When four manufacturing companies announced plans to open new plants in Northwest Georgia by the Spring of 2002— three to supply a new Honda assembly plant in Lincoln, Alabama—local officials were overjoyed. But as they raced the clock to attend to the details of these openings, they were also a little worried. Could the local workforce fill the needs of exacting auto-industry jobs?

Not to worry. In stepped Coosa Valley Technical College with a double offer for the companies’ management teams: temporary (and free) on-campus office space for the firms while they constructed their plants and a pre-training program that is winning rave reviews.

“The response has been just super,” says Pete McDonald, vice president of economic development at the Rome-based technical college.

Coosa Valley Technical College’s Certified Manufacturing Specialist (CMS) program gives local employees a state certification verifying they are qualified to work in the manufacturing field. While there’s no guarantee of employment upon a student’s certification, all four companies seek employees with the skills taught in the CMS program. What’s more, the state’s HOPE grant can be used by eligible Georgia residents to help pay tuition costs of the CMS program.

In late February, Coosa Valley Technical College hosted its first CMS orientation session to acquaint local residents with both the program and the new companies moving into town. Turnout was tremendous, with more than 350 people attending; of those, more than 200 registered for a series of seven CMS courses beginning the following month.

“We’ve staggered these classes from morning to afternoon to night,” says Craig McDaniel, president of the technical college. “We recognize that people have jobs to go to and families to take care of, and we are helping them fit these classes into their lives accordingly.”

The CMS program, available statewide, teaches mechanical skills (the use of power tools, for example, and the basic workings of bearings, seals, lubricants and hydraulics), but it also touches on business and organizational topics, such as ergonomics, math skills, computer skills, decision-making, communications, teamwork and personal health and stress management. It’s that extra step that is winning praise from the firms who will be hiring some of its graduates.

“We’re thrilled to be using it,” says Sally Darr, human resources manager for F&P Georgia Manufacturing Inc., which needed to hire up to 90 employees for its Floyd County industrial park plant.

The company, which was gearing-up to produce front-end frame components for the Odyssey minivans assembled in Alabama, is owned by the Japanese firm F-Tech—and the CMS program’s emphasis on teamwork makes its graduates especially attractive to F&P’s Japanese ownership, which emphasizes a team-oriented work style.

“Sometimes training programs emphasize just hard skills and technical skills, but it’s really the ‘soft skills’ that make workers successful,” says Darr. “Employees can have the best technical skills in the world, but if they don’t know how to communicate and listen, they won’t be fully prepared to do their best work. This CMS program really cuts the training time required to get our employees ready.”

Three other facilities in the area—operated by Neaton Rome (which will manufacture plastic components for Honda steering wheels, dashboards and consoles), Jefferson Southern Corporation (which will build structural components for Odyssey mini-van bodies) and Suzuki (which will begin assembling all-terrain vehicles in 2002)—also say they will take advantage of this CMS-trained labor pool. Jefferson Southern, in fact, has already advertised locally to fill welding jobs, noting that it “highly prefers” CMS graduates.

“Things have gone very well so far,” concludes McDonald, who also offered several of the manufacturing firms temporary office space on Coosa Valley Technical College’s campus free of charge until each of the plants is up and running—an offer that was readily accepted. According to President McDaniel, “Each of these companies has been very supportive of what we’re doing with the CMS program, and we’re happy to be helping provide them with a workforce that understands teamwork, has a positive attitude and has acquired basic business and communications skills.”