GHC, GAMA partner to offer program for automotive workers

February 10, 2015

Georgia Highlands College and the Georgia Automotive Manufacturers Association (GAMA) are forming a partnership to help workers secure or retain jobs in the automotive industry.

 The college and the trade association are working together to modify the college’s Successful Supervision certificate series into a series tailored for automotive industry employees who want to develop supervisory skills to help them further their careers.

“I think a partnership with the Georgia Automotive Manufacturers Association could be huge for the college and for this area, especially the companies planning to relocate to Georgia,” said George White, director of continuing education at GHC. “We’re right in between Kia south of Atlanta and the Volkswagen plant on the border in Chattanooga. As Georgia keeps attracting more automotive companies, it’s going to take a lot of individual plants to support these companies.”

 GAMA President Rick Walker, who addressed the GHC Continuing Education Advisory Council Friday morning at the Cartersville campus, said northwest Georgia is “sort of at the nerve center” of the automotive industry in the Southeast.

“I think Georgia’s in a great place,” he said. “You guys are in an even better place here in Cartersville, Bartow County, the whole area, Rome. I’ve been in meetings in Rome when we first started GAMA, and I started to connect some lines of the automotive industry in the Southeast, and they all sort of go right through this area.”

Georgia’s “close neighbors” of Alabama and Tennessee have six auto assembly plants between them — Honda,  Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai in Alabama and General Motors, Volkswagen and Nissan in Tennessee — giving Georgia companies an excellent opportunity to supply the original equipment manufacturers (OEM) in those states, Walker said.  “We’ve got a lot of OEMs locating in the northwest part of the state,” he said, noting the automotive industry is “starting to move south” away from Detroit.

To help supply the workforce for this industry, GHC and GAMA plan to offer a dual-certificate program that develops and equips front-line leaders with skills they’ll need to make these companies thrive.

The 36-hour program will be similar to the “very successful” 30-hour, 10-module supervision program currently being offered by the college, but two courses will be added, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) course and “something more automotive manufacturing-related,” White said.

The course will be geared toward people who “already show talent or want to become a supervisor,” he said.  “It’s really beneficial for somebody looking for a job in the automotive industry to go through this program if they lack experience,” he said. “A key component of any of these programs is they need to be designed to help people get or keep the jobs they’ve got.”

Each of the 12 modules will last three hours and will be offered at times that will fit into shift workers’ schedules, White said, noting the program should be ready to offer by late spring.

The current modules, which usually have 10 to 12 people in attendance, are Making the Transition to Front-Line Leader, Attitudes, Communication Toolbox, Problem Solving, Understanding Motivation, Feedback that Works, Leading Others, Dealing with Difficult People, Dealing with Disagreement and Change Toolbox.
 
“A lot of those are people skills,” White said. “A lot of people come out of college, even with a bachelor’s degree, and they’ve got the technical knowledge and the book knowledge, but they don’t know how to work with people. People skills is the biggest deficiency for new employees who come into the workplace. To be successful, you have to learn how to work with people. These are skills a good supervisor needs.”

GAMA, which has grown to more than 400 members since Walker started it in June 2011, will help develop the program, White said.

“[Walker] saw our program and really liked it,” he said. “He wants to present it to the members and see if they like it.”

White also said there is a “good possibility” that some of the modules would be led by GAMA members.

Article by Donna Harris, Daily Tribune News