Newspaper Page Text
CCSD, Athens Tech
Preparing to Train
for Caterpillar Jobs
The opening of the Caterpillar manufactur
ing plant means one thing to Athens resident
Shakema Hams: opportunity. Harris, who was
laid off recently from her job at South wine
outside of Atlanta, is now searching for a job
in the Athens area and says her skills on the
assembly line at the wire manufacturer could
be applied to a job assembling heavy equip
ment for Caterpillar *So, I hope 1 qualify
for something,* said the 35-year-old, while
scouring computers for jobs at the Georgia
Department of labor office in Athens,
Caterpillar's arrival has put in motion
plans for new classes at Athens Technical
College and the Clarke County School District's
Athens Community Career Academy. But for
unemployed residents like Harris, who aren't
enrolled in school but have some manu
facturing experience, finding a position at
Caterpillar wiU come down to timing and
competition.
According to Caterpillar, hiring for produc
tion positions won't start until early 2013,
continuing through 2015
as the plant on the CUrke-
Oconec line is completed.
Eventually, the plant will
make small track-type trac
tors that will t>* sold around
the world, along with final
assembly for mini-hydraulic
excavators for North and
South America and bases for mini-excavators
that will be exported to a factory in Europe for
final assembly. According to Bridget Young,
media relations representative for Caterpillar,
the facility wiU include heavy fabrications,
paint, logistics and assembly operations, as
well as an on-site distribution center.
When construction is complete and the
factory is up and running, Young said it wiU
employ more than 1,400 and be Caterpillar's
largest and most complex facility.
Right now, jobs are posted on Caterpillar's
recruiting website, www.jointeamcaterpiltar.
com. New classes set to debut in the fall at
Clarke County high schools and Athens Tech
wiU help students get training that rnuld lead
to Caterpillar jobs.
At the Career Academy, a partnership with
Athens Tech a underway to identify specific
skills that couid open doors at Caterpillar
down the road. 'Athens Technical College is
working on developing a training program,
and we will partner on that through the
Athens Community Career Academy,* said
school district spokeswoman Anisa Sullivan
Jimenez. “Welding has been identified as an
area in which training wiU be offered, and
Athens Tech is working with Caterpillar to
determine other areas.*
She added that the Career Academy gover
nance board has dedicated $100,000 to start
training programs for Caterpillar. At Athens
Tech, a building across the street from the
main campus wiU house specialized training
for Caterpillar led by Georgia Quick Start, a
program sponsored by the state's technical
college system to provide training for compa
nies coming to Georgia.
'Georgia Quick Start will be doing all
their training there for the next 10 years,*
said Flora Typings, president of Athens Tech.
"Hopefully, well be putting more people
into the pipeline, $0 hopefully we will have
enough people with the skill set and who
will be able to do the Quick Start program.*
She added that the college wiU be hir
ing additional staff to teach areas such as
machine tooling, welding, industrial systems,
distribution and materials management and
engineering.
But students at the Career Academy and
Athens Tech who choose a Caterpillar-themed
program of study aren't guaranteed a job at
the manufacturer. Their resumes will be in
the same pile as other locals with on-the-
job experience in manufacturing and other
industries, all competing for the jobs. And
even after Caterpillar makes the hires, the new
employees will get specific training from the
Georgia Quick Start program before moving on
to training at the plant
Trt conjunction with Georgia Quick Start,
they wiU take individuals who already possess
these skills, and take them for their own train
ing/ said Tydings.
State labor Commissioner Mark Butler
said the tabor Department is working with
Caterpillar's human resources to help recruit
and screen potential applicants. *In the near
future, we expect more widespread recruit
ment needs from Caterpillar,
and their human resource
officials have told us our
services wiU be very much
needed at this point,*
said Butler. 'One of the
[Department of labor's) spe
cialties is helping companies
sift through Urge numbers of
applicants to provide the best possible work
ers for open positions.*
At the moment because all the hiring is
going directly through Caterpillar, visitors
to the Department of labor wiU simply find
links to the manufacturer's website. But even
so, that's something Athens resident Antonio
Hitchcock, 26, can find when he's at the
Department of labor's office, looking for ware
house jobs.
The unemployment rate for the Athens
metropolitan area, which includes Madison,
Oconee and Oglethorpe counties, hit 7.1
percent in January, the lowest of any metro
area in the state. But, while Hitchcock said
he's finding job openings in the area outside
Clarke County, his lack of transportation keeps
him looking only inside the city limits. Having
Caterpillar come in wiU help address that
problem. 'It's something local* he said.
Kristen Morales
Nug’s Space, Nurses
Clinic Expanding Med
Care for Local Artists
A new partnership between Nug's Space
and the Athens Nurses Clinic wiU help more
members of the local musk community access
affordable primary health care.
The program, whkh began Apr. 17, allows
low-income musicians and other members of
the Athens artists' community who don't have
health insurance to schedule doctor visits at
the nonprofit dink. Paige Cummings, director
of Athens Nurses Clink, said the partnership is
Finding a position
at Caterpillar will
come down to timing
and competition.
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a natural extension of the sendees the dink
already provides for low-income or homeless
residents who don't otherwise have access to
health care.
For nearly a decade Dr. Kip Hicks, an emer
gency room doctor at St Mary's Hospital has
volunteered twice a month to see patients at
Mud's Space. Those patients wiU now see him
at the Athens Nurses Oink. *We've always
wanted to expand [the primary care sendee)
because, of course, it's great to have that
available,* said WU Kiser, counseling advocate
at Nu^i's Space. “Right now, we're just taking
it step by step. And because our main focus
at Hug's Space is spent on the mental health
side, of course we're going to come across
people who are dealing with physical issues/
Cummings said the new partnership wiU
make it easier to provide additional care, in
addition to Hkks' usual services, for clients
who need it “Well start [seeing patients)
twke a month because that's what they're
currently doing, and if it appears t! ere is a
greater need, then we will increase [ v .he hours
offered)/ she said. 'For some of them, well
foUow up in our regular dink; if they have a
chrome condition, they can be seen once a
week/
The idea for the program came from an
ongoing project in a University of Georgia
Medical Partnership class focusing on com
munity service. Last semester, the first-year
class worked on mental health issues among
musicians, along with various other projects,
in conjunction with the Nurses Clinic. Bob
Sleppy, executive director of Mug's Space,
mentioned Hkks' volunteer work to Cummings,
sparking the idea for a more extensive
collaboration.
While the program focuses on health care
for musicians and others in the Athens arts
community who don't have health insurance,
both Kiser and Cummings acknowledged
people outside the arts community won't be
turned away if they can't otherwise afford
care. Potential patients may call Nug's Space
for an appointment, and the Nurses Clinic wiU
handle the patient's paperwork. Huai's Space
will then follow up with the patient, who wiU
be asked to complete a survey.
*We exist to help low-income, uninsured
people, so it doesn't matter if they're musi
cians, They could be coming to our dink any
way/ Cummings said. Tf we're seeing people
because they're co..i,ng to us through Nug's
Space, it's a win-win for everyone.'
Kristen Morales
CCSD Announces Plan
to Extend Pre-K with
Sliding Fee Schedule
Just as parents of pre-K students began
scrambling to find care for their kids between
the last day of school and the start of camp
season, the plans changed again.
A few weeks ago, Flagpole reported that
the end of the pre-K year for most students
in the Clarke County School District, thanks
to funding cuts from the Georgia Lottery,
would be Apr. 27. But according to an email
sent to teachers Apr. 6, the district's plans
have apparently changed again. The district
is now offering parents a “fee-based summer
program* to round out the last few weeks of
school, ending pre-K classes on May 11.
The “Pre-K Extension Program* is based on
a sliding fee schedule based on a child's eligi
bility for free or reduced-price lunch. Students
who receive a free lunch pay $25 a week for
the weeks of Apr. 30 and May 7, while stu
dents who receive reduced-price lunch pay $50
and students who do not qualify for the lunch
program pay $85 per week. Transportation to
and from school wiU continue.
“The district's in a major financial crisis,
so to speak; we're in deficit spending/ said
Shelley Goodman, director of CCSD's Office of
Early Learning, whkh oversees the Lottery-
funded Pre-K program. "But the board of
education said we needed to find the money.
They felt we could find the money. This is, I
think, a fair and equitable way of providing
that servke/
Kristen Morales
APRIL 18,2012 FLAGPOLE.COM 5