(upbeat music)
- I was just honestly,
just looking to get out of my retail job.
And I was gonna originally look into
the electrical program that they have,
but I saw that they had recently added the CPT program.
and I checked out the video
and it really just sparked my interest.
- The CPT, that's a certified production technician.
That's going to give you an entry level certification.
That's what companies like Samsung, Applied Materials.
You got Athena manufacturing, we work real close with.
That they need people in there on the factory floor
to be able to work on the machinery.
Those they call a machine operator.
And then there's maintenance personnel.
There's a big demand for that.
And there's also a demand for people that can crunch numbers
and pay attention to the statistics
of what's going on in a factory.
So that's what I'm preparing students
that potentially choose a position
into those different openings that are available.
- The program was selected and enhanced a little bit
based on the entry level skill needs
that are required by companies in our region,
that are currently hiring
such as Applied Materials and NXP, Samsung.
And those are the companies that pretty much put together
what the curriculum would be.
And then what we did, Workforce Solutions hosted
a series of round tables.
The first one was 40 employers to determine
the age level hiring needs that they had.
There was another round table with the training providers.
And so we had ACC come.
We had SkillPoint Alliance, TSTC,
which is Texas State Technical College
and Goodwill Industries, all felt,
thought they could help with getting these skills
taught to future candidates and their employers.
And another round table, staff and the agencies
that worked with these companies and worked out
a very nice process on recruiting, staffing and placement
of these candidates.
- It was about two weeks before we were gonna
launch the program, Covid came.
And we just had to go on this like lockdown.
And really it's had, definitely been a challenge
to adapt to it.
Kinda had to do it on the fly.
If we started the course,
just trying to turn it into a virtual course
and started learning that there's some difficulty
in squeezing what was a hands on learning
in a laboratory setting to just meeting people
in their living rooms.
It's a little different.
So when you are building up a kind of a kit here,
a virtual tools, simulations of real world tools
that really almost can replace,
the real world interaction there.
So we're gonna learn some of the critical skills
that somebody that's completely new to these things.
And you would have to have, you know,
a $50,000 piece of equipment potentially,
but now we can just virtualize it.
I can train you that way.
- I was a little uneasy about being on video,
just cause I'm not used to it.
But I got used to it very fast.
They are very willing to help work with you,
also to like get to your classes
or if you need help, they can lend a computer.
They want to help you in every way they can
and get you up to certification.
And everybody in the program are very kind
and they wanna make sure you've got what your,
what you need.
- I would say it has,
it's a huge benefit for people that have trouble
with transportation,
whether it's just financial issues or whatever.
That's who we target with SkillPoint.
Is trying to get people the skills to get into the workforce
that may not have the resources available to go to a class
and spend six to eight hours a day.
- Once the economy starts to open up
and people are either deciding to change industries.
Cause they were affected by Covid potentially,
they wanna learn a new skill.
We've had a whole class, I know it seems,
It doesn't seem that way,
we have a whole class of high school graduates
that may or may not be going to college
that wanna launch a career.
So they could get these skills
and get into this industry as well.
- If you find yourself out of work,
because COVID-19 has just shut down business,
manufacturing is still up and running.
This is a critical part of the economy.
So when we talk about going to a safe workplace,
that's gonna be reliable and open
and it pays really well.
That could be a really good option.
In six weeks, so it's kind of a bootcamp
and we can get you from totally green,
to be in a good entry level candidate for jobs
that have really good room for growth
and advancement in these companies.