A Workforce In Progress In The Delta
by February 8, 2011 7:00 pm 75 views
In 1992, there was a truck driving program and nursing program at a vocational-technical school in West Memphis. About 80 students attended the school, which consisted of three small buildings on a campus smaller than a Wal-Mart parking lot.
Today, the Mid-South Community College campus has been injected with about $75 million in investment – only $10 million coming from the state – and the college and its affiliation with four other area two-year schools is a model for the education-economic development paradigm that Gov. Mike Beebe preaches.
ADTEC, or Arkansas Delta Training and Education Consortium, is feeding an educated workforce into a regional business economy that is evolving in manufacturing, agriculture, health care and transportation.
Much of its success was spawned from rejection.
In early 2007, Mid-South and the eastern Arkansas regional educational system was made the scapegoat for Toyota’s decision to locate a multi-million dollar truck plant in Mississippi versus neighboring Marion, Arkansas.
School, workforce and local business leaders made a pact to never let that happen again.
What have been the results of this dramatic turnaround in the Delta? What is on the planning table for future of higher education? And how is ADTEC reshaping workforce education in a way that other regions of the state could emulate?
Read our feature story from writer Michael Tilley in the latest edition of Talk Business & Politics. You can click on this link to access a pdf version of the full article.