Bekaert expansion a walk down memory lane for NLR lawmaker

While attending an announcement last week that Bekaert Corp. was investing $32 million to expand its plant in Rogers, Sen. Jane English couldn’t help but reminisce.

English, a Republican who represents a district that includes parts of North Little Rock, had driven the nearly three hours to Northwest Arkansas for the announcement. She worked almost 27 years ago as part of a team that helped lure Bekaert to Rogers and returned to celebrate a Bekaert expansion project that will add 100 manufacturing jobs to the state.

Fresh on English’s mind were memories of the effort she and others with the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission (now known as the Arkansas Economic Development Commission) put into securing the $200 million project. At the time it was the largest economic development project behind Nucor Steel.

There were other reasons English, a champion of workforce development efforts in the state, was taken on a trip down memory lane last week.

“Even 26 years ago, Bekaert was trying to find employees, qualified employees,” English said. “Ever since I started in economic development 30 years ago, that’s always been the thing. How do we grow the workforce, develop the pipeline? There are some similar conversations happening.”

Searching the newspaper’s archives for details on Bekaert’s decision to open a plant in Rogers, I came across a June 27, 1989, article that underscores English’s point. Managers for foreign-owned businesses in Arkansas were lamenting the lack of skilled workers available locally during a panel discussion. State lawmakers had just voted down a sales tax proposal intended for education and there were concerns about Arkansas’ ability to recruit and retain businesses.

Bekaert’s chief financial officer at the time, Mike Jones, said Arkansas needed to reduce the number of college preparatory classes and teach more trades. He said his company, which manufactures steel cords for radial tires, needed skilled production workers who were able to adapt quickly to changing methods, according to the article.

English has been at the forefront of a similar movement the last two-ish years. She’s hopeful that the work being

done is making a difference.

News that Bekaert is adding 100 workers in Rogers and FMH Conveyors is adding 110 workers in Jonesboro should provide high school students with examples of what sort of jobs are available without going to college.

High schools, English said, have been surprisingly open to tweaking curriculum and spending more time explaining to students their options. What English is hoping to see is more programs designed for communities in which high schools and two- and four-year colleges are located.

English singled out the Pea Ridge Manufacturing and Business Academy and the Career Academy in Siloam Springs as examples of how high schools should be approaching technical training.

Those examples and ongoing conversations have English convinced that meaningful progress is happening. Arkansas is perhaps better positioned for the next 30 years than it was nearly three decades ago.

“You don’t turn a battleship around in a day,” English said. “It takes time and we have examples of how it can work. I don’t ever want to see a onesize-fits-all approach for everybody. What works in Northwest Arkansas may not work in Jonesboro. Each town, each school can figure out what they want to do, what they want to be. As long as everybody is sitting at the table and talking and you have partnerships, there will be progress.”

Cooperation is better than she ever remembers it, English said. There is room for more.

English envisions an economic development strategy that would include having the state’s director of the Department of Career Education regularly join the head of the Economic Development Commission pitching the state to prospective employers.

“We can show that we have wage programs, ways to help upgrade the education and skills of people,” English said. “That’s what it’s all about. Everybody working together. No kings. No queens. Just everybody working together.”