Danville Area Community College will be taking some of its students on the road in a new effort to help local industries. Carla Boyd, the Career Services Director at DACC, says when President Stephen Nacco saw a report about future job needs – he wanted to help. ‘’I had already thought about visiting some of the employers so that I could get some information about their organizations for my current job as Director of Career and Employment services, just so I could better talk to students about what those organizations do and what they’re about,’’ said Boyd. ‘’And I said, well why not kind of fashion it around what the Vermilion Advantage does for business tours? Why don’t we do that and call them student tours?’’
The Vermilion Advantage report that Danville Area Community College President Stephen Nacco (shown here) had seen was one stating Danville industries will be seeking 1,700 new employees between now and December of next year. Boyd says DACC will help fill that need by taking some of its students on tours of local industries. ‘’What we’re doing is we’re working with Vermilion Advantage. We are setting up tours for our students to be able to go into some of the different area businesses, and find out a little bit more about them. (They can) get a really birds-eye view of what goes on in there – and an opportunity for those employers to talk to the students, to tell them what their needs are – what they’re looking for – and how one could get a job within their organization.’’
Boyd credits Vickie Haugen, President of Vermilion Advantage, as being the person who was able to secure tours involving small groups of students. The first tours will begin later this month. ‘’Monday, June 26th we’re going to be visiting SYGMA, ThyssenKrupp Crankshaft, Viscofan and KIK.’’
President Nacco says most of the businesses are so eager to hire DACC’s engineering and science degree graduates that they’re willing to pay them to continue on with a bachelor’s degree. ‘’But the vast majority of our students have a negative impression of manufacturing businesses and can’t imagine themselves ever working in what they perceive to be a factory.’’ And that is why DACC is eager to host the tours to show students the businesses can be a great place to start a career.
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** [DACC’s Marketing and College Relations Office assisted with this story.]
