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INDEPENDENT TRIBUNE:  How to get hired for new Midland jobs

  •                                      
  • Mar 29, 2017

MIDLAND- It’s clear that jobs are coming to Midland, but how do locals become qualified for those jobs?

David King of Rowan-Cabarrus Community College attended a recent Midland Town Council meeting to talk about just that. Corning Incorporated has promised 200 jobs and Intertape Polymer Group said it will create 49 jobs; and King said the North Carolina Manufacturing Institute can prepare Cabarrus County workers for these jobs.

“We have 250 great paying jobs coming to our community and we wanted to hear how citizens can get into these jobs,” Midland Town Manager Doug Paris told council members.

The North Carolina Manufacturing Institute Initiative was conceived in 2014 during meetings with leaders of Rowan and Cabarrus counties from both chambers of commerce, economic development authorities, the Centralina Workforce Development Board and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.

The institute is a collaboration between private and public sector partners and investor to link and leverage assets and resources in order to close the manufacturing skills gap through workforce training and certification; improve the image of manufacturing employment opportunities among job seekers and assist manufacturing firms in improving recruitment, selection and retention of talent.

The institute is a response to employers’ need for solving talent recruitment issues in order to grow and remain competitive. The institute is designed to link and leverage the existing assets of Rowan, Cabarrus and Iredell counties to solve the growing gap between regional job seekers and available positions.

King said the institute contracts for corporate training, creates personalized job fairs, administrates pre-employment assessments and conducts truck driver training.

Recently the manufacturing institute held a job fair with Intertape Polymer Group. King said it was very successful and the company had 59 informal interviews that day.

“We run the gamut,” he said.

He added that in 2013-14 over 3,000 new manufacturing jobs came to Rowan and Cabarrus counties. He told council that North Carolina is the tenth largest state in manufacturing employment.

“It is by no means dead,” King said.

And since manufacturing isn’t dead, King said the institute is working to train career-ready employees in a unique way. He said the goal is to find high-potential candidates and give them certified manufacturing skills.

Students enrolled in the institute spend 160 hours in an eight-week class learning everything from manufacturing skills to workplace accountability. They receive help with resumes, go on tours of companies that partner with the institute and participate in mock interviews.

King said companies that partner with the institute pay $1,000 a year annually and have the first chances to interview graduates. He added that graduates have a 93 percent hire rate.

“They receive multiple offers,” King said. “As they say in racing, they are good off the track.”

When a company hires an institute graduate, they are case managed for 90 days. Then Kind said on day 91, the company is billed for $1,000 which is put in the fund to support a scholarship for another student to attend classes with the institute.

“I tell students that with this program, you get a scholarship and get to give a scholarship,” King said.

With plans to continue working with Corning and IPG, King said graduating from the North Carolina Manufacturing Institute could give Cabarrus County locals a leg up in the competition when all of the jobs become available.

“And if it doesn’t work out with Corning, it will work out with another company,” he added.