By Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News
Nearly 800 Alabamians have signed up for a new, rapid workforce training platform launched earlier this year by the Alabama Community College System.
As of Wednesday, 292 people had completed the certificate programs that take about three weeks and combine online work and on-site training at campuses around the state.
So far, the Skills for Success program is training people to get their commercial driver licenses, drive school buses and work in the restaurant and hospitality industries. More industry specific certifications are being added.
The program is largely the result of conversations between ACCS and business leaders around the state.
“Prior to COVID, we were having problems getting employees and now it’s only been exacerbated,” Mindy Hanan, president of the Alabama Restaurant and Hospitality Association, said Wednesday during an ACCS board meeting.
“This is a program that I have wanted for years,” Hanan said. “To have a credential that means the same thing in Huntsville as it does in Orange Beach, that people know that if you have this training, you have this skill set.”
According to ACCS’ description of the food and beverage certificate, trainees will learn customer service, food safety and management principles and become familiar with regulations and inventory management.
First-line food prep supervisors earn a median salary of about $30,739 in Alabama and there are nearly 1,000 job openings per year, according to an online career planning tool from ACCS.
Rosemary Elebash, Alabama director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, has advocated for more industry specific worker training and on Wednesday thanked the board for the rapid courses.
She also cited recent nationwide polling of NFIB members in which 49% said they had job openings they couldn’t fill. Forty-two percent of owners have openings for skilled workers and 21% have openings for unskilled labor.
“That’s startling when you think about it,” she said of the demand for workers. “…This brand new credentials program is going to get us on the pathway of meeting those needs.”
While the state’s unemployment rate in June was a record 2.6%, Elebash said there are still prospective employees not participating in the workforce.
She said on a recent Friday in July, the Alabama Department of Labor issued unemployment benefits to 4,480 people.
“That’s a lot of folks and we need every one of them,” Elebash said.
Labor officials confirmed that number and said 6,840 payments were issued last Friday.
In its pilot year, the training is free to trainees and the companies who will hire them. Future costs will depend on allocations from the Legislature. Certificates in fiber optics installation and meat cutting will be available later. Heavy equipment and facilities operator certificates are being developed.
According to ACCS, butchers in the state make a median salary of $28,844 and there are about 269 job openings for them each year.
Elebash said grocery stores around the state have a tremendous need for butchers.
Blake McAnally, chairman of the ACCS board, thanked the system’s staff for its work on the credentials.
“I love the delivery method and the rapid response,” McAnally said. “You know, giving the customer just what they want, not what we want to give them, I think is critical.”