‘Work It! Louisiana’ coming to Tri-parishes

South Central Industrial Association was recently awarded funds to pilot an education and marketing program in the Tri-parish school systems for the 2007-08 school year.

SCIA Executive Director Jane Arnette said, “The program called Work It! Louisiana is designed to educate students on the job opportunities and career paths in the Bayou

Region.”

Work It! Louisiana will serve the students in Terrebonne, St. Mary and Lafourche parishes. It may expand into Assumption Parish later in the school year, she said.

Funding for the program was appropriated from the Louisiana Legislature to the state Department of Labor for SCIA to implement the program in all the Tri-parish schools.

SCIA is not a 501(c)g organization, so the funds have to be funneled through a fiscal agent.

The Terrebonnne Economic Development Authority will serve as the fiscal agent because it already has a fiscal review system in place, according to Arnette. TEDA will issue the funds based on the proposals presented by the program’s advisory board.

Arnette said that the funds have to be spent by June 30, 2008.

The recent labor force crunch was the impetus for the program.

In her 25 years of working in industry, Arnette said for the past few years the Tri-parishes has had the lowest unemployment rate in the state.

“This has caused a shortage of qualified workers to fulfill the needs of the industrial companies and outreach,” she said.

Arnette hopes Work It! Louisiana will provide high school students with the training and direction needed to meet the standards of the Bayou Region industries.

Over the next few years, she said, Tri-parish employers should be able to draw much-needed skilled workers from the area.

“A creative recruitment plan is critical for the current employment needs,” Arnette said. “We are looking at the long-term goal of rectifying the education direction of the students from grades six and up. We want to make the student population aware of the current opportunities in the workforce.”

The first plan of attack for Work It! Louisiana will be its speaker’s bureau, comprised of skilled workers from industries across the Bayou Region who will visit schools and provide one-on-one education about their field.

“It is our goal to bring in the guest speakers at the request of the teachers,” she said. “For example, welders can come in and talk about what it takes to become certified, how much they make annually or the benefits and drawbacks of being a welder.”

The second angle of the Work It! Louisiana program is comprehensive career path festivals, which target 10th grades students who participate in the Option 3 program. Students can opt out of the core curriculum in high school under the program.

SCIA will host a career day at the Terrebonne Vocational High School Oct. 25 for all 10th graders in the Terrebonne Parish school system.

“Every child should have vocational technical training during their high school years,” said Vocational Technical High School principal Marcel Fournier.

Right now, Lafourche Parish is in the development stages of its vocational/ career center. After returning from a meeting with the SCIA education subcommittee, Secondary Schools and Vocational Supervisor Blaine Degruise called it “a wonderful pilot program.”

“The program will bring pertinent information to students and parents related to local industries and job opportunities,” he said. “It will provide our students with the skills to market themselves.”

SCIA will put together a DVD with all the career opportunities for the Bayou Region. SCIA is working closely with the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the local technical colleges to help with the design and implementation of the program.