Communities Grow Together on Elevate Springfield spotlighting CACC

Summary

In this episode, Robert discusses the Capital Area Career Center (CACC), a vital institution for career and technical education in Springfield. He highlights its history, the evolution of its programs, and the importance of partnerships with local businesses to create a skilled workforce. CACC offers hands-on training in various fields, providing students with the opportunity to earn credentials and college credits while still in high school. The conversation emphasizes the significance of CACC in shaping the future workforce and supporting local businesses.

Takeaways

• CACC provides innovative career and technical education.
• The center has evolved significantly since its inception in 1966.
• Hands-on training is essential for workforce readiness.
• Students can earn industry credentials and college credits.
• CACC partners with local businesses to create job opportunities.
• The center offers a variety of programs in high-demand fields.
• Community support has been crucial for CACC's growth.
• CACC helps students discover their talents and career paths.
• The importance of skilled trades is increasingly recognized.
• CACC plays a vital role in local economic development.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we'll dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, Springfield, time to 10X your day, yo. Time to level up, time to crush it. Hey, you are listening to the Elevate Springfield podcast, Robert Farrell here, Surf 10X coach, speaker, and mentor. Here to bring you actionable strategies. You bring the discipline and follow through it together. We're gonna Elevate Springfield. Well, you are listening to another segment of Communities Grow Together on the Elevate Springfield podcast. As you know, we drop these segments each week. The Communities Grow Together segment will touch on all things nonprofit associations and how we as a community are working together so we can all grow together. This segment is brought to you by David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency over on West Wabash. Whatever you need insurance-wise, whether that's business, life, home, auto, or anything in between. Hey, David and his team can take care of you. Give them a shout, or hey, stop by and visit them over on West Wabash. These segments are quick hits of actionable strategies and what's going on in our area to help you level up and grow together. Be right back after the break. Looking for personalized insurance with hometown care, David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agent is here to help you protect what matters most: your family, your home, and your dreams. Whether it's auto, home, life, business, David and his team are proud to serve the Springfield community with trusted advice and reliable coverage. Local service, real relationships, peace of mind. Call today or stop by their office. They can build your dream protection plan together. Call 217-726-6343. And we are back for another edition of Communities Grow Together, brought to you by David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency. Hey, anything you need insurance-wise, David and his team can take care of you. Give them a shout. Or just out by their office over on West Wabash. So, hey, today, solo episode with yours truly. I want to talk about something that uh just on the south end of town. Uh, there's a building out there that many of you guys might not know what it is. I feel like it's become a lot more prominent here recently over the last handful of years or so, but hey, it is still considered a hidden gym to some. It's a place where high school students can spend half their day maybe rebuilding an engine, framing a wall, writing code, stuff that uh businesses in this area can actually use. And that place is Capital Area Career Center. You know, if you've listened to the show, that's a place that's near and dear to my heart. So today I want to talk to you a little bit about what it is, how it came to be, and some of the offerings that we have out at the center right now. So we've talked on the show before about workforce pipeline with different folks. We've talked to a lot of different business owners. We've talked to them about some of their struggles with staffing and some of their successes with staffing. One of the big things CACC, your Capillaria Career Center, can help out with is some of that pipeline to our local businesses. And you know, I am passionate about local business here in Springfield. So let's start with what CACC is: Capillary Career Center. CACC is a career and technical education center. Think of it as a shared school that a whole group of local districts, basically all the districts in Springfield and the surrounding communities, can send their students to. Those students spend half the day at CACC and half the day at their local high school, which may be one of the Springfield 186 schools like Springfield High Southeast Lanfier, could be Glenwood, could be Rochester, Springfield, New Berlin, Pleasant Plains, or basically anywhere within about 25 to 30 miles of Springfield City Center. And what they come to CACC for is to train in a specific field, hands-on, real equipment, real instructors who came out of the industries in which they are teaching these students to be successful in. So the mission of CACC is to provide innovative career and technical education to the local school districts and the communities they serve. And their vision is to be the premier choice for career and technical education in this region. But I think the core beliefs can really hammer it home as well. CACC believes that career and technical education is the first step toward workforce readiness. They believe every student should get the chance to explore their own path, guided by experienced staff, business partners, and community organizations. We've talked to so many different business owners, so many different community leaders about their path, some of which went to CACC. But that path, guided by experienced people and mentors, is so vitally important. And that is what CACC can provide. Also believe in teaching real personal and professional skills, the kind that actually show up on the job. We all know in the in any industry, those professional skills, whether it be communication, leadership, teamwork, all those different things, how vitally they important they are to your business, to your culture at your business, and ultimately to the success of your organization. They also believe at CACC in skills-based hands-on training using today's technology and an environment that is inclusive for every student. So that is really the bread and butter of CACC, that skills-based hands-on training, giving students real life application that they can take into the workforce directly after high school or into a post-secondary education environment. A lot of the folks that we've talked to on the show talk about those hands-on skills that they have developed. And really, CTE career and technical education has become a big buzzword around the country. This conversation around trades, around apprenticeships, about the cost of a four-year degree versus a skill you can build a life on immediately after high school. CACC, Capillary Career Center, has been doing that in our area for over 50 years and currently have just shy of 1,300 students, have 120 some adult LPN students, and another large, and another 50 or so adult cosmetology or barbering students. So let's go back to the beginning. The roots of this place of CACC go all the way back to 1966 and 67 school year. Back then it was called the Springfield Area Vocational Center, and it was only one of only seven charter centers in the entire state of Illinois. Opened with 192 students and got over a thousand more today, folks. So it's grown significantly. It opened with seven courses and five participating districts. Now you look at that today, we have 20 programs, 15 participating districts, and 25 schools that actually attend CACC. And the original building back in the 60s used to be an automobile dealership that they remodeled into a school. And it grew fast, though. CACC grew fast that needed to get out of that space. In 1969, they moved to the old Faichians High School building. Who remembers Faichins are from around here if you've been in Springfield for a while? Expanded to 16 occupational areas and brought that adult LPN programming under their umbrella. And it's been with CACC ever since. Throughout the 70s, it continued to grow, but at that point they knew they needed a bigger space. So really the community did something pretty remarkable in the mid-70s. So in October of 1973, voters across 14 participating communities passed a bond referendum to fund a brand new center. The state of Illinois covered 60% through the Capital Development Board, and the local communities chipped in the other 40%. Citizens, advisory committees, school staff all working together to build something great in Springfield for the next generation. And they broke ground in August of 1975. And the doors officially opened for instruction in September of 1977, and it has been at that location ever since and is currently still sitting at that location at 2201 Toronto Road. If you're ever heading out to Lincoln Land or UIS and you look off to the north and you see that building there with the solar panels and a small windmill, and you're wondering, hey, what is in that building there? It's actually a pretty large building, about 200,000 square feet. That is Capital Area Career Center. Since then, it had its ups and downs. Of course, enrollment continued to grow. That first year at the new center, there were about 1,200 students. But then as more districts experienced budget cuts and policy moved more toward post-secondary education rather than career and technical education, CACC did see a drop in enrollment throughout the 2000s. But oh hey, over the last six years, CACC has doubled in enrollment to that number of just shy of 1,300. Like we just talked about, the highest number was last year that CACC has ever had in its history. So we are doing some great things in the Springfield area for students at CACC. In 2020, CACC opened the Capillary School of Cosmetology. That's where you can earn your cosmetology license. You can start that as a high school student, but we also offer it to adults that uh just want to come in that had no experience in the high school program. And since then, the barbering option has been added to that as well. So let's get into a little bit about what some of the high school programs are, because this is where it really starts to hit home for students. So first, there's the skilled trades area. This could be building trades, welding, HVAC and electrical systems, automotive technology and servicing. These are careers that are in high demand right now. Companies are out there searching for folks with these skills. You walk out of a welding or HVAC program with a credential, and you can step right into a job that pays well. You can move anywhere you want and is not going anywhere right now. Outside of that, there's aviation, barbering, cosmetology, culinary arts, digital media, early childhood education, electronics and engineering, engineering for high tech, which is a partnership with University of Illinois Springfield, where University of Illinois Springfield faculty actually teach that on the CACC campus. There's emergency medical technician, fire science, graphic arts, networking and cybersecurity, law enforcement, medical assistant, nursing assistant, Sangaman CEO, another collaboration with UIS, welding and workplace experience. So all of these programs offer great benefits in the forms of dual credit. A little over half of those programs are dual credit with Lincoln Land. So if a student is interested in pursuing their education at Lincoln Land afterwards, they're going to be a little bit ahead of the game, both money-wise and time-wise. There's also industry credentials, say in electronics and engineering. There are multiple credentials that can be earned there through the Smart Automation Certification Alliance, where companies like Boeing Sargento are actively looking for folks that have these credentials because they back these credentials. They know the weight. And they are allowing students to enter the workforce immediately at high wages because they have those credentials. Some of the other programs like nursing assistant, cosmetology, EMT, or barbering are state licensure programs. So as you probably know, in the state of Illinois to have any of those four jobs, you must be licensed and you can get those things right here at CACC. So students can actually graduate high school with college credit under their belt, state licensure, or industry credentials, or a combination of all three. It's really going to set them apart from other folks that are out there looking for jobs. That is a massive head start for them. And it's a great financial move for those that are really trying to get into some of those fields. Why not go ahead and get that nursing assistant license while you're still in high school if you know that you want to be a nurse after you graduate? It is a very smart decision financially and time management-wise. There is just so much going on in that 200,000 square feet that greatly impacts the lives of thousands of students over the years and greatly impacts the businesses in our community. Another great thing that CACC does is partner with local businesses, like I mentioned earlier, creating that pipeline. They have multiple career fairs each year, have opportunities for companies to come in and talk with the classes about the opportunities available right here in our community. So why does all this matter? I'm not going to get into the details of every little program. That's not the intent of this. It's to really just give you an idea of what CACC does. And so if you're a parent out there, this is permission to think differently about your kid's future. CACC offers a path where your kid can discover a talent, earn a credential, and graduate with a real direction. To do that, all you gotta do is have your student talk with their guidance counselor or assistant principal at their school to get signed up. If you're a student out there listening, hey, here's my challenge to you. Go look at that list of 20 programs and ask yourself, hey, what would I be excited to wake up and do every day? What would I be excited to go to school for? You might find it in one of those 20 programs. And I've seen countless students over the years do just that. You don't have to have it all figured out. That's the thing. Most students don't, most adults don't have it all figured out. That's the entire point of exploring. And that's what CACC is really great at. The staff there are experienced professionals who want to help you find your path. If you're a business owner out there, which I know a lot of you listening are, these students are our future workforce. And we want to keep them right here in Springfield. So partner with CACC where you can. There's internship opportunities, there's career fairs, there's even advertising spots on the website if you want to go down that road. So your opportunity here is to plug into that pipeline, like I mentioned earlier. Trained, motivated young people learning your trade right here in Springfield. This is the kind of partnership that builds a stronger local economy. We talk a lot about communities grow together, right? This is another way that they do. And that's the kind of thing we like to champion every single day here on Elevate Springfield. This is workforce development happening right here on the south end of town, funded and supported by our own community going back almost six decades now, right? We're talking about elevating students, we're talking about elevating businesses, we're talking about elevating everybody so we can all grow together and elevate Springfield together. So, hey, if you want to check out more information about CACC, head over to CACC Springfield.org. Check out the program offerings. If you're a business owner, see how you could help out, how you could partner. And we're going to continue to spotlight all these great things that we have going on. We'll be back after the break. Hey, Springfield, when it comes to reliable, high-quality roofing, you don't want to leave things to chance. That's why you should reach out to Acosta Angeli Roofing, your local roofing expert serving Springfield and surrounding communities, from quick dependable repairs to full replacement, from residential to commercial. They are your trusted pros. Call them today at 217-993-2748 or visit their website to book your free quote and inspection. Don't wait. A little leak now could lead to major damage later. Trust the local experts, protect your home, and get peace of mind with Acosta Angeli Roofing. Well, thank you for joining us today, everybody, on another segment of Communities Grow Together on the Elevate Springfield Podcast. Thank you again to David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency, for partnering with us on this segment. A take what you learn today. You bring the discipline and follow through and together. That's right, y'all. We're going to Elevate Springfield. Be great. Looking for expert tree care with hometown integrity? Look no further than Sangamon Tree Service. They're your trusted local pros, delivering quality workmanship, exceptional customer service, and fair, honest pricing. Every time. Whether it's trimming, removal, or storm cleanup, their team brings professionalism and care to every job, big or small. Call the name your neighbor's trust, Sangman Tree Service, or visit them today at SangmanTreeService.com. 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