Expanding facilities focus at Pulaski Tech

Campaign seeking $8M for upgrades

University of ArkansasPulaski Technical College is embarking on a campaign to raise $8 million to expand its facilities and enhance workforce training efforts in central Arkansas.

Improving facilities and adding modern equipment will help train up to 600 workers each year, according to Pulaski Tech Chancellor Margaret Ellibee.

“We need to be able to adequately answer the demands of business and industry here in the area,” Ellibee said. “We need not only new facilities but equipment that is reflective of what our students will be using when they go into the workplace.”

Pulaski Tech’s efforts are focused on improving training in areas that are key to finding employment in the 21st-century job market.

“Since we’re a technical college, we need to focus on the science-, technology-, engineeringand math-related technical programs that offer beneficial career opportunities for our graduates,” Ellibee said.

The school is seeking federal, state and local grants to finance the expansion, which will include remodeling laboratories and classrooms in a building that is more than 40 years old. In addition, Pulaski Tech is proposing to add seven new labs and four classrooms. The science building on campus will add a second story to accommodate new labs and classrooms.

Ron Dedman, president of AT&T Arkansas and the incoming chairman of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, said expanding workforce development

is essential to economic development in central Arkansas.

“Pulaski Tech is turning away students because they don’t have the capacity to train them and we need those workers; we need them desperately,” Dedman said. “This would open the pipeline to have more students ready to enter the workforce in Little Rock and central Arkansas.”

Today, the school turns away up to 300 students per semester because of inadequate facilities, Ellibee said, noting that the institution no longer has the ability to finance expansions through public financing of bond issues. All the money must be raised through grants and donations.

Pulaski Tech, a community college that is part of the University of Arkansas system, must continue investing to keep pace with business needs in central Arkansas. “This is essential for us to continue providing the job training opportunities the community needs,” she said.

Pulaski Tech has forged new partnerships that include providing training for student entrepreneurs with the Little Rock Venture Center, utility linemen for electric providers across the state, cybersecurity for the Arkansas Air National Guard and emergency medical technician and paramedic classes for the North Little Rock Fire Department.

North Little Rock’s assistant fire chief, Beau Buford, said the college has been a strong partner that has allowed the department to reduce training costs while also increasing the number of firefighters it can train for medical emergencies.

In June, the department enrolled nine firefighters for paramedic training at Pulaski Tech. “This will be the most firefighters we’ve ever had at one time with paramedic training,” Buford said.

Pulaski Tech was a friendly partner willing to negotiate costs and collaborate on curriculum, Buford said. “They have really been willing to provide any support that we need.”

“Pulaski Tech is turning away students because they don’t have the capacity to train them and we need those workers; we need them desperately.” — Ron Dedman