Blue Collar Business Podcast
Welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast with Sy Kirby. Dive deep into the world of hands-on entrepreneurship and the gritty side of making things happen. Join us for actionable tips on scaling your blue-collar business, managing teams, and staying ahead in an ever-evolving market. We'll also discuss the latest industry trends and innovations that could impact your bottom line. If you're passionate about the blue-collar world and eager to learn from those who've thrived in it, this podcast is a must-listen. Stay tuned for engaging conversations and real-world advice that can take your blue-collar business to new heights.
Blue Collar Business Podcast
Ep. 26 - From Classroom to Career: Starting Trades Education Early
Explore the transformative power of career and technical education (CTE) with Rodney Ellis, the visionary workforce training director at Springdale School District. Discover how Rodney and Chad Burkett are reshaping the educational landscape by embedding practical, skill-building courses into the curriculum as early as fourth grade. From robotics to CDL training and OSHA 30 certifications, we discuss how these initiatives are closing the gap between traditional education and the demands of local industries. Through strategic alliances with companies like Marrs Electric, Cargill, Tyson, and more, they’re equipping students with the tools needed to thrive in the workforce.
The shift from a predominantly white-collar focus to a more diverse appreciation of trade skills is gaining momentum. We explore the crucial role of complex problem-solving abilities and how the Internet has redefined both learning and career trajectories. Highlighting personal anecdotes, we emphasize the significance of vocational training and practical experience in preparing students for successful careers in skilled trades. This episode also sheds light on the essential virtues of maturity, grit, and accountability in the workplace, underscoring their importance as we gear up for the opportunities summer offers to young workers.
Building strong industry partnerships is at the heart of creating real-world opportunities for students. We dive into the details of these collaborations, showcasing successful models and innovative training programs that align with modern industry needs. By partnering with organizations like the Arkansas Office of Skills and Development and industry experts, Rodney and his team are ensuring students gain not just knowledge but the kind of skills that employers trust and value. Join us in celebrating the impact of CTE programs that empower students and build a skilled workforce ready to support regional growth and development.
Follow and stay connected:
Website: bluecollarbusinesspodcast.com
YouTube: youtube.com/@BlueCollarBusinessPodcast
Instagram: @bluecollarbusinesspodcast
TikTok: @bluecollarbusinesspod
Facebook: Blue Collar Business Podcast
LinkedIn: Blue Collar Business Podcast
Never miss an update—follow, subscribe, and join the conversation!
Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast, where we discuss the realest, rawest, most relevant stories and strategies behind building every corner of a blue collar business. I'm your host, cy Kirby, and I want to help you in what it took me trial and error and a whole lot of money to learn the information that no one in this industry is willing to share. Whether you're under that shade tree or have your hard hat on, let's expand your toolbox. Welcome back, guys, to another episode of the Blue Collar Business Podcast, brought to you by and sponsored by this beautiful studio that we're sitting in here in Rogers, arkansas podcastvideoscom. They're on all your socials. They, of course, push our content out from the Blue Collar Business Podcast through all of our socials, so ensure you're checking that as well.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to continue with February being. This is getting filmed. I don't know if this will come out in February, but continued education month. We previously had Chad Burkett in February, but continued education month. We previously had Chad Burkett in here with Springdale School District. He's a CTE ag teacher down there, but we get to be partnered up with his partner in crime today, mr Rodney Ellis, who is the workforce training director, and we mentioned you a bunch in that in that first podcast. I know it's not out yet, but, um, you guys can catch all those episodes at bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom completely free there. Uh, if you're listening from one of your streaming platforms, give us a follow or rating at the end of the show. Guys, appreciate you being here, pleasure you seriously. Um, like I said, guys, we're going to be continuing talking about cte, as it's commonly referred to as an acronym, but continued education and what these gentlemen have been doing, and chad acts at the student level and rodney more at the, I guess, financial budgetary program setting strategy. What else Other hats?
Speaker 2:We're just going with the boss.
Speaker 1:The boss. So basically they're a dynamic duo and you have two gentlemen that are extremely passionate about the same thing. They have no problem sitting here sharing that. They do butt heads, carrying the same passion through what they're doing. But they are doing something that I wish every single high school in America would do, and they are giving young. This is 16 to 18, can they get in? What age? Can they get in? Freshman, sophomore, or is this like a junior senior?
Speaker 3:thing. Well, actually we've got them coming in as seventh and eighth graders now, so we've got them starting on some small skill trade courses. So we're trying to really ramp up to those lower grade levels. Wow, we've got some little exploratory courses that are actually offered to our fourth and fifth graders that's so cool.
Speaker 1:Why? Why would you not start getting that motor skills movement already? You know For sure. And so by the time they're graduating I kind of went off the last previous episode and if you haven't checked that out, make sure you do but they have from robotics, welding to ammonia, refrigeration to diesel shop, cdl school, heavy equipment school all at this grade level school. This isn't college, and past this is right there in the high school district. Now we're talking about in the junior high, middle school region, getting some fine motor skills started. Like there is not enough programs in this country that are putting out actual employees into the local workforce, that are skilled trades and blue-collar minded folks that actually have skills. Osha 30, what's some of the other certifications that they're coming out with? Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So we work with various you know organizations APAC, rogers Hunt Group. You know we do MSHA, we look at industrial safety training. I mean we're constantly looking at anything we can add. So we try to give them as many certifications, skill sets. You know wastewater or stormwater.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Operator licenses within municipalities, because each municipality has their own qualifications, so we look for anything we can get. A kid, we wanted to have as many different experiences so they translate that into hitting the ground, running and making people money it's crazy and you guys are actually delivering them as soon as they come out of high school.
Speaker 1:you're working with the local companies you mentioned, including Saigon Excavation and Utilities. I'm really hoping this semester we crank out the first employee for us over summertime. So I'm looking forward to that and got my eyes on a few already. But I've spent some time down there and I'm completely passionate, of course, about bringing these skilled trades and bridging the gap between education and workforce. And that leads us right into our first kind of segment here. Gentlemen, I'll let you guys take it away. There is such a gap and I understand, as you have explained this to me, rodney, is like there was such a gap from where your workforce, where you're, uh, where you were at previously, with your employer, and then you work with the school programs to kind of fill those roles. Right, talk about yeah.
Speaker 3:So really I got to give some kudos to dr cle Cleveland, our superintendent. He saw this four years ago and really wanted to stamp our district. There's a huge gap, you know you're talking about credentialing, but in the skill sets and we're turning out and developing a human product. We want that product to go out and be successful in the workplace, in society, in our community. So our goal to bridge that gap is to work with employers just like Sycon or we're working with Naviholts, or if we work with an industrial maintenance employer, how can we take what you need from that employee side, from the technical skill to the soft skill, and bridge the gap to education.
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, in my opinion, education kind of went off on the track, more towards a lot of white collar high academic areas, which doesn't really fit the need for service oriented skilled trades, all the other pieces that overlap that in our society. So as our districts move forward, over the last working towards four years, nowad had been on the ground doing this for a long time. Other teachers live in our district. I just came along and tried to put some pieces together along with a lot of other people. Where we're going to work with a you as an employer si's going to tell us hey, this is a skill set that I need. We take that back. We try to incorporate that into our training. So you stamp it and you know, at the end of the day, this is something we're going to get that we can take to the field.
Speaker 1:That's literally every small business owner or large employee or company's dream literally coming out with. I still have guys that makes me so mad when I said, hey, are they OSHA 30 certified? They're coming out out of high school. I still have guys that I have paid for two or three rounds of OSHA training to get done on their computer that they take home with them, and I still can't get it. I mean, it's, it's, it is crazy. And you mentioned soft skills too, and I got to witness that, from clocking in, clocking out to what other kind of soft skills we it's. And I and I got to witness that from clocking in, clocking out to what other kind of soft skills we're talking so I think, uh, communication right, how, that's a big piece.
Speaker 3:and you mentioned earlier, before we started the podcast, the business side, more towards an entrepreneurial slap um slant of this where students who go into these positions, you know they may be going from zero to 20 bucks an hour. So how do I learn how to budget, how can I take those skills, along with clocking in, showing up to punctuality, communicating effectively, being coachable and approachable, so that I can take those skill sets and then hone in on the business side so that I'm going to make a better employee for you, who's looking out for your profitability, the long-term piece of myself as an employee in your company. So all those things we're trying to work on on a day-to-day basis of how we can make our students better and more productive, that's so cool.
Speaker 1:Like just honest to God, like I wish. I don't know how many is there in the state of Arkansas other than Springdale that you know of.
Speaker 3:Well, there's pockets. I mean there's pockets across the state that do a good job. You know we've got some up in our region and I think probably what happens collectively is, you know, we get into Friday night light syndrome sometimes, which I think we could benefit more as a region of working cohesively. But you know we keep tabs on what we do. I don't really look at a lot of what other schools do, but I really try to focus on how we can get better, just like the day we met with you, si. If an employer comes to myself or Chadad, we're going to listen to what your needs are. We want to address those needs and we're going to be about skill performance, skill-based learning, how we can tie that to a certification if you need it, like osha 10 or osha 30, and then you know, obviously we want that student to graduate, perform academically, but we're trying to hit all those markers that's, it's.
Speaker 1:uh, I'm just sitting here thinking of all the stories and all the 18 to 22-year-old employee that comes to us and the accolades and the experience that one of your candidates that came through y'all's program like it's not even remotely close, like some of this stuff, I have to beg employee guys to clock in. Hey, three weeks later, clock in if you want. If you want a paycheck, you got to clock in. I got to know you were here and at the job. And then just some of the stories and it goes to show, I think, the mindset of these kids. It's not. And are you picking, handpicking these kids? Are they having to sign up? Kind of talk about that too.
Speaker 2:I mean some we recruit. But I'll just be honest with you, we take everybody. I mean we don't care, we want everyone. I mean if somebody's out there and they want to bring a kid, we want them. We don't care, you know, whatever limitations they may have. They'll be surprised that some parents thought their kids were really limited in areas, and we find them some of the best jobs because everybody has skill sets. There's a place for them to fit, you know. And back to what you were talking about, my tag in teaching. Teaching is multi-faceted one. I work for everybody that's watching the show. I'm paid by tax dollars, so I take it very seriously. I need to turn out a high quality product for the money that that the community pays me. We don't waste time. We're not wasting the children you don't, walk, you don't.
Speaker 2:We want to get the walk done. The other thing is, as I transition kids out of mindset, they share the ownership, so they know exactly what my budget is. They know what the budget of every project we work on is. They know barn rates. They know how much that tank of diesel costs, steel fencing costs, because at the end of the day, if they can't translate that into you as an employer or any other employer is not making money, then how are they going to stay employed? And so they have to take ownership in that.
Speaker 2:And then you know really the last facet I want to just talk about before they leave. I make them do a real world budget and I'm not talking some nonsense. I've got a spreadsheet that they have to go through. They have to fill out everything. I want to know an apartment they can rent that day. I want to know a vehicle that they own and they're going to buy that day. They need to know how much their smokes are going to cost. You bet, but you know how much their vapes are going to cost.
Speaker 2:Nobody wants to talk about that, but the reality is, if they can't pay their bills and they have all this stuff stacked up on them, then they have all this stuff stacked up on them, then they become a broken person and they're not a productive employee. So we talk through all these things. We're trying to bridge the gap of transitioning, because it's a big enough shock as it is and nobody wants to talk about those things. No, but the reality is they're going to have biases and sometimes talking about the bias on the front end prevents the bias. That might be so, but they've got to understand how much it's a money to a business. But you know, they got to understand I have a bunch of money. They can't afford gas and they're having nicotine withdrawals.
Speaker 1:They're not going to be productive. Well, that's every blue collar you get at one point. But think about it if they had somebody like y'all self. They're at 17, 18 years old. Do you know what a budget is? No, I ain't got a clue?
Speaker 2:Will you talk what you know what a budget is? No, I ain't got a clue. Will you talk? What they do is these budgets. Man, they'll have a $6,500 budget and a $2,500 paycheck and I was like what do I do? They literally don't know what to do and it's like you're going to start trimming some fat. You're going to be like I was as a kid when my dad got laid off from Jones Truck Line, dumped all those mechanics in there.
Speaker 1:We killed a lot of deer that way. That was probably us. I mean, you do what you got to. I think there's so many members of this audience probably listening to this and going oh my gosh, where was this 15, 14, 40 years ago? I guess it was a thing back when did this kind of program just kind of stop Because I hear about it a thing. Back when did this kind of program just kind of stop Because I hear about it all the time? Well, back when CHOP was a thing, we learned all this, you know.
Speaker 3:I think that you should call it industrial arts. Back in the day, you know, in the 60s I'm not sure the exact original date, right Transition to the 70s and 80s. And in the 90s, you know, as computers came about, we got really smart. We're going to all be white collar. Everybody had to have a college degree and you know I've heard um, some people say you can't outsource service and we can't to survive as a nation. And so now we've transitioned, you know, I would say, from the 90s to the 2000s.
Speaker 3:You know Chad's seen this in his career, I've seen it in mine. We've really created some generational deficiencies where you know the Internet, for example right, I've heard the term disciples of the Internet. You know you're going to go down the rabbit hole and get all that right answers, but we're trying to really develop complex problem solving. You hear that a lot it's functioning, it's everyday function. Doesn't matter what role you're in, what jobs you're in, as chad does a tremendous job. A lot of our staff do trying to hone these skills in and bridge this gap where you need. When you see it as a business owner, you see it from where you stand every day that you were in high school. Now in this role, you know, you see the business skills that you needed. So, in education, instead of, you know, really transitioning to everyone's white collar, you know, survive off of AI and all these other things.
Speaker 3:Back to Chad's point. If we can take hone in our skill sets, make you productive, just like that budget piece, just like the technical piece. You know, you're still 17, 18. You got some maturation you got to do, but you have employees walking off the street who have to mature. Oh, so the more experience we can give them. And we've got some hungry kids who are already working fast food retail. So why not offer them technical training that can fit your bill, fit their bill at the end of the day? And now they're going to walk into a higher paying level. We're starting to bridge that gap where education, in my opinion, should meet what your community needs in a workforce skill development perspective, but then also in that productive citizen. You know, and I think in some areas we've slipped, but we're really trying to turn that ship back and get on course yeah, no, 100 you guys are, and it's the, the little things at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I can. I can tell you endless stories for hours on end about employees that need to mature in a various sense, and I've still got leadership within my company right now that there is things they could mature on, there's things I could mature on, there's no doubt about it. But it's just crazy to imagine what having and I'm really excited for when school's up, to be honest with you, and we're going to have plenty of need for some good workers come summer time I'm really really excited. But the next thing I kind of really want to talk about is that a lot of these maybe I'm completely wrong here, but a lot of their perceptions walking in to the classroom, maybe day one, day two, they're you know, ah, is this really maybe just here to kill time, whatever it is, but is there a perception about it that, oh well, this is cool, but can I actually do you change their perception about the money? I guess you would say, because, to your point, rodney, I have watched it go through.
Speaker 1:I remember when the first Macintosh computer and I went to elementary school in Canada, so it was a little bit different version than here, but it was in the 90s. I watched this big bubble thing come in. We were going to all type on the computer and everything was great and everybody was going by color. My entire I went to school right here. Alumni rogers I didn't there was, I was part of f.
Speaker 1:Uh, ffa back then weren't allowed loud much rogers at that time you know what I mean. Everybody was you're going to college, you're going to college, you're going to college. I'm like boys, I barely made it through high school, I'm not going to college. Y'all are crazy. And so did I have any idea, uh, when I made that moment, uh, move, that decision in that moment that I would end up here doing any of what I'm doing now? No, I had no idea about any of that, um, but my perception of the trades from that moment, just walking through school and how I was, I don't know, should we say indoctrinated to think, um, you know of, there's only one option when you leave here.
Speaker 1:There there wasn't classes. Uh, this would have been. I graduated on nine, so this would have been that 2000 area like you were speaking of. They really started to make you trickle back. Oh, did you hear about this welding class? Or you can go off site here and meet this, and it was kind of a pain, more or less to put a part of your day.
Speaker 1:And I was in the workforce program my senior year. So I would have like ate all of this up and tried to. I would have been in the mechanic side trying to learn, because I am a terrible mechanic. I can diagnose things through the phone better than I can do anything. Um, and that's not much diagnosed, is it okay? That's some brakes or wheelbarrow and feller, just driver's shop, you know. But what I'm trying to get out long a long story short. There's, uh, many folks make fun of me for saying but that perception about trade jobs. You know what I mean. Um, from that college degree. When they walk in, all right, is this really what percentage, would you say, to get into this question when they first walk through the door that what percentage are actually taking this seriously, going to make a career about this because money is their ultimate mind made up. And what's the percentage of meh I'm just here for here, when?
Speaker 2:they enter. Well for me uh, you know it may sound arrogant, there's no arrogance in it's, just established a track record 20 plus years. People know who I am. I'm the guy that kind of you know. They'll say that you know they. I might fight you one day and then I'll be paying for your grandma's funeral.
Speaker 2:Make that a little reputation, yeah but the point being is, they know I'm the guy that's going to help them get ready to find a job. Yeah, and I'll invest in them and I'm going to be very real and hard on them because you know you don't get good by having wig-minded people, you know, and you don't get good by having wig-minded people, you know. And so iron sharpens iron. Yes, sir, they've got to be challenged, they've got to be held accountable. I hold myself to the same standards, you know show up early, work hard, stay late, always do what you say. And so for me, they all know and they all come wanting.
Speaker 2:The problem that I face, you know, as of late and it's kind of always been there is people struggle in today's society to have grit. And so teachers, parents, man, it's not easy. Students grind because men have to grind and women, I mean, it's both. My wife's been a teacher for, you know, 25 years. She grinds every day, thank you. It's tough, yeah, but it's tough.
Speaker 2:My dad, you know, he's a decent mechanic, 55 years grinding every day. He goes psych. He worked for two companies jones truck line and pam transport, ptsi ground. You know, after the rain cords grind every day. And you know you gotta have a mindset. You know, uh. You know, rodney and I, we but it's pretty often because you're not. You're not going to achieve anything societally or in an organization. If you've got weak-minded people, that's right and we have to challenge one another to come to the greater good. But at the end of the day, teaching those kids, you can't throw a towel in. I'm going to be there every day. It doesn't matter how you get chewed up and spit out, but you'd be there tomorrow and you worked just as hard as you did the day before. And so all my come in. They know what's expected of them. They know if they put the work in, we're going to partner them with an employer.
Speaker 2:The cool thing about me now at this point is I've worked with enough employers. I know what employers like and the employers trust me enough to say this kid has personality and skill set. That fits what you like. Some. You know, uh, like. I may have a kid as a hard worker, but it's pretty immature, likes to joke around. That fits real well with some companies. Other companies, they're not gonna put up with that. They want to. They want a 65 year old man. That's in an 18 year old spot. I have some. I have some of that, but you know that's that's kind an 18-year-old body. That's true, I have some of those. But you know, that's kind of matchmaking for all mine. But all I know they're going to come in.
Speaker 2:They want to do blue collar because I mean I've shown them they see it every day. I say it said it last time, I can go do a blue collar job and I do. I build stuff. You know I did a blue collar job and I do build stuff. You know I had a roofing job a couple summers ago from my 12 year old. You know we worked 21 days straight, 18 hours a day and you know what he found was at the end of that he had burnt, sold off his shoes, he was blistered. But he had six thousand dollars in his pocket after taxes, because he was a 12 year old and it's like dad, we make so much money. It's like I don't know what you want to do this every day.
Speaker 2:But the point is you get a little taste of, you learn it. And I could still go. I could go. You know I got a little backhoe of my own. I can go dig settings for buddy.
Speaker 2:Matt does concrete this weekend we can put in four house fittings in a day and make more than I make the school in a month, but there's worthwhile work to be done with these kids and to bridge the gap, because, at the end of the day, you know you can't gripe about a problem and not be part of the solution, and we're helping people At the end of the day, when they're throwing dirt in our face. At the end of this life, what will you let happen, let behind? Well, the legacy is, you know, is your name going to remember with the one generation or two generations, or is it going to be? You know how many people dad always said you know how good a job you did in this life, how many people show up at the funeral? And so you know, it's about giving back. We want to. We want to provide a quality product for industry partners and we, we need industry partners.
Speaker 1:Legacy isn't about what you leave behind. It's what you leave behind in those folks. For sure. That's right. You know what I mean and I didn't quite say that, quite right. But when I read it the first time on LinkedIn a couple weeks ago, I didn't come up with that by any means. I was sitting there going well, that kind of changes my mind about some things.
Speaker 1:For sure, a lot of times you're sitting there so hypercritical of myself and I think anybody that is in the entrepreneurial mindset is and get a little down on myself sometimes. But then I remember I walk up and my team hey, how's the kids? How's this? Pick up a conversation, work's getting done, and they care about you know what I mean and I care about them and they know that if, for a fact, they call me at 2 am, they call me at 5 am, it don't matter, I'm gonna be there. And so I think, uh, that legacy, that legacy word is I've watched you with your kids and I've watched both of you, and the passion you have with it was, um, I don't even know the right word for it. Honestly. It was, it was, uh, inspiring would probably be the best word and it made me want to do more and get involved, because it's like, oh my god, I've been talking about this for years. Why isn't anybody?
Speaker 2:well, it's right here under my nose and something else people think these kids are done. They can read somebody in five seconds. You can't fake caring about somebody. You can't fake loving somebody, and that's something else I brought back. Most of these kids have ever been told they've been loved. You know, I tell every one of them every day I don't love, yeah, like that, and you will be surprised at how it changes the climate. Because grown men need to look at young people. Yeah, tell them they love and mean it. Yeah, and that's what, proud of the world's perverted, the word what, yeah, you know, love means holding accountable, expect a lot out of care, make sure they're doing okay. Today I split, split my. I had an old burrito. I split it with a kid. He's going through a tough time, but you know what? You don't know how much that picked him up Right and so, and then when you know he goes to work for you or one of our other great partners in the world Sarton Saul, you know that's going to be.
Speaker 1:That was ingrained in his mind. Somebody cared about me, wanted to eat and he'll offer somebody half of his sandwich or whatever it's. Uh, it's funny, it's, it's the little things. It's so silly. But caring about your team is everything. And starting them off, um, from the love and the care side of it, because it's a little brutal when they walk out there, but they're, I've seen your tough loves and you know what I mean. It's not, it's when he says he loves them. It's not audience. I'm not talking about like nurtured. Oh, you guys, you got this. And he, he hands out those pat on the backs. But I see a lot more. Hey, gidgee, come on, that was they earn it yeah, they do.
Speaker 3:That's the thing about chad and some of our other instructors I mean mean specifically to Chad. He's teaching them life 101. And we're the culling ground for that and that's part of what your tax dollars pay for. You don't know that. You're getting it sometimes because you know education is always outlined in a book for us people. I grew up on farm still farm. You know we both come from really strong work backgrounds, work ethics. We worked at other places outside of education. Mine started out as a mechanic background, still do all that. So I think that also helps bring pieces of that to the table. And you ask about exposure. You know how do we get kids interested? Well, that word, they don't know what they don't know. So how do we expose them? You know, bring you in, we bring other partners in.
Speaker 2:We got to go out and buy summer camps summer camps get a little kid, I mean you get. Yeah, we had some second graders welding summer for us these guys do.
Speaker 3:I mean that's a good day. They aren't. I guess they're there every day. Yeah, you got ready, ready to learn more? Yeah, and that's the things we have to do to expose parents and students, because I think you know, again, we got into this mindset that everyone was going to college and we're still fighting that mindset, even in our internal systems and the message is starting to shift. But that paradigm, you know, back to early 2000s for you, I'd say some, even some advantages came with um. You know a famous guy named mike rowe um who really got it. You all preached it, yeah, and so in other people you know, here you are, and so I think to that.
Speaker 3:You know there's a rebranding going on for skilled trades and and that's a goal we put a good old work ethic that's needed and I think there's a lot of pieces in place. We're trying to be a part of that puzzle for our students. We got a lot of kids again who are already working. So how can we take this and this training, show you what's out there? Because you know, we've got to have equipment, we've got to have the trucks for the CDL, we've got to have the advanced manufacturing, industrial maintenance, we've got to have the robotics.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of things that we have to have in education to compete with other educational institutions, especially in the high school realm, but at the end of the day, to Chad's point, the more we can expose them, you know, not only to what's out there for you, but what it means to go to work, to have good work ethic, to be tough on them, to show them what life's about a little bit. Then when they come to you, if we can expose them enough, they'll come to you and they'll finish off. But they'll make that. You mentioned branding, you know, for psycon earlier. So you know, just based on that, self-fencing, yeah, so if we can take them to a job site where we can get them on a piece of heavy equipment, then that kid we're we're fishing with a thousand hooks a day. We're gonna catch some fish, you bet.
Speaker 1:So that's what we're at, that's and that's and it's super cool to hear you guys bring up the partnerships, um, that you guys have, not just from the putting the kids in place of work, but the partnerships and supplying the trucks, supplying this equipment, supplying the robotics in the industrial. Talk a little bit about that and give a few shout outs. If I would, I would really uh like to hear some, some of the local folks that you guys are working with I mean, I could go on all day long.
Speaker 2:Do it. Mars lecker, multi-craft mountain mechanical action mechanical mh. Macko, michael haythorne and my guy.
Speaker 2:You know we go down APAC, rogers-hungry, emory-sapp. We have NABOLTS. I was just talking to Sheila. She's an early recruiter there. Justin Clark's on the excavation side. Talked to both those folks yesterday. You know we've got just a pile of partners. You know I'm going to leave people off and I'm sorry. Cargill's been cargill. Tyson, uh you know. Slg, uh, george's arcolla, uh you know, like I said, murray, flying there in apac, he reinvented how we train cdl drivers. He took a chance on us. We said last week we are training. Every driver we trained went to work for them, with exception being one went to work for uh water, environmental joe reed hey, shout out to joe reed, they'll check out that episode if you haven't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, water environmental they invest us.
Speaker 2:I mean we could go down the list star mechanical supply, uh, rush truck centers, crane electric, crane electric. Yeah, josh crane, I taught him when I was at harbor. He's hired our kids left and right and bands. He's a good dude. Yeah, he's ripped. All these people are great. I mean I and I'm sorry if I forgot you listen, you're invaluable to us. Jd manufacturing yeah, so I mean there's, there's a ton of Brewer-Lay, you know Dayco.
Speaker 3:Steelyard. It still works now, so they're coming in. I mean, our list would be NWA Steel Long.
Speaker 2:Yeah long. I mean we have an endless list of partners and you know, really the sky's the limit. I mean we need more partners, we want there to be a deficit of students to fill your positions, and I know there is right now. We just need you to come to the table and, like I said last week, you know, the most invaluable thing to me is my word. I'm going to do what I say and we'll provide you with a quality product. And you know, you just got to come see us.
Speaker 3:And I would add to that we want to know from our. We go out and we beat the street and beat the bushes trying to find little partners, because we want to come to you and say we're kind of like talent and acquisition on an education level. So, sir, what do you need from us? What can we offer? Here's what we show you, what we do. What can you take away from this and go put into place in your company? And so we want to come to the table as a willing partner and I'm not going to come asking you for money. We're going to try to do as much as we can.
Speaker 3:I think once you buy our product, that'll take care of itself and so you'll see, hey, this is worth investing in oh 100. And our goal is to provide you with that human capital that's going to grow our region and grow our state and grow our local economies. And if we can do, then people will come to the table. And that's what happens. You know you got people who kind of fold their arms or wait to see what we do. They go high school. I remember what I was without school, yeah. And so I think post-COVID really mashed the gas on opportunities for our students. It kind of broke that barrier of we're not even looking at you unless you're 18 to 21. Like Springdale Water Utilities, heath Ward, I give a shout-out to him Go to him. Age limit down from 21 to 18. They're hiring our kids. We work with ABC Contractors, agc. They're looking at youth apprenticeship. What is another big piece that we're looking at? We're preparing for Garrett.
Speaker 2:X, kevin Mechanicals, at youth apprenticeship. What is another big piece that we're looking at? So here's garrett x, I mean mechanicals 25 000 dollars from the pipe so we can start doing utilities. That's so awesome. So I mean everybody's coming to the tape and the cool thing about it is all these companies don't even realize you guys are working together, because every little piece y'all put together makes a more complete student right transitions into employee, because I mean they got some pot.
Speaker 2:Gary dex got some pot dalton oaks there, uh, evan davis the jar, super. They got some pipe that got out of date, yep, and they're like it's super expensive pot and we don't just want to throw it away, it's too good, but they're like we still got some of that in my yard right now donate it to us and guess what we then can get us at a old civil class from you.
Speaker 2:And we can still got some of that in my yard right now. Donate it to us and guess what. We then can get a set of old civil plants from you and we can put in whatever kind of pipe. We got that yard out there. So why are we not doing that? And that means that. So that'll be blinding you. Yeah, so we haven't gotten into the pipeline part of excavation and so this summer I'm going to spend all the time I can. I'm going to beg you I've already got an invitation for Gary and Apples. I want to come out and get in a ditch with you. We can do whatever waivers we need to do. We both love it. I'm going to install it. I want to do it. Two summers ago I put in HVAC. Last summer we did CDL heavy equipment stuff. I want to do the job for free for you so I know how to do it.
Speaker 3:Well, we really do, and that's at the end of the day. You know that we're serious, right, if we go sweat with you, you know we're real Sweat. Equity is odd in our world Also. That's where we take. We come to our industry partners again and you know the state education system. They try to do a lot of good. They'll have certification lists but that doesn't mean anything to you.
Speaker 3:We want to tie it to skill sets, yeah. So how can we better do that? You take pieces that you need. We can incorporate that into our training. So you know again, hey, this is stamped on by psychon. They're doing these things that we do out here every day. So I know I'm picking someone up. You know, just like apac did with us on the cdl, we, we basically stamped their program. Chad went through the training, murray klein and group took a great um, really leapt down and faked on us that we would do it. Now here we are. We're providing drivers and it's saving them a lot of money. Oh, strange out of. So, the more we can do and advertise that to our partners, it's a better product at the end of the day for you. It gives us really leverage from the standpoint of you just stamped us as a partner who's willing to provide you with a quality product, and we're going to tweak where we need to be as this industry changes to meet your needs.
Speaker 2:Go ahead. I just want to note, note you know he said it at the beginning but we could not do this as a school district without now a man that is willing to break the mold. That's dr jerry cleatline. He's willing to break the mold on how education is done and the school board that lead the way on how to do education different with state. We have a working school board. These people are ingrained in our society. They love northwest targets, all, but they love more over the children springdale and they give dr cleveland and us the opportunity to provide these programs. If it wasn't for dr cleveland we wouldn't have this, you know. So I can't thank him enough because I know we push the limits every day, because I push him, he pushes me and we both push educational leaders, because this is a weird way of doing education.
Speaker 3:And that administrative team that I work with Dr Cleveland's staff, the Chad's Palm School Awards. We scare them sometimes, to be honest with you what we're trying to do, but they realize they see we have opportunities at the school board meetings to bring our students up. They see what's happening. It's life-changing for our kids and at the end of the day that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 1:I have. If you haven't spent any time, if you can't, obviously, and you're not local or can't get in touch with Rodney or Chad, if you can't, obviously, when you're not local or um can't get in touch with rodney, rodney or chad, if you're local around here, I encourage you to get with them, spend a day with those kids. It literally changed a little bit of my heart and I was so. It gave me. You know what it gave me? It gave me hope. There is hope. It was hope. It was just hopeful because I can. I am that generation. I'm 33, 34 this year, so I still am that kind of that younger generation. Everybody talks about that we ain't good for nothing. I'm like guys I, if we had a little bit of training, a little bit of help before we got sent off into this world, it would have been a little bit easier I think, well, we can't sit around all the porches.
Speaker 2:you you know as old, old codgers and it's like this young generation, blah, blah, blah, blah, if you're not willing to get out there and work alongside them and listen. And kids haven't changed that much. No, they, they, they are the same as they always been.
Speaker 1:I was fixing to jump on the employers. I want to talk to you for just a second. You have to break the mold is a good way of putting it, chad, you can't just well them kids. They just ain't got a lot. Well, yes, they have changed, and they have changed in the way they learn and how they retain information I get. 82% of global web traffic is video intake through the internet. Maybe employers maybe start changing that training program that you've had in place for 40 years if you can't retain somebody younger and that's the mold that I've been willing to kind of push the button on Definitely needed to work on our own internal training programs, um, but I have retained the younger generation, like most of my guys that have been with me in that two to four year realm out of the nine years we've been a thing, um, these guys are anywhere from 23 to 30 years old, like, and they come from.
Speaker 1:One guy was from, uh, the pool industry in California. Never laid, really, other than a little bit of plumbing PVC and another kid. Can't call him a kid. I used to babysit him as a kid. That's why I call him a kid, so no offense, and you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Came from Red Robin as a host, had no idea about pipeline, but he fell in line with a good crew that cared about him, showed him the right way. And I tell every single one of my people all the time this is the mindset I have with my crews, admin team, I don't care who it is, I'll never get mad at you for something you don't know, because it's my job. It's my job to train you. And timeout Is this a big enough thing that I really need to go? Whoa? Why do you not know this? There is definitely a cog in the wheel, because how long have you been here? You've been here two years. You should know this. Now you've been here 60 days. Totally understand If there's a mistake that comes from that. That could have easily been avoided with a little bit voided, with a little bit Just the amount of times that okay, red Robin host, it wouldn't have took him two years to get where he's at if he had just a little bit of this background.
Speaker 1:And I can't even imagine you sitting out there digging a ditch, a straight ditch, set by your GPS points off your silver print Heck. Well, I hope you build a model, if you want so they can use it on their GPS bond and lay that stuff out, that utilities, and then watch this stuff get put in the ground. I would be honored to show them how to bolt up a T, bolt up a hydrant, any of that Run a service line, from how our water comes from the main line to the service line. I think you guys start in uh, pipe laying school, let's call it a part of that. I think you'll be having spring of water.
Speaker 1:You'll be having all of us boys, garrett x, myself we're all gonna be fighting after him because that is a such a dying trade and if you didn't spend any time in the municipalities, like I did myself, to even learn about oh, what do you mean? There's water and sewer. People need to maintain and distribute and treat all this where it wasn't even an option. You know I was supposed to go to college, you know, so, um, I just wanted to highlight that. But what when you guys, you got to talk a little bit about the future? Like it's astonishing what you have done with the program, what you're turning. You're doing exactly like you guys said you would do. Shout out to Dr Cleveland and the Springdale School Board for allowing this to even get to what it is today, but can you share anything about what you think the future of this program looks like, and a little bit not only that the future of skilled trades, as programs like this get picked up through the? What I would like?
Speaker 2:to do is segment out our training programs to where students would actually start visiting with potential employers when they're 10th or 11th grade. And we do just like what Murray Klein pioneered we provide a very detailed set of training guidelines for that kid. So a kid might declare they're going to be a utility, you know working utilities, or they're going to be an electrician, or they're going to work in industrial, you know maintenance, and we already have some of these things in place. But we specifically provide training on the needs that you would need. So whatever kind of pipe that you're running today and whatever kind of the primary utility you know you're running, then we would provide a psychospecific training module that they would do exactly what you want. We would utilize your in-house training. We'd obviously sell it. I'm sure it's proprietary, but that's what I see. It's like Murray broke the mold. We do SMG Russ Kirkpatrick. He came from a long line of trucking training. He was training Tyson before he moved to APAC. Oh wow, he started the CDL program at NW.
Speaker 1:TR.
Speaker 2:No. Northwest Arkansas Community College oh, I'm sorry so Russ's training is so detailed and so it transitions into any of them. I mean, we send these kids out. If somebody else is looking at them it's like golly, we didn't know the air brake test like this, and so that's what we want, that's what I foresee. The next thing is, you know, I just want to get in more career areas where I have gaps in learning, so I can accurately depict.
Speaker 2:You know, if I'm not out doing the job, I don't know what's going on, and I've always hated about people that quit learning. Like, well, I plumbed 20 years. Well, coming 20 years ago is different. You, you know, and I stay on the cutting edge of that too. I mean, if it's something that's going on, I have a lot of the same plumbing tools that modern plumbers use every day. Now we have to have those in our shop. I own those personally, and so it's constantly, you know, changing the paradigm of how we educate, and I have to to constantly learn, and I like learning. Life's boring if you're not trying to add a new cog to the wheel.
Speaker 1:Or fix the cog yeah.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of that. But I want partners to come to the table, say this is what I want, let me go do it with them a little bit. And this is where we push the school board and I push Ronnie a little more. He's got to give me a day or two to go get in a ditch. I'll lay in the butthole, I don't care. And so I think over time we'll get more people involved.
Speaker 3:I think you're right. Well, just to tap into that I think that you asked it earlier you know we're exposing, we're branding, and also to this piece like the future. So we've got great partnerships. Another partner that I didn't mention earlier is department of commerce, arkansas office of skills and development. The best and they've worked with us on a lot of these, or some of the reasons they do is because they know that we deliver. And I think, to Chad's point, you know how can we engage and why I ask in partners. Again, you know, like you're the subject matter expert at PsyCon, you came and spent a day and that's what Chad's basically saying If we get you in, you come spend some time with us. You know, here's the biggest thing we see when we're installing pipe. Here's our biggest problem. Right, our kids learn that. Um, we spent a day. Chad took his students to over to the springdale engineering team at the city working on permitting and grading. So we got our hands slapped a little bit, but it's a good lesson for us to learn. We were all legal.
Speaker 2:It was good. Those girls out last week I'm doing our weekly, you know we had to do. Every time it rains we had to throw water, just some water, and then they surveyed and then we were around and I mean I told them they're the boss. They zinged me. They're like we don't have enough T-posts in and they're like we need T-posts. So I was like, well, I'll get on. They're like you need to get on it or you need to get your boss on it, and that's what you want. You don't want somebody that's forgetting to do it and then the inspector shows up and then they're calling you the boss, man, and you've got things to do. You're trying to make money, not get the inspector off your badge.
Speaker 3:That's engagement to me because it's like that example again of APAC. We've had other companies. Chris Chandler is a great partner with us, chandler Equipment. He'll come in show us a problem area. They've got some SMEs on robotics because they take robots. Chris will buy salvage robots and design the end of our tooling. He's got about 26 robots and they're manufacturing five different products. So we get that person who comes in and they work with us and we adopt that piece of training or we go and we learn that as an instructor that's really the rubber that meets the road at the end of the day. So then again, you know, as a psychon, hey, I put my stamp on it. These guys have been out here, they've spent time with our crews, they know how we do it. Then you know that we're teaching that every day. So that's going to really leverage our students when they go out in the world. We've got a product that people trust and at the end of the day I'm excited about where we're going.
Speaker 3:I think that education, there's people in it, like Dr Cleveland. Our school board Dr Cleveland has a lot of influence in the state of Arkansas. There's other schools out here. You know, you've got small little rural schools out here trying to get this done too, to keep surviving in their areas, and so, you know, how do we take these models and implement them across all these school districts for the state of Arkansas, and even you think about it from a national scale. So I think that education is trying to change. It takes a lot of work. We're changing perceptions about, you know, not everybody's college bound. You got kids out here who want to learn this, and how do we expose them to companies like you know the ones?
Speaker 3:We've listed, the partnerships, and at the end of the day, I think we're going to see that needle start to turn. You know, and we're in this, just great I mean, it's just providential, what we're in at Northwest Arkansas, and so really, for us, you know, we're in a land of opportunity, no pun intended. We truly are here. We want to meet those needs and we think that our recipe is working. We want your input on our recipe. You know, as a partner, how can we get better? I don't really care about the pat on the back, I'm just about how we get better every day, and we want to take, and, like Chad said, you know, nobody's getting rich in education. They're not getting rich at Saucon Utilities. We're out here trying to chip away every day and make us run, but if we can make a difference with these kids and their families and we've got parents who see this and there's parents who want to learn it, you know and if we can tap into that resource, the sky's the limit.
Speaker 2:I've got as many parents' jobs as I have kids. Yeah, you know, because you've got the contact relationships In fact, what he said I mean he's always supportive. You know, I've got to shout out to Rodney. You know, like I said, I think me and him fuss as much as we get along. But you know, like I said, you're not going to get anything done if you're not, uh, talking to people that are intelligent and passionate. People are passionate or you're going to disagree, uh. But you know, back to the point, we just got to be on the leading edge. Leading edge is getting people that do it every day in our realm. We got to get in the realm and then we got to provide a quality product. We have a lot of value too, and you know, just go back real quick where we see education is sometimes not something that we don't know about, sometimes it's bringing back. You know, he got, he got in uh, of all people, it's my father-in-law, he's a machinist and so we brought back manual mills and lathes.
Speaker 2:I got kids that if you had a machine down they could go in. They take a piece of bar stock or, you know, a tool, steel. They could turn you out a new pin. They could go in, weld out, turn that back out. And so what I'm saying is we brought back these old skills because you know, like Tyson, you know in their industrial maintenance division you know they'll have an old mill laid there. You take a kid that can go in there. I guarantee you there's about one person in there. We got a kid that can go in there. I guarantee you there's about one person in there. We got a kid. Go in there, throw that mill together. They could go in machine apart, have that machine back and running, saving thousands or millions of dollars a day to keep a plank running. So we're trying to. Sometimes it's not new, sometimes it's bringing back lost skill sets, millwright tool and die makers.
Speaker 3:They're like purple unicorns, right oh you can't find them. And that's what his father-in-law, dale broderick, from you know, 40 plus years experience, he's got a buddy who's actual tool and die maker. So you know how do we bring that in? Because those are skill sets still needed and keep those things going. And chad said we're just reviving some things you know, because technology can't cure all that. Those are hard skills that you can't duplicate. So if we can bring those back and meet those needs and I think that even helps us with our future.
Speaker 2:Ai does not AI and a computer does not. Get you a machine back and go on. Yeah, when you've got to order a part halfway across the world, if you've got somebody that can do it, that's on your three. Oh yeah, then you're not paying ten thousand dollars for some wizard to come out. You know, and thank goodness for those wizards, but you know, if you got an old kid that may be a knothead, he gets you back and go on and save you twenty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1:You're back to digging downtime is the biggest. Can't afford it. No, it's the biggest challenge in my world. But you're just turning kids out with some general common sense of the working industry and they can go any direction. They can even chase a little bit of a specialty before they're exiting, like these guys. I don't know if we mentioned caterpillar, but uh, we've, we've got to here because when I walked out there and if you guys haven't, you guys can go check out psyconis, y-c-o-n? Um on youtube and you can see a little bit of behind the story uh, exactly when we were out there, they were tearing down a chicken house. It went 308. Uh, d3 dozer, d2 dozer and skid steer 299, and you got your motor grade, yes, 120. That's so cool. I ain't got no motor grade.
Speaker 3:I got to shout out to Joe Chandler at Riggs and there's other people but Joe. I think he really came to us through the diesel program. He's our intruder, but that's also led us to this heavy equipment. Just another great partner. Again, we'll miss some, some, and there's no intent there to miss anyone, but you know there's. There's just we've got huge partnerships and great people who believe like we do and they want to invest in their students and what we're trying to do, just come see us.
Speaker 2:We do not know, I know very little about anything, but I'm willing to learn and we will train kids up to invest our ability to meet what you need for us education is expensive, but experience is priceless, that's right.
Speaker 1:And uh, yeah, man, I can't thank you guys enough. Last question of the day I ask everybody on every episode um, this is awfully, I guess, a little different coming from our topic of conversation today. But a word of encouragement for the blue collar worker who is just sick and tired of being stuck in the mud. And I want to add you guys are hitting it nail on the head and maybe I ask my own self, my own, this question, question today, because you guys are so focused, just individually in your programs about learning and move in that needle every single day, challenging yourselves to put yourself in a noncomplacent mode of how do I push this further? Any words of encouragement for that guy? Yep.
Speaker 2:You got to get up every day. That's right. You got to face the world. My wife says that every day. And then you can either be a bulldozer or you can get ran over. So I choose to be a bulldozer. I draw my head every day. I run and I just plow. And you got to plow. And if you keep plowing, it's just like what you talked about in your company keep plowing. It's just like what you talked about in your company. You don't get better by not working. You get better by doing repetition. You got to get up.
Speaker 2:I told my kids last night prayer prince. I've told every one of them they weren't turning out the quality of work that I expected. I wanted them to go home last night, take everything away and sit and look in a mirror for 10 minutes and you need to analyze everything, from your physical appearance to the biases, the habits you're doing, what you have done wrong. Forget what you've done wrong and don't do it anymore. Set a goal and achieve it. You've got to look in the mirror and really analyze. You've got to check out for a few minutes and check yourself. I wish I knew this every day. I carried that much when I was 17.
Speaker 2:Every day I ain't going to lie to you I already do and you, I carried that march when I was 17. Every day, I ain't going to lie to you, I already do. Then you've got to tackle it and you're going to get kicked in the mouth. Every day, people are going to stand on your throat and guess what? You get up the next day and you do it again and over time. Over time, you'll get better. Can't quit learning. You've got to be constantly striving to be better.
Speaker 2:You're never going to get about if you're going home every day and you just woe is me and you're laying on. Okay, or you're strolling tiktok, or you have a bias of drinking, I have a smoking, whatever it may be. You're not doing anything for yourself. Okay, you've got to dig deep. Opportunities are waiting, but you got to be there and so no, woe is me. I think we feel sorry for ourselves too much. I agree, we live in the land of milk and honey. Yeah, the worst day that I've had in my entire life. There are people on this planet begging for it. That's right, they're begging for it. So what do we have to be whining about? Just get up, smile, have a good day, positive attitude, analyze yourself, dig deep and doze away.
Speaker 2:Man I needed that I was taking more than anybody. It's the truth, man. I mean I've had a lot of down days, but you know it really came to me a few years back. My mom was dying at the midshipmen and you know there were some times I'd have to give her baths and stuff. I did things that no son should have to do, because you're not mentally geared to do that for your own parent, especially of the opposite sex, and it humbled me to the point that I realized I don't have anything on this planet to be whining about. I create my own destiny through getting up, being positive and working hard, and that's what we try to instill in kids every day. It's not fun, life's not fun, but you sure have a great time. My dad always said the fairest place you take your pig to show. And mom always said give me diet. So you better get out there and get to work.
Speaker 1:Well, I got to say, guys, it has been such a pleasure sitting here talking about a program that not many have any clue about. It was right here underneath my nose and I've been. You know, I need to get myself out there more, I guess, but I don't have much time, but I don't know what's going on. But, guys, if you've loved this episode, make sure you've checked out bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom. Watch and listen for free right there from the webpage or you should be listening to us, I'm assuming from maybe Spotify, iheart, amazon or Apple. Ensure that you give this episode a follow and a rating. Guys, chad Ronnie, thank you. We appreciate you, appreciate you Seriously. I really do. Guys, chad Ronnie, thank you, appreciate you, appreciate you, and I mean I'm really excited to see after summer I think we'll have another conversation sit down and kind of see what this year has transpired to, because I really want to stay updated and I think the audience will too, so sure, look forward to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I appreciate you till next time, guys.
Speaker 1:Be good. If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like. Share it with the fellers. Check out our website to send us any questions and comments about your experience in the blue-collar business. Who do you want to hear from? Send them our way and we'll do our best to answer any questions you may have. Until next time, guys.