ASU focuses on developing workforce for Arkansas’ steel industry
Industry-driven workforce development, allowing businesses a leading role in building employee training programs, has been an evolving trend in the economic development arena over the past few years.
Encouraging schools at every level to engage with businesses to promote skills development and encouraging students to build competencies that will lead to well-paying careers has become a major push for local, regional, state and national job-creating agencies.
That effort picked up momentum in Arkansas in January when the Arkansas Workforce Cabinet — after a year of study and meeting with educators, workers and employers — issued its initial report emphasizing the need for closer collaboration in forging public-private partnerships to create a talent pipeline in the state.
Arkansas State University took a big step in that direction with the awarding of a $10 million Congressional appropriation the Jonesboro campus plans to use to create the Arkansas State University Center for Advanced Materials and Steel Manufacturing to support steel manufacturing in nearby Mississippi County, the largest steel producing region in the country.
Indeed, the president of the U.S. Steel Manufacturers has declared that Northeast Arkansas — in particular Mississippi County — is the center of the nation’s steelmaking industry.
Since 2015, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission estimates producers have invested about $4.5 billion in the state’s steel industry, which employs more than 6,300 workers at more than 20 steel-producing companies clustered around Osceola.
ASU will invest in hightech equipment for the facility to enhance skills training and workforce development to build a talent pipeline for the expanding sector.
The university will collaborate with steel manufacturers to improve research, process improvements, advanced-materials testing and other key manufacturing-related initiatives. Training efforts will include front-line workers and more specialty areas such as accounting, engineering and marketing, among others.
“We’re definitely responding to industry needs,” Chancellor Todd Shields says. “We want to make sure we’re working together to create this great pathway for our students, whether they’re in accounting or supply chain or marketing or management. This is an industry that is not only reshaping this area dramatically but the state as a whole … and it’s definitely a pipeline for jobs.”
ASU’s plans reflect recommendations from the Workforce Cabinet that included focusing on skills-based practices by shifting from traditional educational credentials — high school diplomas and college degrees, for example — to stress the competencies that individuals possess and aligning workforce development more closely with current and emerging market demands.
The university is reallo
Personal income in Arkansas expanded at an annual rate of 1% compared with growth of 4% nationwide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
cating staff and resources to create a new department centered on material science, metallurgy, steel manufacturing, supported by data science and artificial intelligence. ASU also is raising money to expand its facilities to house the training and research efforts.
“We want to meet the industry’s needs while actually helping our students,” Provost Calvin White said. “We see this as a natural intersection of how private industry and public institutions can help not only the economy but also provide students with a quality, well-paying job.”
PERSONAL INCOME GROWTH LAGGING
Staggering declines in farm income are pulling down personal income growth in Arkansas, with the state falling well behind the national average at the end of 2023.
Personal income in Arkansas expanded at an annual rate of 1% compared with growth of 4% nationwide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Arkansas ranked 48th in the nation — only North Dakota and Iowa lagged behind and the agency cited plummeting farm income as the key factor contributing to the declines in both states.
Farm income in Arkansas was down nearly 93% on an annualized basis, compared with a drop of more than 39% nationwide, according to the arkansaseconomist.com blog headed by Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Arkansas Economic Development Institute.
Arkansas personal incomes have increased by 1.4% over the past four quarters, trailing the 4.7% growth rate for the U.S. Construction, wholesale trade and health care produced the largest annual gains, according to Pakko.
At the same time, the federal agency reported Gross Domestic Product in Arkansas climbed to an annual rate of 2.2% in the fourth quarter, up from 0.7% in the third quarter. However, that was well short of the U.S. average of 3.4% at the end of 2023.
PROMOTING YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS
Students considering a potential start-up business or a career in entrepreneurship can find help on their journey with Pitch N’ Punch competitions for fifth-eighth graders.
Two competitions — in Central and Northwest Arkansas — are being scheduled for later this year so students can gain more insight into a career built around entrepreneurship and they can sharpen their pitching skills.
The first-time event in the northwest corridor is scheduled for May 23 at Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville. The Little Rock Museum of Discovery will host the second annual student competition in Central Arkansas on June 27.
Sessions are sponsored by the Little Rock Venture Center and the Economics Arkansas and Young Entrepreneur Institute. Participants will present ideas addressing a problem or need in their community for a chance to win up to $1,500 in cash prizes for pitches that emphasize creativity and innovation.
Before the competitions, students are required to attend one virtual and one in-person pitch preparation workshop facilitated by event organizers.
“Fostering entrepreneurship among students is a crucial part of economic education,” says Kathleen Lawson, executive director of Economics Arkansas. “When we give students entrepreneurial knowledge and mindset, we’re empowering them to be problem-solvers, leaders and creators who can shape their own futures and boost their communities’ prosperity.”
Pitch `N Punch applications are due by Wednesday for Northwest Arkansas and May 15 for Central Arkansas and there is no cost to participate. Applications and more details are available at venturecenter.co.