rob mcclendon: here is what's coming up onyour "horizon." well, for several years now oklahoma's economy has been exceptionallystrong for anyone with an in-demand skill or ability. yet for those with a high schooldiploma or less, with no certifiable skill sets, their employment picture isn't so rosy.in fact, unemployment for those with a high school diploma or less is twice that of thosewith a college degree or an industry certification. it's called a skills gap, and it's what weare focusing on today with state leaders at the capitol, within industry and in education.stay with us for "oklahoma horizon." male announcer: "horizon" is made possibleby the oklahoma department of career and technology education.female announcer: oklahoma's investment in
careertech provides more than nationally recognizedtechnology education and training. it produces solid financial returns for the state's economicfuture; oklahoma careertech, elevating our economy.male announcer: and the oklahoma department of agriculture, food and forestry, helpinggood people grow good things. and now, from the careertech studios in stillwater, here'syour host, rob mcclendon. rob mcclendon: hello, everyone; thanks forjoining us here on "horizon." well, manufacturing contributes roughly $2.9 trillion to our nation,and for every $1 spent in manufacturing, another $37 flows throughout the economy. in the governor'sstate of the state address, she mentioned a program called midamerica delivers, an initiativein pryor, okla., that she believes can be
an example for the entire state.gov. mary fallin: so the goal is to expose the students to the job and career optionsavailable to them after graduation as well as the skill set they need to be able to obtainthose jobs. rob: our alisa hines visited the midamericaindustrial park to find out how the program works.alisa hines: as one of the nation's largest industrial parks, midamerica is reshapingthe way skills training happens. through collaboration between education and industry, midamericais bridging the gap between manufacturing needs and an available, skilled workforce.alisa: like paper changing rolls, manufacturing is shedding its image and rolling out good-payingjobs while growing their local workforce.
jeff wargo is with orchids paper productsand says manufacturing is transforming. jeff wargo: well, manufacturing has gottena bad rap over the last 30 years, and manufacturing is starting to come back. america was builton manufacturing and is going to continue to be built on manufacturing. you have tomake a product to have a viable economy. and right here in the midamerica industrial park,you know, we're part of the manufacturing engine that's running this county and thepryor area. alisa: and to make that engine run, you needskilled employees. john hawkins is with the governor's council for workforce and economicdevelopment. john hawkins: what we have seen recently isthat the workforce was lacking in some skill
sets. and so we organized with midamericaindustrial park's help through midamerica delivers. we're moving towards aligning everybody.and by everybody i mean common ed, the higher ed, the career centers, the governments inthe county and the surrounding areas, and our sense of community has broadened dramaticallybut we're getting some inclusiveness that we've never had before.alisa: giving students different routes towards the same goal of working in the industrialpark. scott fry is the director of the osu institute of technology's midamerica industrialpark advanced training center and says their hands-on training is helping close the skillsgap. scott fry: when the students complete ourprograms that they know how to do. it's just
not building a knowledge base but a true skillset. alisa: randy kersker is a former combat medicwho is ready for a change, so he's attending osuit's electricity program.randy kersker: the hands-on has been great. i've really enjoyed coming in here into thelab and just, that's where i learn, with my hands, doing. i could read a book over andover and over again, and i still may not understand what they are trying to convey, but as soonas you let me do it, then i've pretty much got it. i decided the industrial park wasa big opportunity. and everything around here works off of some form of electricity, andthere's always going to need to be people that work on electricity, so why not.alisa: and osuit also offers concurrent classes
that pryor high school student brandon cummingssays will give him an advantage when he graduates. brandon cummings: because i can be makingcollege credits while i'm still in high school, and even if i don't want to go into manufacturing,these credits are transferrable to rsu or any other local college.alisa: and the other difference it will make. brandon cummings: five dollars an hour atpete's drive-in versus $15.75 at orchids. alisa: back at orchids paper products, stevewaldeck says the training he received at osuit helped him move up the career ladder.steve waldeck: at first i was only going to take a few classes to solidify some technicaltraining that, uh, things that i had previously worked on since i was a high school dropout.i found out that i could get an associate's
degree, have an opportunity to go the college,walk in the procession, so that motivated me. and from that point forward, i starteddoing three classes a semester. i didn't qualify for any grants; everything was student loans.i write a check every month for a hundred dollars for my student loans. it's the easiestcheck that i have ever put my signature on. alisa: at northeast tech center, craig cooperteaches welding and says they are preparing their students for local industry.craig cooper: trying to prepare them is like trying to take a high school student and turnhim into a pro ball player, to meet the industry standard in the short period of time thatwe have them. with the proper training, meeting industry standards, we make that happen. ourindustrial park here in pryor, we've got students
working in it.alisa: training students like hunter dawson who wants to work in the industrial park.hunter dawson: helped me skill-wise because i never really knew what i wanted to do, youknow, when i got out of high school. and i didn't really want to go to college. it wasn'treally for me. and we have an industrial park and, you know, it's local. there's a lot ofjobs. welding is a trade, and you're always going to need welding, and that's the kindof job i wanted. alisa: while developing skills needed to runlocal industry. john hawkins: what we are able to do is combineresources in order to give a product to the clients, and the students are the clients.so not only working for them, we're working
for the park and for the community.alisa: and keeping it all local. jeff wargo: what i want to get out to theyoung people is, there's an opportunity here in mayes county to not only graduate highschool, but to attain whatever level of secondary education you're seeking, be it to have, youknow, just various skills that you can get at the northeast technology center, skillsyou can get at osuit with an associate's degree or bachelor's degree programs out of rogersstate, all located right here in the industrial park. so you can graduate from high schoolhere. you can obtain your secondary education here. and you can get a very good-paying joband have a career here and really never leave the area.alisa: the midamerica delivers initiative
is only successful because of the willingnessof training and educational institutions to align their programs to meet the needs oflocal businesses. as john puts it, the egos were left at the door, and everyone agreedto cooperate. and so far, it's been very successful. rob mcclendon: now, later in our show we'lltake a closer look at the midamerica industrial park and its role in revitalizing that area'seconomy. david stewart: well, we want people to wakeup going, "i can be successful right here." you know, wake up in that kind of environment,and then you're not looking for a place to move.rob: but when we return, my conversation with gov. mary fallin.male announcer: you're watching "oklahoma
horizon," featuring some of the good thingsthat are happening in the great state of oklahoma. rob mcclendon: well, in her state of the stateaddress, gov. mary fallin unveiled a new program called oklahoma works, an effort to realigneducation and skills training to better meet the needs of both students and employers.and i was able to sit down with gov. fallin to talk about the new program.rob: madam governor, what is your motivation behind the oklahoma works program?gov mary fallin: well, the oklahoma works program is about making sure that we havea highly skilled, educated, prepared workforce to take care of the jobs that we have in thestate of oklahoma. and you know many times i'll find employers who will tell me i couldhire more workers if i could just find that
employee that has the right type of skillsets or educational attainment. and then on the other hand, i'm a parent, you know myhusband and i have six children between us, and so we have one more child that's not outof college yet. and so, like a parent, we always think about what's your child goingto do once they graduate from college? are they going to be able to find a job in oklahoma?and a lot of kids come out of college, or maybe it's a careertech school, and they'renot quite sure what they want to do, or even some high school kids aren't quite sure whatthey want to do, so. basically it's about bringing together k-12 education, kindergartenthrough 12th-grade education, our wonderful career technology schools that offer vocationalskill sets that people can actually use out
into the workforce in a particular career,or helping them move into an associate degree or college, four-year college degree, andto align our education pipeline with the jobs that are actually out in the oklahoma communities.rob: so if we are aligning this educational pipeline, what is industry's role in this?gov fallin: industries play a huge role in this because they are the ones out there creatingthe jobs, needing the skill sets and hopefully growing and expanding in oklahoma. and sowe need their input. we need them to tell us, "here's what we need." an interestingthing, if you look for an example, like at the manufacturing sector, because technologychanges so very quickly. in other words, i buy an iphone or an ipad or whatever it mightbe, and within two or three years they've
got another version out, and i haven't hardlymastered the first one i got, and then they're trying to upgrade me to another one. samething happens in manufacturing. in other words, they may have a piece of equipment, a pieceof technology that they train their employees to utilize, and within two to three to fouror five years that technology is obsolete. and so their workforce has to have that criticalthinking skills, the problem-solving skills and basically the basic math and science andreading to be able to learn that new process to keep that manufacturing company movingforward with the ever-changing technology that's out there.rob: from this technology perspective, it seems like short-term skills training is goingto be something that everyone can expect pretty
much from here on out.gov fallin: well, back in the old days when my parents were growing up, you took a joband you pretty much stayed in that job until you retired. now, back in these days, andi don't know the exact statistics but, people change jobs every, sometimes, two to threeyears. it's just a different mindset for our children than what it was when our parentswere growing up. and so the skills change so rapidly, mainly because of technology andhow we communicate. and so it is important that we have an education and a pipeline talentsystem that always encourages people to continue to improve upon their educational attainmentlevels. and that's what oklahoma works is about. we know that two-thirds of the jobsbetween now and the year 2020, which is just
five years away, will require more than ahigh school degree. that's the new minimum for being able to have access to the majorityof the jobs, not only in oklahoma but across the nation. but the fact of the matter isthat we only have about 49 percent of our workforce that has a portion of either a highschool degree, an associate degree, a little bit of career technology education. but thereality is two-thirds of them need to have more than a high school degree to enter intothe workforce. and then of course i'm always trying to grow our economy, grow our qualityof life, increase the quality of the jobs that we have in the state so people can dobetter and support their families, and children can find a good-paying job in our state. butin order to do that, we've got to have the
right skilled, educated workforce, and that'swhat oklahoma works is about. it's bringing businesses together with all of our educationalinstitutions, making sure we're aligning the skills and the education levels with the needsof the economy. it's not just the state economy, but regional. in other words, the things thatare needed skillwise in eastern oklahoma where we have a lot of forestry and lumber, we havea lot of tourism, a lot of small business manufacturing, are different than westernoklahoma where we have a lot of agriculture. we have hog farms out in that area. we havea lot of oil and gas, other things, too, a lot of wind turbines in that area. but thoseskill sets are different than what's needed in some cases down in eastern oklahoma.rob: madam governor, thank you so much.
gov fallin: you're welcome.female announcer: still to come on "oklahoma horizon" creating a world-class workforce.but first, oklahoma's military connection. rob mcclendon: well, the transition from militarypersonnel to civilian life can be difficult. veterans often have trouble matching the skillsthey acquired in the service to civilian jobs back at home, but thanks to a program calledoklahoma military connection, veterans now have a place to find a career out of uniform.amy ewing-holmstrom is with oklahoma careertech. amy ewing-holmstrom: the oklahoma militaryconnection numerous times throughout the year will hold hiring events specifically for military.and coming up april 2, we'll be doing that same thing in the mcalester area at the reservecenter there. we'll have about 50 employers
throughout the state that want to talk tothem about possible employment. our oklahoma employers are very happy because they wantthe veterans to come to work for them. rob: now, if you'd like to learn how to becomeinvolved in this event, just head to our website at okhorizon.com where we have a link underthis story. rob mcclendon: well, while some veterans maymeet their future employer at the military connection job fairs, not every person returninghome from active duty wants to go to work for someone else. joining me now is our andybarth. andy barth: well, rob, after serving our nationas a navy man, one oklahoman continued serving those around him when he went to work forhimself, making where we live a little greener.
andy barth: after wearing navy blue, andrewmason is going green. andrew mason: we are energy-efficient products.we do solar panels, wind power, led lights, tankless water heaters, hybrid water heaters,solar tubes and many, many more. andy: and with the motto "reduce before weproduce," mason opened supergreen solutions, oklahoma's first green franchise.mason: so we want to come in, we want to look at where your money is going. if you're wastingit on lights, then we want to replace your lights. if you have gaps under your door,and your heat is just going out under the door, well, we need to fix that first. anddoing those things will save you, will bring your $800 electric bill down to 300.andy: and after 20 years in the navy, mason
launched his civilian career.mason: i learned so much in the navy, and it was a very interesting career. and wheni was done with the navy, i knew i wanted to get into being my own boss and having abusiness. andy: where he reports to his customers.mason: either you like helping people or you don't.andy: and mason does. by helping people lower their energy bills, he believes his businessprospects will brighten. mason: electricity is only going to go up.unless some other factor changes that nobody else is talking about, you're going to paymore for your electricity. and one of the answers is you either have to use less, oryou're going to have to start producing your
own.andy barth: well, now, mason was born with the military in his blood. with a father inthe service, mason lived overseas and grew up with a love for the armed forces. his fatheralso worked for the u.s. department of state and lived in multiple embassies around theglobe. rob mcclendon: all right. well, thank youso much, andy. andy: you're welcome, rob.rob mcclendon: want to share something you've seen here today? well, all of our episodesare streaming on our youtube channel at oklahomahorizontv, or you can subscribe to our weekly free podcaston itunes. rob mcclendon: well, pryor's midamerica industrialpark is a powerful economic engine for northeastern
oklahoma, not only providing jobs, but helpingpeople get the skills to get hired. i sat down with david stewart, the park's chiefadministrative officer, to learn more about their approach to meeting the needs of bothindustry and the workforce. rob: so dave, i believe when anyone drivesin, they'll be struck by how sprawling the midamerica industrial park is.david stewart: yes, it's actually 10,000 acres, of which about half is still available fordevelopment. and that's really what we're focused on is bringing companies into that4,000 acres, creating jobs for this area. rob: how has that industrial park, or thisindustrial park, how has it developed over the years?stewart: well, it was formed in 1960, and
strangely enough, it acquired the assets ofa black powder munitions plant from world war ii, so the infrastructure is very well-developed,and over time we have acquired 80 companies, and 3400 employees come to work here everyday. rob: and the jobs are very different. i mean,things from google to a trucking company. stewart: right, very diverse group of companies,and that's what's interesting is because we can cater to a wide range of employee typeskill set. and as a result we have a lot of different kind of training programs and assetsto bring to those companies. rob: how important is location?stewart: well, it's critical. when you look at why companies locate, they locate for workforce,and they locate for location, so distribution,
access to highways, transportation. of course,we're right next door to tulsa international airport. we have an inland waterway. so it'svery critical. when you put all those together, it makes for a unique combination.rob: so what makes midamerica industrial park so unique? what does it offer?stewart: well, really four areas. one is governance. you know we have five trustees, of which iam one, that make all the decisions. we have no zoning, no permitting, and basically fivetrustees can make those decisions. so at a time when you know permitting and speed savesmoney, companies look at that very critically, so a very probusiness environment. secondof all, we have all of the infrastructure. we have power, water, waste treatment andplenty of land to offer. third, we have on-site
training. we have rogers state universitywith a campus on-site, osuit is on-site, and northeast tech, part of our careers program,is on-site. so those assets are here available for the companies. now, how do we deliverthose? and that's the fourth asset that we bring to the table. we bring a collaboration,the ability to collaborate with all of our stakeholders, the superintendents of highschools, the community leaders, representatives from the higher education and educationalinstitution and representatives from business. so when you bring the ceos to the table, alongwith those other stakeholders, that is where the competitive work of midamerica, i believe,is because when you bring those together and you deliver all of those resources in a waythat is directed by the ceos, that means it's
going to be probusiness. and that is whatis unique, and that is what midamerica delivers. it is that unique collaboration and groupof stakeholders that meet regularly to provide all of these resources, whether it be workforce,legislation, you know, unique legislation needs, anything, those companies can get fromthe resources of this organization. rob: so essentially, shovel-ready, whetherit be building something to providing the workforce?stewart: absolutely, including spec buildings that are readily available for companies tomove in, and also we have resources and incentives that if a company comes in here with 200 employees,we can actually provide some incentives similar to what the state provides as a third bucketof incentives. so when you add that to the
picture, then it really is unique and differentiatesus from most other parks. rob: how important are skills to meet thejob demand that you have here? stewart: well, when you look at why companieslocate, there is a lot of research that is done with site locators and such. they locate,you know they have land, they have water, they have power and all of those foundationaltype assets and resources, but at the end of the day if they don't have qualified employees,they can't make money, and they can't prosper. so we identified that, and so we are focusednow on bringing all of the community resources, the assets that we have in such a way thatit is very unique, deliberate, aligned, so that those companies, the companies here,can succeed and grow. and so it's critical,
absolutely critical.rob: and there is a picture right behind us of a proposed midamerica career center. tellus about that. stewart: absolutely. when we strategically,when we looked at the resources that we had and why companies relocate and why they growand expand and make choices to grow and expand, it turns out that their qualified workforce,having that available is the most critical. so when we look at what we need to bring tothose companies, we need to locate, we need to coordinate a process where we can deliveremployees, qualified employees, to those companies, we need to evaluate, and we need to educate.so when you look at that process, there is really no one place where that can happen,and that's where the idea of the career center
came up. the career center will provide allof those activities under one roof, a one-stop show if you will. we think it's going to beunique. we're under design right now. it's about a $10 million project, and we're veryexcited about what it's going to provide to the companies here.rob: what would you tell the young person or really just tell anyone about the jobsthat can be offered here and why they ought to look at something like this?stewart: well, first of all we have to acknowledge that really people here want to stay at home,right? they want to be with their families. i mean, this is rural america, and it's agreat place to live. we have grand lake, we have lake tenkiller, eufaula, gibson, we havethe illinois river, we have the ozarks, you
know, 30 minutes away. so people want to stayhere. so how do you do that? well, you have to have the skill set training that is neededin order to get the jobs that are available. so combining those two and aligning them iswhat we have to communicate to our, i call them kids because i'm older, but to our kidsthat are looking for these kinds of opportunities and information. and what we believe is thatthey just don't have the information. it exists, but we need to communicate it to them. soi would tell them it's right here. you can get a great job. in fact, we have jobs todaythat are available, a wide range of jobs all the way from, you know, plant maintenanceto robotics to google, and you can do, you know, computer work. so whatever you wantis here. we just need to find out what you
like to do, and then we need to train youand give you skill sets to be productive right here in northeast oklahoma.rob: now, if you would like to see my entire interview with david stewart, it is streamingon our website at okhorizon.com. rob mcclendon: next time on "oklahoma horizon,"we profile basketball superstar cheryl miller and learn about her coaching rebirth righthere in oklahoma. cheryl miller: you know, my brothers werealways, you know, iron sharpens iron, and if you want to get better you've got to competeagainst the best at all sports, at all levels. so, you know, growing up in that environmentof a very competitive family certainly stoked the fires.rob: basketball coaching legend cheryl miller
on oklahoma's show for the heartland, "oklahomahorizon." rob mcclendon: well, that is going to wrapus up for today, but you can see more of any of our stories on our website at okhorizon.com.you can listen to us on the go with our weekly podcast on itunes. follow us throughout theweek on twitter at okhorizontv. or, just become a "horizon" fan on facebook. i'm rob mcclendon.thanks for including us in your day. see you back here next week.male announcer: "horizon" is made possible by the oklahoma department of career and technologyeducation and the oklahoma department of agriculture, food and forestry, helping good people growgood things. thank you for watching "oklahoma horizon."
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