THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE ARTICLE BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: Danville High School students, middle, take a picture with Computer Technology Systems’ CEO Tyler Wallace and employees, on Wednesday at their Downtown Danville location.
About 200 mostly high school sophomores and juniors throughout Vermilion County are partaking on a two-day Tour of Industries with the goal of learning more about local jobs and career opportunities.
This year’s tours, Wednesday and today, are not just manufacturers such as Danville Metal Stamping, Thyssenkrupp, Greenwood Plastics and others. There are also health care tours for students at the Veterans Affairs Illiana Healthcare System, OSF and Carle, and also mixed industry tours at other locations such as CTS — Computer Technology Systems, CCMSI insurance agency and Two Roads Wellness Clinic.
Danville High School sophomores Aryana Webb-Duckworth and Sapphire Woods said it was interesting to learn about the sauna and other therapy methods at Two Roads.
Webb-Duckworth, too, said she learned more about mental-health connections. She already knows she wants to go into the pediatric cancer medical field after high school.
“When I was going through cancer last year, I saw how the doctors interacted with the kids, and I thought that looks like something I want to do. And now if I do that, I can relate to the kids and help them go through it because I’ve been through it,” Webb-Duckworth said.
Woods said she wants to be a therapist.
DHS student Nataly Lam said she knows she wants to go to college but isn’t sure what she’d like to do for a career.
They also learned about information technology at CTS and what schooling, including Danville Area Community College and Purdue University, the computer technicians had prior to getting into the field.
All three DHS students said the Tour of Industries is a great way for students to learn about specific career paths. About 15 DHS students were to go on tours each day.
College Express System Director Nick Chatterton said they’ve been having business tours for high school students for many years through Vermilion Vocational Education Delivery System (VVEDS), Danville Area Community College and Vermilion Advantage.
“This year is a little bit different,” Chatterton said. The tours are over two days, and students could choose manufacturing, health care or a mixed bag of businesses, he said.
“All the schools are represented in Vermilion County, including Schlarman and First Baptist,” Chatterton too said.
“We get a lot of good feedback from the students, and the industries absolutely love it,” he added. He said some industry representatives say this is one of the best parts of their year, showing off what they do to the students.
CTS’ Nicole Rogers said this is their first year participating in the tour. Rogers, CEO Tyler Wallace and computer technicians talked to the students about their jobs, training, operations as a managed service provider and helping businesses with their information technology systems. Computer technicians can come from different industries or have no IT backgrounds, Rogers said.
CTS helps business to business with technology needs, and IT will continue to have various technology jobs into the future, the employees said.
In a Tuesday letter to its members, Vermilion Advantage President and CEO Mike Marron gave an update on investing cluster membership dollars to try to solve Vermilion County workforce issues. The cluster program started in the late 1990s by the late Vermilion Advantage President/CEO Vicki Haugen.
“Although we’ve had success in creating these (workforce training) programs over the years, the workforce issue continues to get more and more challenging,” Marron stated. “Vermilion Advantage had lost its focus and effectiveness at a time after the pandemic when the workforce program became a full-fledged crisis.”
Vermilion Advantage has recommitted itself, starting last year, to figuring out solutions to these issues, working in a collaborative way with education professionals and finding ways to reinvest cluster dollars for a greater positive impact, Marron says in the letter.
Industry and area school district representatives as part of the Vermilion Advantage Workforce Education Committee have continued to meet to construct a plan. A Workforce Education director, not hired yet, but who could be in place by midwinter, will aggressively implement programs by August 2025, according to Marron.
Goals are to decrease local job openings, have a pipeline of skilled workers, increase graduation rates, have local businesses see growth and offer career pathway endorsements. Career exploration will begin with sixth-graders, and job shadow opportunities could occur in high school.
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THE FOLLOWING IS A VERMILION ADVANTAGE RELEASE
Vermilion Advantage and the Vermilion County School Districts have teamed up on workforce education events and programs.
Vermilion County Schools Tour of Industries:
On November 6th and November 7th, tours of Vermilion Advantage Cluster member facilities were arranged for area high school students. Three cluster groups were represented, Manufacturers, Health Care, and a Mixed Business group. Local employers participating included: Danville Metal Stamping, Thyssen Krupp Crankshaft, Greenwood Inc., OSF, Carle, the VA, CTS Computer Technology Systems, CCMSI, Thyssenkrupp Dynamic Components, Watchfire, Tridan, and Two Roads Wellness Center. Sophomores and Juniors from area high schools will have the unique opportunity to tour facilities of their choice to learn about area employers. The goal of the program is to pique the interest of students so they can learn about career and employment opportunities here in Vermilion County.
“Our hope is that by creating these experiences for students, it will get young people thinking about the wonderful opportunities in this community, and ultimately help solve our workforce shortage in the future.” Jodie Ingram – Economic and Community Development Coordinator Vermilion Advantage
