Workforce development is a key part of economic development, and Georgia’s program, called Quick Start, is ranked among the best.
Area Development magazine recently named Georgia as the best state for doing business and pointed to its workforce development program as the main reason why. This was the seventh consecutive honor for the Quick Start program.
Such honors are great for Gretchen Corbin, commissioner of the Technical College System of Georgia, but she also points with pride to Quick Start’s 40-year record of helping employers train qualified workers.
Since 1967, Quick Start has trained more than 1.25 million workers for 6,871 projects. In fiscal year 2016, which ended June 30, it trained 6,703 workers, according to Corbin. Those workers were for 106 projects.
Many states have workforce development programs. Georgia’s is set apart by its experience, customization and resources, she said.
Quick Start is a branch of the technical colleges, and those campuses provide a location for training for companies with new construction. If a company has a plant or other space, Quick Start can provide training on-site.
The program also has dedicated training centers near West Point for automotive, east of metro Atlanta for biosciences and is building a manufacturing center near the Georgia Coast for companies that create jobs in that area.
“We want employees who are ready to go to work the first day manufacturing begins,” she said.
Quick Start isn’t just for manufacturing, but that is where the focus is because of demand. In the past year, about 95 percent of Quick Start projects were for manufacturing companies.
It also trains workers in areas like technology and logistics.
Trained, ready employees make for a happy employer. And a happy employer is likely to tell others. That leads to a reputation where new employers are attracted by the experience of older companies.
“I personally have heard hundreds of employers say workforce development programs were the deciding factor,” she said of companies looking for sites for a new location.
She pointed specifically to Caterpillar, which opened a new plant near Athens in 2013. Caterpillar executive told her that Quick Start “sealed the deal for us,” she said.
While Quick Start is a major tool for recruiting new companies, 45 percent of the projects in FY2016 were for existing Georgia firms that were growing their workforce. And it isn’t just an Atlanta service, with 74 percent of the workers trained working in areas outside Atlanta.
