Great Plains helps close skills gaps

Skills gaps. Over the last few years, we’ve heard a lot of discussion in the media and within industries about the skills gap and what we can do to close the gap. What exactly is a skills gap? When a worker’s skills do not meet employers’ needs, the result is a skills gap.

In the seven years since I have been superintendent of Great Plains Technology Center, I’ve seen local efforts to close skills gaps, most notably with businesses and industries upskilling and reskilling their workforce. Great Plains Tech’s Business and Industry Services plays a significant role in the upskilling and reskilling of our local workforce by providing additional education and training opportunities to help close the skills gap. Our Business and Industry Services and Adult Career Development departments can provide customized training to meet the needs of our area employers.

One of the critical areas where skilled workers are much needed is in manufacturing. To address this need, we have developed an Introduction to Manufacturing class at our campus located in Frederick. Upon completion, many of those students go on to work for Henniges Automotive. The Lawton campus offers industrial and technical training in welding, hydraulics, pneumatics, motors, process controls, and much more. We train all industrial maintenance technicians for Goodyear. We also offer full-time and part-time combination welding courses at both campuses. This year we added a Computer Integrated Manufacturing class at the Lawton Public Schools’ Life Ready Center. In this course students learn about manufacturing processes, product design, robotics, and automation, developing skills in Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing.

Several other industries attempting to close skills gaps are in the areas of construction trades, including carpentry, electrical, heating and air conditioning, automotive mechanics, and collision repair, first responders —firefighters, criminal justice, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics, as well as information technology, health and medical, and STEM programs such as Pre-Engineering and BioMedical Science, all of which we offer expert training for at Great Plains Technology Center. Most of our career programs provide training for both adult secondary and high school students. A few are high school or adult only.

Great Plains Technology Center and the Oklahoma CareerTech system can offer students tremendous opportunities, helping them learn technical and employability skills. At the adult level, we can train and prepare students for employment in their chosen career fields. At the high school level, we offer students opportunities to explore a career theme of interest and integrate their learning into or complement their academic studies, which can lead to college studies or additional specialized career training. These pathways can lead to degrees, industry certifications, internships, and apprenticeships that can lead to employment.

Oklahoma CareerTech, of which Great Plains Technology Center is a part, has offered solutions to our state’s workforce challenges for over a century. I’m exceedingly proud of what we do here at Great Plains Technology Center. We continually collaborate with businesses and industries to provide workforce solutions to meet those challenges.

Our advisory committees keep us moving forward by helping us address, develop curriculum, and adapt to industry needs and trends, coupled with instruction by teachers who have experience in their teaching areas, making for a win-win for everyone involved. The most rewarding part of what we do at Great Plains is prepare our students for college, military, or see them become successful, highly skilled workers with hands-on experience in the industry they trained in. That is a very good thing.

Clarence Fortney is superintendent of Great Plains Technology Center.