The Centralia Chamber of Commerce, the City of Centralia, and Kaskaskia College combined efforts Thursday night to celebrate Manufacturing Month and to emphasize the need for more workers in the heavy industrial trades. The event was held at Kaskaskia College’s Crisp Technology Center where the college’s training classes were on display.
College President George Evans says hundreds of jobs are available that are going unfilled.
“There are more jobs out there than we have students. More good paying jobs than we have students. And these are not minimum wage jobs, these are above wage careers with excellent retirement plans, have relationships with unions, and collective bargaining organizations in the trades as well. This is an area of specific focus for the institution now and for the long term because our region is made up of heavy career in technical education areas.”
Centralia Mayor Bryan Kuder is looking to the future where vocational students at the high school can move to Kaskaskia College for more training before filling the openings at the city’s manufacturing facilities. He says all of the available jobs are also the key to the city’s future.
“We have to draw people to Centralia. And what’s going to draw them to Centralia is a finer degree of living.”
Centralia Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Marcus Holland says as visits with chamber members on their challenges, the need for workers is at the top of the list.
“They are investing spending millions of dollars investing into their plants and facilities to employ more people and make it a nicer and better workplace for their employees. If you didn’t realize walking around in the shop here, it’s clean, factories are the same way. They aren’t dirty like they used to be.”
Holland would also like to address negative attitudes in the community, noting some of the positives. He says the chamber is holding an average of two ribbon cuttings a month for new businesses and the hundreds of open jobs that are available.
Training area where students learn to program the robots.
Assistant Professor of Engineering Michael Geiger (left) and Assistant Professor of Automotive Tech show off an electric vehicle at the Manufacturing Celebration.
