CULLMAN – Industry and training were on the menu at the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce’s February Community Luncheon this past Friday. With industry and business expansions at an all time high in the Cullman area, those at the luncheon learned of new ways to solidify the workforce in the area from the event’s guest speaker LeNa` Powe.
Powe currently serves two roles as the Director of Workforce Development for the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce and as the Executive Director of West Alabama Works.
“In this combined role, Ms. Powe provides leadership in business, industry, education and training for West Alabama,” said Chamber Chair Jason Grimmett.
West Alabama Works is a 501(c)3 program that was formed in the summer of 2014 and aims to provide both workforce development and educational opportunities, according to Powe. In that program, different areas of business such as industry, construction, etc. each have their own group that discusses issues and concerns, which then expresses those needs back to Powe and the program.
“An example of our work was the automotive hiring fair that took place in September of last year,” Powe said. “We had 2,100 people attend, 700 people preregistered, conducted 1,600 interviews and extended roughly 600 opportunities for employment. That, in itself, was the result of the automotive cluster meeting and discussing hiring issues as several of them had turnover rates of up to 300 percent.”
Powe went on to explain that by giving each area of their community’s workforce a way to voice their needs and concerns, they have found that each area had their own specific needs and concerns.
“Our construction industry’s concern was that they did not have enough carpenters,” said Powe. “So there is now a new carpenter program in our technical high school program that is housed separately that combats that issue. You can only get that kind of corroboration and communication when people are allowed to do it with like-minded individuals, so being able to do that with the industry clusters has helped us.”
This meeting came at a convenient time, since Cullman had its own job fair at Wallace State on February 28 for the following industry companies: REHAU, Topre and Yutaka, which has drawn a huge response. With 1,000 new jobs on the immediate horizon and business growing everyday in Cullman, new ways of solidifying and cultivating those opportunities are essential.
