Crime Blotter: Reported offenses in the Tri-parishes
August 29, 2013Report IDs Gulf fire source
August 29, 2013
State politicians and local leaders are working together to get the state’s workforce on track to serve the needs of the oil and gas industry as well as the growth of specialty trade contractors and heavy and civil engineering sectors.
“We should have been doing this 10 years ago,” said U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu. “What we are doing is right, but we are not doing all we can do. Now we must do it at an accelerated pace and turn out students quickly.
“The boom is here.”
Landrieu hosted a jobs roundtable discussion with about 30 local leaders and business people last Tuesday at Fletcher Technical Community College to discuss workforce development and educating future workers for the jobs that are available in the Tri-parish area.
Those seated at the table included state Sen. Bret Allain, South Central Industrial Association executive director Jane Arnette, Fletcher’s chancellor Travis Lavigne and several deans and members of the school’s staff, Terrebonne Economic Development Authority executive director Steve Vassallo and local school board staff.
“I see such great potential for Louisiana,” Landrieu said “You can feel it everywhere you go. Louisiana is ready. I want this economic boom to last, be sustainable, be more than a blip on the screen. We have seen this before. We don’t want to repeat the past.”
Landrieu is currently traveling the state hosting discussions to coordinate leaders, and the senator commended Arnette for predicting what was on the way for the state’s workforce.
“Jane was talking about this subject before this subject was cool,” she said. “Everyone in the country finally started to catch on.”
“We are working closely with the school boards,” Arnette said. “We bus 1,200 children to the technical school in Terrebonne Parish, and we plan to do it in Lafourche Parish in the future.”
Through the association’s Work It! Louisiana program, high school students from Terrebonne, Lafourche and Assumption parishes are shown the many career paths that are available in the area and in the state. The association also helped establish Nicholls State University’s maritime management program, and it works to bring attention to the university’s petroleum program.
“This is really exciting, Jane, really exciting,” Landrieu said. “We have got some good ideas on the table.”
Fletcher Technical Community College is not only partnered with the university but also with several private industry stakeholders as it works to educate future oil and gas industry workers. The school’s Integrated Production Technologies Program provides specialized academic and technical skills education to fill technician jobs in the oil and natural gas production industry, and the program was developed through the school’s partnerships.
“We need to make some noise about the successful partnership between Nicholls and Fletcher,” said L.J. Folse with Coastal Commerce Bank. “It has done wonders for the market here.”
By adding skilled laborers to the state’s workforce, Landrieu hopes to strengthen the state as a whole.
“We cannot sustain or build a state with minimum wage employees,” she said. “We need highly skilled technical fabrication workers.
“We can get these kids a visa to the middle class. With the right training, we can lift a whole family to another economic level and benefit the whole community. We need to grow here, where we are, and not leave.”
Vassallo discussed the positive effect TEDA’s high school entrepreneurial trainings have on students who enter the working world.
“Even though they (the students who participate in entrepreneurial training) don’t always go on to start their own business, they do make better employees,” Vassallo said.
According to Joey Comeaux with the Assumption Parish School Board, the school is two years into a plan to ensure that the parish’s graduates have a bead on a career path long before they are handed their diplomas.
“We started bringing in career coaches to talk to the ninth graders,” Comeaux said. “By the 11th grade, they meet one-on-one with each student and conduct a practice job interview.”
High school graduates whose career path includes earning a degree from a technical college may eventually see some financial help in earning their education.
“Someone at the Lake Charles roundtable suggested getting the law changed so that Pell grants could also be used for technical colleges,” Landrieu said. “Some states may not want to do that. We have enough workers in Louisiana to fill jobs, but not the skills.”
Allain expressed his concern over who would educate the state’s future employees.
“We need funds to hire instructors at schools,” he said. “We’ve got to be creative. Maybe with teachers who are retiring, make an exception on their pension for them to come back and teach. We can’t compete with industry, but we need to have the right people teaching.”
“I will take these ideas back to Washington,” Landrieu said. “There are federal monies available to help organize this.”
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu hosts a jobs roundtable discussion with about 30 local leaders and business people at Fletcher Technical Community College. State politicians and local leaders are working together to get the state’s workforce on track to serve the needs of the oil and gas industry.
