Several community leaders expressed sentiment Wednesday that Southeast Missouri needs more technical education to produce skilled workers.

More than 100 business leaders, educators and government officials gathered at the Career and Technology Center to discuss the skills gap in the region, where it will widen in the future and what solutions can be found to close the gap.

Charlie Glueck, owner of Jackson Tire Center, has been leading a movement to bring state technical education to the region. He also is on the advisory board of State Technical College of Missouri in Linn. In April, a chartered bus took regional business representatives to Jefferson City to discuss bringing a state college to Southeast Missouri.

It did not go well, Glueck said.

"We made a trip. We chartered a bus. We went to the state Capitol, had a gallery full of people and very few ears to talk to,"

Wednesday's presentation was seen as an opportunity to speak to lawmakers and "try to meet with them on our turf," Glueck said.

State Reps. Donna Lichtenegger and Holly Rehder attended, along with representatives from the offices of state Sen. Wayne Wallingford, U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, Missouri House Speaker Todd Richardson and U.S. Rep. Jason Smith

Representatives from Southeast Missouri State University, State Technical College of Missouri, Three Rivers Community College and Mineral Area College also attended.

Glueck invited several speakers to discuss the need for technical education in the region. Jason Glueck of Jackson Tire Center, Tim Williams of Dutch Enterprises, Jason Allen of Procter & Gamble and Birdie LeGrand of Mondi talked about hiring difficulties.

Superintendent John Link of the Jackson school district and Rich Payne of Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center discussed their experiences as educators. Rehder spoke as a state representative and business owner.

Many of the same topics carried through the morning's presentations.

Need for skilled labor

Technology is moving quickly, and it's difficult to find and retain skilled workers. Williams said at one time, on-the-job training would allow someone to be fully trained in less than a year. But accelerated technology makes that impossible and makes the hiring pool much smaller, he said.

Dutch Enterprises once was able to pick and choose from any number of skilled workers.

"A lack of people has made that no longer possible," Williams said. "They're simply not there."

LeGrand said employers now have to get creative to find and retain skilled employees.

"We're growing our own," LeGrand said of a new strategy put forth by the company, which hired seven high-school students on a part-time basis and offered them on-the-job training. After their graduation, two stayed to work full time, one chose to leave and four furthered their education while continuing to work part-time.

Rehder said as a business owner, her company does its own training because of a lack of technically skilled, qualified workers, but there's no guarantee the training will work or the employee will stay.

"We've spent a lot of money on training people who may or may not work out," Rehder said.

Need for training

Link said the focus of high school often is college preparedness instead of life preparedness.

"The direction we're being pushed at from above is nowhere near what we're hearing today," Link said. "Some kids aren't made for college, but we have to give them skills."

Industries look at schools and workforce development when choosing where to break ground, Link said.

"The region has great schools," he said.

Of the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center, Payne said, "I took over this institution 16 years ago. Every time we start a program, it fills up. State Technical College, they have a great program, and they're at capacity."

Need for funding

Payne said he has spoken to legislative groups in the last three years and has told them what they need most is funding.

"That's a problem we have in technical education: It is an expensive proposition to deliver," he said. "We can't just put 20 seats in a room and deliver. We have to have equipment, which is expensive but necessary."

Glueck encouraged business and industry leaders to step up and offer internships and scholarships. He discussed partnerships State Technical College has with companies like Caterpillar, Ford and GM, which help guide the type of training needed and help to fund the education.

"Corporate sponsors put money into schools," Rehder said. "There are things we can do as employers to help."

Glueck said a steering committee is being organized to determine how to move the plan of state technical education forward.

He addressed the recent announcement of Ranken Technical College opening in Perryville, Missouri. The announcement of the college made it clear Perryville, too, recognized a problem of a lack of technical training, he said.

"They weren't getting the training they needed from the state of Missouri, so they took it into their own hands," Glueck said.

Ranken, he said, has an average yearly tuition of $14,0000, while State Technical College is around $5,800 and accepts students in the A+ program, which allows qualifying students to attend certain state colleges free of charge.

"People have asked me what Ranken means for this plan," Glueck said. "It means full steam ahead.'"

bbrown@semissourian.com

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