Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle held his annual business and education summit at Effingham College and Career Academy on Thursday.
The summit, in its third year, brings business and education leaders together to discuss partnerships that can create the workforce needed by Georgia companies.
Cagle said the College and Career Academies are helping ensure companies have workers with those skills that are necessary to compete in a 21st century marketplace.
Cagle said graduates of academies already have a leg up.
“If they graduate from a college and career academy with an industry certified certificate, then they basically double their salary potential,” Cagle said.
Cagle noted that in Georgia there are students who come out of school trained as welders that earn more than an attorney fresh out of law school.
The Lt. Gov. said that businesses, such as Kia Motors, know that the academies are a “pipeline to help them succeed.”
There are currently 27 academies in Georgia, with three grants for new academies to be announced in December.
“The goal is by 2020 for every student in Georgia to have access to a college and career academy,” Cagle said.
At the summit several panel discussions were held and included representatives from Georgia-Pacific, Gulfstream, the Georgia Ports Authority, Kia Motors, Effingham County schools, Savannah Technical College and the Effingham Industrial Development Authority.
Cagle led a discussion on challenges and education needs with Randy Jackson, director of human resources and administration for Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, and Jennifer Giffen, vice-president of human resources at Gulfstream.
Jackson told the crowd of educators and business leaders that a mind-set change is needed for the future to show students a four-year college degree isn’t the only choice.
Jackson said that 70 percent of future jobs are tech related but many students still take the four-year college path.
“It’s a generation change too,” he said.
Jackson said Kia Motors in West Georgia has created 14,000 jobs since opening in 2009 and as of July had built 1 million vehicles.
Jackson said Kia looks beyond technical skills and looks for soft skills in their hiring.
“We look for people that come will come to work everyday, come to work on time and work in teams,” Jackson said. “They have to learn something every day and work in harmony. We don’t like conflict.”
Employees also need to be able to listen, Jackson said, and be teachers and motivators.
“We can teach people to build cars,” Jackson said. “We can’t teach them to think.”
Giffen said STEM skills -- science, technology, engineering and math -- are needed, but also needed are workers with a passion and leadership skills.
“We can train them,” she said.
Giffen said one challenge seen is a basic gap in basic business etiquette.
“It’s more values, not a skill, but it’s huge,” Giffen said.
Giffen noted many of these students may not have had anyone at home tell them how to present themselves or how to properly respond to people.
Giffen asked the educators to partner with Gulfstream to teach them about this workforce.
“As an employer I don’t know these students as you know them,” she said.
Gulfstream has posted 1,000 jobs a year in the recent past and Giffen said she expects that to continue.
Other discussions were held on connecting students with potential employers, what’s needed in the workforce and the role of effective public partners.
Awards for the College and Career Academy of the Year and the Business Partner of the Year were also presented by Cagle.
Central Education Center in Coweta County was named College and Career Academy of the Year. The business award went to Shaw Industries for their partnerships in Northwest Georgia.
Good news for Effingham County was also announced.
The Effingham County School district is the first in Georgia to be designated as a Ford Next Generation Learning Community.
A five-year career, technical, and agricultural education plan was developed using the Next Generation Learning, or NGL, methodology with more than 40 businesses, education and community leaders.
NGL works to prepare students to graduate from high school ready for college and careers and to compete successfully.
Its goal is to increase the number of students qualified in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Cagle told the crowd of educators and business leaders they have a great opportunity.
“You have the tools to raise a generation of workers that can change the economy of Georgia,” Cagle said.
Cagle also left them with a challenge.
“We don’t just want to be good, we want to be great.”