OTC pairs with T-Mobile for $1.5M training program

OTC’s Training Resource Group will assist in two rounds of employee training, offering tips on customer service and leadership and providing guidance for T-Mobile’s training of any future hires.

“(T-Mobile) places a high premium on their employee training, but what our Training Resource Group is going to be doing is showing them how to enhance that and working with the new-jobs training program to develop (it) further,” said Dana Logsdon, OTC coordinator of public information.

T-Mobile has plans to hire nearly 400 additional workers initially; a second round of hiring and training will follow, with about 300 new employees. T-Mobile opened its Springfield call center in May and employs about 600.

Cost of the two training programs will amount to more than $1.5 million, funded partly by T-Mobile and partly by the Missouri Community College Industrial New Jobs Training Program, according to Logsdon. OTC will receive about 15 percent – or $225,000 – of the cost. Remaining funds will cover classroom materials, computer equipment and other training expenses.

Each round of training will last eight weeks, with six weeks devoted to classroom instruction and two weeks left for on-the-job training.

This is not the first outreach program through OTC’s Training Resource Group. The group met with local trucking companies last fall to develop a truck-driving institute, which is slated to open next month.