Retraining for the future

There are bright spots in the somewhat gray unemployment scene in Flathead County, two officials at the Flathead Job Service in Kalispell say.

Bill Nelson, supervisor of the Flathead Job Service office, and Laura Gardner, a supervisor and the training programs coordinator at Job Service, say some of the people who lost jobs when many Flathead County employers cut staff or closed shop now are finishing training and education programs and finding new jobs.

When the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. was laying off workers in 2008, many of those displaced workers wanted to find technical kinds of jobs, Nelson said.

So Job Service personnel reached out to officials at Flathead Valley Community College.

In turn, college leaders added various technical programs to the college’s slate of offerings. College officials have been quick to respond to work force needs, Nelson said, a tremendous benefit to residents of the Flathead.

The changing job scene in the county is very evident at the Job Service office, Nelson said.

In 2008, his office had two people working in the programs unit, which focuses on adding new training programs. Today, that unit has eight employees.

And those eight people are busy, he said: “They each have 100 clients. A normal load would be 35.”

Many people who lost their jobs in the valley are entitled to two years of free retraining or education through the former North American Free Trade Agreement, now known as the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. If their jobs were outsourced to workers in another country, the displaced workers are eligible for the program, Nelson said.

A lot of people who were laid off from timber companies have qualified for the training, he said. Some already have completed training programs and about 60 completed their two-year training program at FVCC last month.

The general goal of the training program is to gear people up “to hit the work force,” Nelson said.

Many of the displaced workers don’t want to leave the Flathead Valley, he said, and have enrolled at FVCC.

As companies realized they were going to have big staff reductions or were going to close their doors, Job Service personnel began working with them early in the process, Gardner said.

Rapid-response workshops were held on layoff days at some of the major firms and employees learned how to file for unemployment, how to begin searching for new jobs and how to get in new training programs.

An added bonus to Flathead residents is the connection between FVCC and the University of Great Falls, which have partnered in a two-plus-two bachelor’s program.

Jean Barragan, coordinator of the University of Great Falls’ education program at FVCC, said 72 students in Kalispell were part of the consortium agreement in the school year that just ended.

Those students take their first two years of classes at FVCC; their second two years of classes are delivered by the University of Great Falls on the FVCC campus.

Today, four bachelor’s degrees may be earned through that program — elementary education, secondary education, criminal justice and psychology.

“These students can complete their four-year degree right here in the Flathead Valley,” Barragan said.

Barragan said the nontraditional students who are in college after losing a job are very serious students. They recognize they have a chance to change their career and life, she said.

“For those students in particular, the learning curve sometimes goes straight up,” Barragan said. “A student who has been out of the classroom for 20 years has a fascination for a new learning environment, for technology and research.”

Barragan recognizes that some of those older students may experience some feelings of being disconnected when they first begin attending college.

However, she sees that change quickly at FVCC as those students “become seasoned” and get to know their professors.

“FVCC is one of the most user-friendly atmospheres that I’ve ever had the distinction of teaching at,” she said.

The average age of students at FVCC has increased with the increase in retraining programs offered at the college, she said.

“We are seeing a peak in enrollment in nontraditional students who have been laid off from employment situations around the valley,” she said, particularly people who worked at Semitool, Plum Creek and the aluminum plant.

Carla Fisher, an adjunct instructor in history at FVCC and a history and political science professor for the University of Great Falls education program in Kalispell, concurred that an increasing number of her students are older people who are in college as a result of losing a job.

“The nontraditional students are great at being willing to participate in class more readily and more often,” Fisher said. “There is more confidence in those students who have been out in the world and are coming back in the classroom and it’s wonderful for some of the more traditional students to see that.”

The returning students “are generally very optimistic,” Fisher said. “Even those who are unsure about coming back to school are very willing and able to take more active approaches to tackle  concerns.”

FVCC history instructor Rob Bauer said he enjoys having older students in his classes because “they tend to be highly motivated.” Such students are in college for a specific reason, Bauer said and they all “want to do well.”

“I like to have a lot of student interaction in my classes,” Bauer said. Often older students have more personal experience to call on and offer as part of class discussions, which makes things more interesting. 

Having a mix of age groups in a classroom is “a bonus for a teacher,” Bauer said.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.