Guest Column: Tight job market sets stage for career changes

With the constant news of hard economic times facing our nation and the threat of looming state budget cuts for higher education, we have certainly started to feel some twinges of anxiety here at Ozarks Technical Community College.

Settling down in front of the television one recent evening, I was braced to hear the network news tell me how the country had once again experienced a day of stock market woes, financial failures and corporate bailouts.

Much to my amazement, however, I heard an encouraging story from Wall Street. The segment featured a financial manager who had recently lost her job and was using the unfortunate turn of events to start a new career.

This financial manager was attending culinary school to become a certified chef - something that she had always wanted to do, but would never take the risk of leaving her corporate position to try. Now she had no choice but to change directions in her professional career, and she seemed to love this newfound career path.

I needed to hear that kind of news!

For the past 17 years, OTC has been a mainstay in providing educational opportunities to all, including many who found themselves victims of job layoffs or without the necessary training to change jobs.

I know of many individuals who were devastated by layoffs and industry closings such as the Zenith shutdown, and not only did those individuals recover from the personal catastrophe, but they also have found themselves better career paths.

Increasing enrollment in all areas of study and training offered at OTC shows that in difficult times, students and workers turn to education to avoid becoming a victim of an economic downturn.

During 2008, OTC constantly reviewed and improved the ways we could assist businesses and workers in coping with the uneasy economic times that will surely continue into 2009.

In the fall, OTC hosted various focus groups from business and industry, including leaders from manufacturing, transportation, health care, construction hospitality management.

We listened to the needs of our constituents, and we are ready to provide their training needs.

With plant closings and work-force reductions taking place throughout the Ozarks, it has become incumbent on OTC and other schools to offer displaced workers a chance to continue to be contributing members of the local labor force through retraining and skill improvement.

OTC's Center for Workforce Development plays a critical role in this effort. Through it, the school has been able to react quickly to those closings and layoffs as well as respond to community work-force needs.

Businesses have been able to take advantage of the variety of technical training offered at the center to help them increase productivity and reduce downtime. The training is hands-on, customized and delivered on-site by an industry expert.

From the center's Transport Training Institute that trains and places truck drivers in good-paying jobs in as little as five weeks, to the construction readiness certificate program that introduces students to craft skills, the Center for Workforce Development offers programs in almost every training area.

Those efforts will continue into the new year as companies look to improve the skills and abilities of the work force.

OTC, like other community colleges throughout the state, is an economic engine that drives this community.

We can generate new lifeblood for business and industry by providing employees with new skill sets for the changing global economy and will strive to continue doing so in 2009.

Our advisory boards for both credit and work force programs involve more than 400 individuals who are experts in their areas of study. Those panels help us determine the latest skills and training needed. From accounting to welding, the advisory groups give us direction. That vigilance will continue into 2009 with even greater intensity.

The nation's economy has us all feeling somewhat anxious these days, but we must stop and remember that we've been through hard times before.

OTC will continue to provide solutions for our region's workforce challenges in 2009 and beyond.

Shirley A. Lawler, Ed.D., is associate vice president of academic affairs at Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield. She may be reached at lawlers@otc.edu.