Pellissippi State Community College launches trades partnerships with Blount employers

Both students and one of the biggest industries in Blount County could benefit from new partnerships meant to merge work in the skilled trades with higher education.

Working in manufacturing, a field that employs thousands of people across the county, and pursuing a college degree are often viewed as mutually exclusive acts. One new program, announced Wednesday, April 3, would instead pair college education with work for some of Blount County’s largest employers.

Earn and Learn, a new Pellissippi State Community College initiative, would see the college’s students draw a $17 per hour wage while working in advanced manufacturing. The program encompasses employers such as DENSO Manufacturing, Arconic and JTEKT, based in Vonore; it’s set to get off the ground with its first cohort in the fall.

With a main campus in West Knox County and satellites in Friendsville, Knoxville and Strawberry Plains, the college is also partnering with SME, a nonprofit that focuses on supporting the manufacturing industry, on developing the future manufacturing workforce. During a Wednesday gathering to kickstart the school’s work with SME, local leaders in manufacturing and education talked over their hopes for the new partnerships and the challenges they’re facing.

Goals

The college educates just under 9,000 students across its campuses, as of fall 2023.

Patricia Weaver, the college’s vice president for external affairs, told The Daily Times that the new projects are in part about constructing a talent pipeline.

College administrators and faculty aim to lead 1,000 students to the manufacturing sector within three years through the partnership with SME, according to a school press release. During a presentation Wednesday, Jacob Johnson with SME said that the Manufacturing Imperative: Workforce Pipeline Challenge initiative, which spans over 20 schools, has generated federal interest.

“We have their ears; we have their eyes,” Johnson said of the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor and the Executive Office of the White House.

The initiative is growing, he noted, but the workforce development goals of each partner school are specific, and SME can help colleges like Pellissippi reach students and employers. It will also provide colleges with annual market research, among other things.

For its part, the Earn and Learn program will see students in the Electrical Engineering Technology program attend class two days per week and work three days.

“They’re taking what they learn in the classroom and applying it to that real-world opportunity,” Weaver said. It’s an example of a win-win process, she commented.

“Our students are learning, and at the end of the degree cycle, they have either a full-time job or two years of work experience,” she said.

At the same time, Weaver said companies can “build (students) into their culture.”

The program is being extended the school’s water quality offerings, she said, and employers including South Blount Utility District and the Knoxville Utilities Board have agreed to work with the school’s students. Those students would make an $18 hourly rate, she said.

Earn and Learn is distinct from the SME initiative, but the programs share a primary aim of workforce development, she said.

Blount Partnership Communications Director Jeff Muir told the newspaper Wednesday the initiatives could also help serve a more specific goal: keeping young Blount Countians in the area.

Perceptions

The programs’ success turns on perceptions, Johnson said. And different ideas about manufacturing can represent challenges, employers and education professionals who attended the event noted.

Melissa Stowers, Maryville City Schools’ career and technical education director, said that creating industry awareness is one of the issues she’s been thinking through lately.

Funding for such programs is one aspect of that problem, she said. “Having even people here who are willing to have that conversation helps us to really intentionally prepare (students),” she said.

James Harrison with Arconic noted that when he speaks to potential employees, he tries to ask questions including: do you like solving problems? Can you work with your hands? Did you know that pay for trades can equal over $100,000 per year?

Doing so can provide a counterpoint to old ideas about the nature of work in the trades, he said.

Johnson made a similar point. Sometimes a solution can be as simple as reframing, he said. “‘Have you ever thought about being an industrial maintenance technician?’ No kid’s gonna go ‘absolutely.’” Asking: “have you ever thought of robotics solutions?” could be a more productive question, he said.