Participants Received Certificates in Innovative Class
Last November, the first in a series of training classes began at Robinson Electric’s new training facility and the results should have strong economic effects for years to come. In fact, they’ve already produced tangible results with a recent graduating class.
Cleveland company’s President and CEO, Brian Robinson, said at the time of the start of the innovative classes that, “It’s going to be unbelievable. The fact that we’re doing what we’re doing now proves that patience and planning, along with collaboration, can get anything done.”
The classes marks the first time, in any location from Memphis to Jackson says Robison, a nationally-accredited paid apprenticeship program is now available with certified instructors and trainers. “You actually can’t even get this kind of training in a community college,” he said. “By being nationally-recognized, after our students finish all four of the courses we will put on, they can literally go anywhere in the country and be recognized as an apprentice and ready for a job.”
The genesis of such an outstanding and one-of-its-kind training school for the Delta began during the pandemic.
“We purchased the building, the former location of The Bolivar Commercial newspaper, right in the middle of Covid. We spent the next year gutting out the entire building but then built out the front half into a full-fledged training center,” says Robinson. “By that I mean it’s suited for a classroom and has a learning lab area for hands-on training. For now, we have about 6,000 square feet of training space to accommodate 100 people.”
Robinson added that the space contains a great deal of technology including SmartBoards. “Robinson Electric spent over $100K of our own money building out that extra room,” he says. “It was really kind of a ‘Field of Dreams’-type scenario for us. Everybody talks about doing something and making a change but I’m proud to say that we actually did and put our money where our mouth is.”
The building-out process coming into fruition set other things in motion, says Robinson.
“Our biggest partner in getting this training center off the ground was AccelerateMS, first with Ryan Miller and then with Dr. Courtney Miller—the former and current heads of that great organization respectively—and also with Kimberly Gatewood who is our local AccelerateMS representative,” he says. “We told them our story and about our working training vision and, after doing so, they linked us up with Mitzi Woods with South Delta Planning and her team, Brent Bean and his team at Build Mississippi—a division of the state contractor board—the folks at the Capps Center, Mississippi Delta Community College and our local WIN Job Center.”
All of these partners came together and asked Robinson what he needed to fulfill his mission.
“We ended up creating an incredible training space for Cleveland, Bolivar County and the entire Delta that we want everybody to use,” says Robison. “Whatever training work is needed, groups and organizations can use this facility. I’ve had (Cleveland Police Department Chief) Dudley Tribble use it for task force training, for instance, churches in the area have used it—we want it to be a community hub.”
Robinson says that when he looks back ten years from now, he wants to see this training center as the beginning of something tremendous for the Delta.
“Build Mississippi helped us put on our electrical training classes, and they’ll run from October to April,” says Robinson. “We started off a little late this time with our first class but that’s how they will run going forward. This six-month class, which is three hours long, will meet one night a week with 15 students at a time. When we start our next semester in the spring, we’ll go after those high school kids about to graduate and also those students coming out of college who are looking for an employer who can get them a well-paying job but can also further train them. So, Robinson Electric itself use this class for recruitment and also retention by offering our current employees an opportunity to attend. That will incentivize workers to stay here in the Delta, too.”
In the future, Robinson says Robinson Electric will also partner with other electrical contractors in the area to train their employees.
“And this training will be at no cost because of all those partners I mentioned earlier coming to the table and funding the costs of the instructors and as well as paying the guys being trained,” he says. “Again, Memphis is doing this kind of thing, as is Jackson—but no one in between has been until now.”
Mark Miles was the first instructor for this new class, said Robinson. Miles is the HVAC/Industrial instructor at Mississippi Delta Community college who brings with him 23 years of teaching experience in electrical and mechanical classroom instruction.
On the night of March 26, Robinson began the first ceremony’s activities by addressing the first class of graduates—all employees of the company—their family members and special guests in attendance. He noted his pride in their work and also in the program itself, the only such specific apprenticeship training provided between Memphis and Jackson.
Brent Bean, President of Build Mississippi—an initiative organization created to craft training and credentialing and one of the architects of the course—addressed the crowd next before proceeding to hand out the certificates to the graduates. Course instructor, Mark Myles, also spoke to the attendees.
“We’ll go into a second level of training moving forward out of a total of four levels that are a part of the apprenticeship program,” says Robinson Electric Executive Administrative Assistant, Terri McKnight. “Tonight’s graduates successfully completed phase one of the training and passed their exams. They will also now be registered in Build Mississippi’s database.”
The graduates were: David Butler, Chance Brown, Adam Cummins, Nathan Dees, Austin Forbes, Lathan Hall, Jonathan Harris, Ethan Linkous, Daniel Mancini, Michael Melton, Noble Newton, Michael Norquist and Lee Stiles. Special acknowledgement was given to the graduates with perfect attendance and Brian Norquist was recognized as the “Outstanding Student” of the program.
Those who were instrumental in getting the new apprentice program initiated, including Mitzi Woods of South Delta Planning, Kimberley Gatewood of AccelerateMS, Lane Bell of Build Mississippi, as well as representatives from other state economic agencies, were also on hand, joining in to recognize the employees.