(January 4, 2019) More than 170 teachers and administrators from the Cleburne County School System participated in an Educators Workforce Day as part of their January professional development day activities. The event was hosted by East AlabamaWorks, in conjunction with the Heflin Industrial Development Board, the Cleburne County Chamber, and Cleburne County Schools.
The day started at the Heflin Armory with a breakfast buffet and a workforce development presentation by Lisa Morales and Carl Brady with the East AlabamaWorks Regional Workforce Council. Following the presentation, educators were divided into seven groups, with each group visiting two business and industry locations in Cleburne, Calhoun or Talladega counties. Fourteen businesses participated in the day, including Bridgewater Interiors, B.R. Williams Trucking, SuperValu, Kobay, Rusken Packaging, Honda Manufacturing, Industry Products, Ra-Lin Construction, Southwire, EMSCO/NIMBUS, Alabama Specialty Products/Metals Samples, WM Grocery, General Dynamics OTS, and Associated Metalcast.
Educator Workforce Days give local industries an opportunity to speak directly to our local educators and pass along information and insights about what they need from students as they leave school and enter the workforce; and give educators a rare look behind the scenes of the local industrial and business world so that they can better prepare students for life after their school years.
Participating teachers say that they were amazed by the interesting variety of products that are manufactured in East Alabama…a majority of which they had not previously known about. They were also impressed to learn about the combination of academic skills and technical skills that are required in the modern manufacturing workplace.
