Feature image: The Academies of Central Arkansas provide hands-on exposure to a variety of careers. Photos provided by Academies of Central Arkansas.
In the fall of 2021, a new program for developing career readiness launched in local high schools, and just four years later, the Academies of Central Arkansas is hitting a major milestone.
“Next school year, starting in August, will be the first year that we are at full implementation,” said Markous Jewett, vice president of Academies of Central Arkansas at the Little Rock Regional Chamber, which administers the program. “That means that all ninth through 12th graders in any of the four school districts are enrolled in an academy at their high school campus.”
Markous Jewett
The milestone caps several years of phased-in implementation for the academies, which founders modeled after a similar program in Nashville, where local schools saw bumps in graduation and attendance rates, in addition to preparing students for the next steps after high school. The academies approach is based on the Ford Next Generation Learning Model developed in Michigan, which systematically walks students through career exploration, preparation and application.
“Next year, it’ll be wall-to-wall kids in an academy of their choosing,” Jewitt said. “We’re really excited about that because that’s when you start to see some of those major educational outcomes shift even more than we’ve already seen. We’re also really excited about some of the metrics that we’ve seen from the academy lens and how it’s impacting student learning, student outcomes and student experiences.”
At the time it was unveiled, the academies program was arguably the state’s most ambitious effort to date for addressing the severe shortage of labor in the state, particularly as it applied to skilled careers. A situation created by years of Students receding emphasis by school districts and exacerbated by massive baby boomer retirement and the impact of COVID-19, manufacturing, industry, transportation and construction industries across the state have been stretched to the limit by personnel shortages, driving up costs and curtailing growth.
Concurrent credit options allow high school students to complete college coursework before graduation.
Recent statistics show the situation continues to get worse. Last year, McKinsey & Co. described the U.S. skilled labor market as “facing record-high pressure, particularly for companies with manufacturing and construction operations.” The organization assessed labor needs across several skilled careers in the U.S., including welders, construction laborers and electricians, and posited that from 2022 to 2032, annual hiring in those roles will approach 600,000 positions, more than 21 times the projected annual increase in net new jobs, pegged at about 27,000.
The yawning gap is predominantly caused by job churn. Of the more than 1.6 million construction laborers employed in 2022, for instance, McKinsey & Co. predicted only 169,000 will stay in those roles through 2032, while 1.2 million will churn and 260,000 will retire in that time frame. While turnover in such entry-level positions is expectedly higher, the trendline is similar in roles that are considered more skilled. Of the 763,000 electricians on the job in 2022, only 72,000 are projected to still be working in 2032, and only 12,000 welders out of 432,000 employed in 2022 are expected to be on the job 10 years later. In both instances, job churn outpaces retirements as the source of outmigration at a rate of 2 to 1.
The impact of the situation can be seen in cost and stunted industry growth. Talent acquisition and training costs alone could run as high as $5.3 billion annually, the organization noted, which does not include billions more in lost productivity. The kicker? All that spending is largely needed just to make up the gap in workers, maintaining essentially flat staffing levels. McKinsey & Co. noted that despite soaring demand for construction projects, new job growth in the industry is projected to be miniscule at just 60,000 construction laborers, 50,000 electricians and 6,000 welders anticipated over a decade. That results in net new job totals of 58, 49 and 6, respectively, nationwide.
Arkansas’ industrial, manufacturing and construction companies know all too well the dire labor shortage and its impact. Lexicon, a Little Rock-based diversified steel business, has seen the effect of years of skilled careers being downplayed in the public school system to the point some districts ceased shop and other trade- and farm-focused classes at their facilities altogether.
“Over the years, our education system really focused more on the college-for-everyone concept,” said Viji Kuruvilla, Lexicon’s vice president of quality. “It was the push that was the setup for universities, that 80 or 90 percent of graduates were to go in the direction of being college bound. That system has created a huge gap in developing craft personnel, skilled labor, or areas of manufacturing or construction or other trades.”
Viji Kuruvilla
One of the key elements of the Academies of Central Arkansas approach is connecting in-school programs with external corporate partners. Lexicon is one of those partners and in a big way; having already built welding facilities at Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School, the company announced in May the creation of the Lexicon Academy of Advanced Manufacturing and Construction there. Completion of the academy will invest students with Occupational Health and Safety Administration 10 and welding certifications, making graduates immediately in demand.
“Lexicon built a 10-booth facility in two trailers with five welding booths each for students to practice their welding skills,” Kuruvilla said. “We also provided oversight in developing the curriculum and also helped the instructor with the certification process. At the end of high school, when students graduate, they will be ready to do welding with the sufficient qualifications and credentials.”
Kuruvilla suggested that if the academy was successful, it could serve as a blueprint for replicating it at other schools in the Central Arkansas Academy program. If initial interest at Mills is any indication, that could happen sooner rather than later.
Worksite tours and company internships are part of the academy curriculum.
“Three years ago, we started the pledge to graduate on the career pathway, and at that time, we just said there’s a construction pathway coming,” he said. “There were 10 to 15 students who signed up for the construction pathway initially, which had instructional learning only. Second year, it had little bit more traction. This year, they saw the welding lab, and 80 freshmen signed up for the construction pathway. We immediately needed to add an additional instructor.
“Right now, we are in a first phase, right, but we see the progress it is making in terms of interest. We want to see how many of them successfully finish up, but we already have a goal of building a state-of-the-art facility on Mills property. We have identified an area where we can build a 10,000-, 15,000-square-foot building, and we expect that to happen in the next two or three years.”
Anecdotal evidence abounds when it comes to the positive impact such programs are having. Jewett shared one example related to Lexicon’s Mills project as typical of the kind of healthy influence the academies seek to have on students, especially those who need it most.
“There were three students at Mills High School that were in the welding pathway who were habitually truant. We’re talking hardly at school,” he said. “All three happened to show up on the same day to their welding class on the day that students were welding in the labs built by Lexicon. They were really excited about going in there and welding, but the teacher said, ‘Hey, I’m sorry, you can’t go in there because you haven’t passed the safety requirements that we did in class the last couple weeks. You can’t go in the lab until you do that,’ so they sat there and they watched.
Students learn about high-paying careers, some of which require little to no college coursework.
“Those three students, it blows my mind to say it, they haven’t missed a day of school since just because they wanted to get into the labs and do that hands-on experience and work with the industry partners. That’s just one example, but I think it’s a really powerful example, and those are the types of things that we’re hearing across campuses, across schools and across the academies.”
The academies operate in 10 high schools in the Little Rock, North Little Rock, Jacksonville-North Pulaski and Pulaski County Special school districts. In addition to Mills High School, the program is in play at Jacksonville High School; Joe T. Robinson High School, Hall-West High School of Innovation, Parkview Arts & Science Magnet High School and Little Rock Southwest Magnet High School, all in Little Rock; Maumelle High School; Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood; and both North Little Rock High School and the North Little Rock Center of Excellence.
Career areas offered vary by location and include construction, health sciences, engineering, computer science, entrepreneurship and agriculture, to name a few learning tracks. Students’ first year is largely spent exploring different career options, and activities become progressively more hands-on as students move through their high school careers, up to and including internships and apprenticeships with partnering companies.
Also included are targeted classes addressing communication, work habits, problem-solving and other soft skills. Jacksonville-North Pulaski Superintendent Jeremy S. Owoh said those skills are critical for career success.
Jeremy S. Owoh
“One of the things that we have really stressed — and we stress it in middle school, but more emphasis is made in ninth grade and the freshman academy — is on those soft skills,” he said. “When you really think about it, the most important thing is that creativity, that innovation, that critical thinking, along with technical skills. They have to be able to not just think one plus one equals two, but what if we add one plus one plus C plus two to get something more outside the box of what we’re normally accustomed to?”
Owoh said for the academy programs to continue to flourish, they must keep pace with the latest technology but do so in the right way, as a powerful tool rather than a crutch.
“One of the things I really see us doing — we have really taken a proactive stance on innovative technology and the role that generative [artificial intelligence] plays in education and will continue to play in life and especially in industry,” he said. “What I really see us doing is evolving and continuing to be creative and ensuring that innovative technology is immersed into those pathways.
“At the same time, one of the most important things that our young people need to realize is at some point, they’re going to have to think beyond AI on that creative level. I want to do A plus B plus C and then move all the way down to X, Y and Z, so how do I think beyond just the basic level of HVAC or electrical work to do things outside the box? I really feel like that’s where we’re headed and that’s where we need to be headed.”
Students interact with partnering companies to discover potential careers.
Jewett agreed while also noting that the Academies of Central Arkansas now have an even wider role to play in the state’s labor picture. The Arkansas LEARNS Act, passed after the academies were launched, contains specific language about how public school systems need to formally address career readiness in students. That has led a number of school districts in Arkansas to look at central Arkansas for a blueprint on how to meet that requirement, he said.
“I was fortunate to be appointed as one of a dozen folks from across the state to sit on the governor’s task force after LEARNS had been launched to figure out the rulemaking process and what it looks like,” he said. “There was a lot of conversation with everyone at the table around what the perfect career readiness program looks like. I didn’t say a word, but I was humbled when someone in the room said, ‘Isn’t this exactly what they’re doing with the Academies of Central Arkansas?’ so we’re aligned very well, and we’re really excited about that alignment of all the factors that go into it, from programming to school accountability. I think we’re set up for success.”
READ ALSO: Spotlight on Small Business: Lokal Koffee Roasters
