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BAITING THE HOOK
Quick Start's training options lure companies to Georgia
In today's climate of"lean" manufacturing and offshore competition, companies can't afford the luxury of easing into operations at a new plant or headquarters. To be profitable from day one, they need a quick start. In Georgia, that's exactly what they get.
Part of the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education, Quick Start is an economic development training program that can adapt quickly to any industry or technology. What started as a response to the Sun Belt boom of companies moving south in the 1960s has grown to be a highly sophisticated and effective asset in attracting and keeping new businesses - and jobs - in Georgia. Since its start in 1967 through the latest figures in 2005, Quick Start has delivered training on 4,893 projects, benefiting 569,676 people throughout the state.
Along with Georgia's 34 technical colleges and its economic development leaders, Quick Start has evolved with the changing needs of American business and industry.
"A key thing to realize is how much Georgia is changing as a state," said Michael F. Vollmer, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education.
"When you read the news, you think that nothing is being manufactured in the U.S. anymore. That's not true, but labor-intensive manufacturing is over, and high-tech, computer-automated, robotic processes are standard now. Fortunately, Georgia's leaders and colleges have kept up with those innovations."
States no longer can recruit companies based on cheap labor and cheap land when a skilled work force is what makes the difference in today's slim profit margins. So when a company asks where it will find trained workers if it locates in Georgia, it's a critical, make-or-break-the-deal question.
"We tell them a skilled work force is what Quick Start can bring to the table, and it's always good news," Vollmer said.
Although barely known to the general public, Quick Start is highly recognized by industry leaders. According to an Expansion Management magazine survey in 2005 of corporate site location consultants - professionals who advise companies on where to set down roots for new businesses - Georgia's training program for the work force ranked first in the nation.
"It's a unique honor and privilege to have our services recognized in this way, and what makes it even more meaningful is that it comes from the business community," Vollmer said."This recognition reinforces the fact that we mean business when we shake hands. We live up to our promises."
What Georgia's Quick Start promises is to provide free, customized work-force training to any qualified company that is new to Georgia or that is expanding its work force or adding new technology to stay competitive.
"The training component we offer in our incentive package is a big reason why a company like Kia chooses to locate its new plant in Georgia," Vollmer said."Many states offer training grants so a new business can train its employees. We tell prospective companies that we're not going to give them money for training; we're going to train their work force for them.
"The usual reaction is 'You've got to be crazy!' But we encourage them to talk with other companies we've helped get started. After that, it's an easy sell."
Having someone else develop and organize the training of his employees was a huge relief to Jim Hawk, vice president and plant manager of Toyo Tire North America Inc.
"A lot of states will offer grant money, at a set formula of so many dollars per employee, but when you're relocating in a new area [or country], there's the anxiety of where to start, how to find instructors and manage the budget," he said."Quick Start's creation of custom training programs to fit our processes and equipment took a tremendous burden off us. We could focus on building the plant."
In October 2004, Toyo Tire North America broke ground on its first U.S. facility to manufacture tires for high-performance passenger, light truck and sport utility vehicles. It started operations at the highly automated plant in White a year later.
"We're growing this company from scratch. Our parent company in Japan previously had only sales and marketing operations in the U.S.," Hawk said."We have 160 employees now and are aiming toward 350. Quick Start was one of the major influences in our decision to locate here."
Quick Start first sent a team of professionals to study the manufacturing processes and equipment in the Japanese plant."They observed, videotaped the processes and interviewed people to create a draft of the training program needed," Hawk said.
From this project study, the Quick Start staff of instructional system designers, graphic artists, and computer and other specialists developed customized training materials for each job and manufacturing process at Toyo."They even created a marketing video about our business that we use at job fairs," Hawk said.
Where the needs are
Quick Start's 90 employees are in strategically placed offices in Columbus, Vidalia, Savannah, Augusta and Atlanta to be close to clients. They create customized manuals, training aids, computer simulations, videos and DVDs as needed. To deliver training, Quick Start and the new company partner with one of Georgia's technical colleges. In Toyo's case, it was North Metro Technical College in Acworth.
BY THE NUMBERS: QUICK START IN 2005 - Source: Goergia Department of Technical and Adult Education 2005 Annual Report |
The certified economic developer trainer manages the project, provides instructors and classroom space, and accommodates training to operational schedules. In most cases, that initial contact grows into a mutually beneficial relationship, with the company advising on academic programs and the college serving as a resource for training.
"We're already encouraging our people to take advantage of North Metro Tech's manufacturing specialist technology certificate through tuition reimbursement," Hawk said.
"The folks at Quick Start have given us their word that they'll be with us every step of the way as we continue to grow, and they call us to see how we're doing and what we might need," he said."We put together some pretty tough hiring criteria, so our employees are a select bunch, and we've had only minor turnover. Their training materials proved to be so thorough that our parent company asked and got permission to translate them into Japanese for the home plant."
Many companies have found similar added benefits from Quick Start training.
German plastics manufacturer WILDEN AG, which has a plant in Peachtree City, has had a 10-year relationship with Quick Start. The Quick Start staff originally developed training materials to teach plastic injection molding, quality inspection, clean- room standards and other processes needed to manufacture precision medical and automotive components.
In 2003, a Quick Start team helped the company expand to a new product line to keep jobs in Georgia. The team's analysis and documentation of the completely automated process that assembles millions of HandiHaler devices (used by people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) set a new operating standard for the international company and helped the company get through the FDA approval process.
Quick Start has offered similar turnkey training operations for manufacturers of marble, precision car parts, specialty packaging products, soft drinks, furniture, diesel engines and perfume bottles, to name a few, as well as for call centers and service companies.
"Training is so much more important today than it was 10 to 15 years ago," Vollmer said.
Vollmer recalls starting a job with a one-hour orientation. His son just went through four weeks of training with a major corporation to learn about the organization and the technology.
"And it doesn't stop when you're hired. Companies are investing more and more dollars in retraining employees as needs change," he said.
"The highest praise comes when a company asks to use our services again when it expands or revamps its operation, because we were effective and delivered results before," said Rodger Brown, director of communications for Quick Start.
He believes that the program is unique because it succeeds on several levels: It's an incentive that aims to attract more jobs and investment to Georgia, but it's also a jobs program that helps individuals develop the skills they need to succeed.
"With each project, we're not just looking at the immediate impact but what will follow from a new industry locating here," Vollmer said. Successful companies stimulate other businesses, benefit employees and grow communities.
"When you look at the big picture of what it will mean for your children and grandchildren, that's a big deal for Georgia."
