New partnership creates trained highway construction workers

College and industry officials say a pilot class tailored to meet the need for qualified workers in highway construction in the local area has been a huge success.

Six men recently completed a six-week course (40 hours per week) and earned certificates in heavy highway construction. The course was the result of a partnership between Associated General Contractors of Missouri, Three Rivers College and area contractors.

“This class was developed out of a need for workforce development within the construction industry,” explained Jackson Bostic, AGCMO field representative. “While out visiting with our AGCMO members and non-members, it was expressed numerous times that qualified staff were hard to find.”

Bostic said the need is right here in Southeast Missouri with the Highway 67 project and possible I-57 project. AGCMO officials, Bostic said, met with TRC personnel, including president, Dr. Wesley Payne, and Will Cooper, director of workforce development, to discuss the college hosting the program, and they agreed.

“We started off with a local job fair, which had about 40 in attendance,” Bostic said. “We narrowed that 40 down to 20 potential students.”

Due to COVID-19 and CDC guidelines, Bostic said, the number was reduced to 10, with six actually participating and graduating.

The course, Bostic said, was built around heavy highway infrastructure, and the students essentially learned about how bridges and highways are designed and built.

The instruction included safety training and personal protective equipment uses and understanding, said Colby Robertson of Robertson Contractors. He was among those who served on the steering committee for the class.

“The students were introduced to active job sites, shown the typical equipment that’s used, as well as the tooling that is used in a lot of similar projects across Southeast Missouri,” Robertson said.

The genesis for this, according to Len Toenjes, AGCMO president, started with voters approving the extension of the funding for Highway 67.

That vote “really created a need for an investment in infrastructure, and it’s our job as businesses and education to meet those needs, and have people and equipment to be able to implement that project,” Toenjes said.

Through the work of AGCMO, TRC and some of the local elected officials, “now we have an opportunity for at least the start,” Toenjes said. “We have six young people from the area who can go to work on that project and other projects throughout the area.”

As a contractor, Robertson said, he is “very excited” about the program and was grateful to TRC and AGCMO officials for putting together a “program that is tailored to assist students to transfer over into heavy highway and civil construction.”

All of the graduates, Bostic said, have had chances to meet with potential employers.

“It’s my goal to follow up in the next few weeks to determine how they are doing and ensure that they are finding employment,” Bostic said.

The pilot class, according to Bostic, enabled officials to gauge “our abilities to provide such training in Southeast Missouri. It was a huge success.”

Cooper said TRC is “very pleased” with the partnership with AGCMO and the contractors in the area and looks forward to what they can do in the future.

“It’s a great start, but it’s only a start,” Toenjes said. “We have a lot more plans ahead for continuing the program and expanding our partnerships to meet the needs … whether it’s roads, schools, manufacturing, any type of construction that is needed to have the workforce prepared.”

Officials, Bostic said, are in the process of developing the next class, which will be held at TRC’s facility in Kennett.