill existing jobs and future ones that will come to the state.”