Local companies benefit from training funds

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Twice a week after work, Springfield Remanufacturing Corp. assembly worker Wally Ransom goes to company headquarters on East Division Street for a training class that he believes will make him worth more to his employer, himself and his family.|ret||ret||tab|

The class Ransom and many other Springfield Remanufact-uring employees attend is part of an annual $20 million state program that reimburses eligible companies, mostly manufacturers, for employee training programs.|ret||ret||tab|

Locally, 16 companies 15 in Springfield and one in Strafford are signed up to train or retrain an estimate of nearly 1,600 workers this year at a state cost of more than $500,000, according to program records.|ret||ret||tab|

The effort, involving more than 400 companies and more than 35,000 workers statewide, is known as the Missouri Customized Training Program.|ret||ret||tab|

The goal is for employees to become more valuable to the company, earn higher wages, boost their tax-paying values, and thus increase the economic health of the state, said Amy Deem, a program official with the state Department of Economic Development.|ret||ret||tab|

The mission was born in 1979 when the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education started the Missouri Industry Training Program, said Ellen Smith, DESE supervisor of industry training. |ret||ret||tab|

In the mid-1980s, it evolved to the current title.|ret||ret||tab|

Customized training was seen as a "productive link between vocational education and the private sector," said an annual report at the time.|ret||ret||tab|

In 1987, DED became involved when the Legislature created the Missouri Job Development Fund to pay for on-the-job training and classroom skill training. Currently that fund supplies $15 million annually and $5 million comes from the Education Department budget.|ret||ret||tab|

Officials emphasize that the customized training, which is set up and taught largely through local technical and community colleges, is not for college credit curriculum.|ret||ret||tab|

"Each agency's program, while similar in nature and ultimate goal, has various eligibility nuances and requirements," Smith said. |ret||ret||tab|

"These differences allow us to complement each other's efforts to provide more effective training opportunities for Missouri's industry," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Judging by the demand, companies and employees like the program.|ret||ret||tab|

"We have more requests for funds than funds available each year," Deem said. |ret||ret||tab|

"There's a lot of retraining and upgrading of existing skills going on," she added.|ret||ret||tab|

At Kraft Inc. in Springfield, training manager Reggie Hoskins said his firm has participated in the program for the six years he has been there. |ret||ret||tab|

It expects to receive about $70,000 this year for training 125 employees.|ret||ret||tab|

"It helps us absorb training costs and helps our profitability," Hoskins said of the state subsidy. "We would do (training) anyway, but the state money makes it an easier pill to swallow."|ret||ret||tab|

The training mostly involves maintenance courses, such as electrical work certification, developed and taught through Ozarks Technical Community College, "and we also use some of the money for building a programmable logic control board trainer," Hoskins said.|ret||ret||tab|

DESE's Smith said there is also an increasing emphasis on what are known as "soft skills."|ret||ret||tab|

"We're seeing more learning for life training," she said. "That has a lot of effect on the employees."|ret||ret||tab|

Soft skills is a training direction being taken by Springfield Remanufacturing, said Perry Epperly, human relations manager for the remanufacturer of automotive engine components.|ret||ret||tab|

"For any business to go to the next level, technical or soft-skill training, such as computer literacy and leadership management, are necessary," he said. "Initiative must come from the employee, but the program has to be a value seen by the employees and also the supervisors."|ret||ret||tab|

Epperly said his company's customized training program, developed through OTC, "is quality enhancement, and you can't thrive unless you are developing people." |ret||ret||tab|

The firm is expected to train 50 employees with the help of $30,000 from the state.|ret||ret||tab|

In order for training to work effectively, the company and its people have to create a culture where learning is valued, and when the employees benefit, their children are more likely to follow their education example.|ret||ret||tab|

But how does one determine the return on investment from the training dollars spent?|ret||ret||tab|

Deem of DED said that is sometimes a struggle for the subsidized training world. In justifying the expenditures, officials try to measure things like higher wages earned and increased taxes paid, she said, but it isn't an exact science.|ret||ret||tab|

"It's easier to measure return on investment in newly-created jobs and the added income and sales tax," she said. |ret||ret||tab|

"But it's harder to do that for the incumbent worker. We try to look at increased earnings after the training," she added.|ret||ret||tab|

Officials also consider such things as the possibility that jobs were at risk of disappearing without training, or if the training was a factor in a company deciding to stay in Missouri or Springfield, as the case might be, Deem said.|ret||ret||tab|

The DED, in determining eligibility for training reimbursement, takes into consideration whether a company is a growth or target industry, adding new jobs and capital investment, or at risk. |ret||ret||tab|

Types of occupations and wage rates also are factors, according to Deem.|ret||ret||tab|

"The challenge is to see the return on investment in the soft-skill training," Epperly said. "With the hard skills you can document performance."|ret||ret||tab|

The fact that of 90 company employees who took a computer class, a half dozen or more have purchased personal computers as a result, is a sign to him of soft-skill training benefit.|ret||ret||tab|

Something that is hard to measure but can make a difference in the work climate is employee attitude change that comes out of leadership management training. Epperly said better attitude translates into lower turnover.|ret||ret||tab|

"We want to know six months to a year from now what happened," he said. |ret||ret||tab|

"Would that employee still be here or gotten the promotion without the training?"|ret||ret||tab|

Epperly has urged that the training program pay for follow-up evaluation. |ret||ret||tab|

"The state should help the company measure the return on investment," he said.|ret||ret||tab|

For his part, Springfield Remanufacturing's Ransom, 39, relishes his leadership management training and believes he is gaining a lot from it. It's so good, he said, that classes sometimes run long. "That's a good sign," he said. "People get to clicking and thinking."|ret||ret||tab|

Ransom said he appreciates the emphasis on improved communication in the workplace better listening and verbal presentation that could help supervisors and the supervised improve relationships.|ret||ret||tab|

"It teaches us how to deal better with others," Ransom said. "Hearing that you are going to have to work overtime on Saturday is a sticky situation. And it has to be explained and understood as a win-win situation for everybody. My dad used to say that it's not always what you are presenting, but how you are presenting' that's important."|ret||ret||tab|

And what he has learned about improving relationships on the job is the same thing he can take home to family life with his wife and two children.|ret||ret||tab|

"When I hired on, my goal was to run a company division," Ransom said. "But in the class we learn that money and position is not the only motivator. Maybe it's more time off to be with the family."|ret||ret||tab|

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