North Idaho College criticized for job-training programs – Demand for workers increases

Business owners want North Idaho College to change its vocational and technical training programs, saying that current courses don’t provide enough qualified workers to fill vacant positions.

Six northern Idaho manufacturers, including Buck Knives, furniture maker Flexcel and mining-equipment maker Ground Force Manufacturing, met recently with officials of the community college to discuss concerns that training programs aren’t sufficiently geared toward manufacturing and construction.

Officials from Buck Knives, which relocated to Post Falls from San Diego, Calif., earlier this year, said the college should do more to promote internships. Ron Nilson, the owner of Ground Force, said he’s struggled to find qualified welders and has been frustrated with the college’s decision to drop its welding program two years ago.

"We have an immediate need for 20 welders, and I can’t find any," Nilson told the Coeur d’Alene Press.

By The Associated Press

Full Story: http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2005/08/02/news_business/business.5.txt

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Demand for workers increases

By MARC STEWART
Staff writer

Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series looking at the need for training in professional-technical fields to meet the changing requirements of the North Idaho economy. On Sunday, business operators and others discussed what those needs are and how they can be met. Today, society’s shifting attitude toward blue-collar workers, shortages of skilled employees and what public schools and colleges are doing to prepare students to find jobs that pay well.
COEUR d’ALENE — Would you like a job with your fries?

A Coeur d’Alene McDonald’s restaurant recently included a flier with every meal that was designed to attract people to work there. The hook: a starting wage of $6.75 an hour.

A surging economy fueled by the construction boom has made it harder to find people to work in service and hospitality jobs, resulting in what some are calling a labor shortage in Kootenai County. Good-paying jobs in the manufacturing, timber and construction industries are available in spades, however, the problem is finding people to fill them.

Kootenai County’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.2 percent in May, including strong gains in hospitality, construction and manufacturing, according to a report from Idaho Commerce & Labor.

"The economy is very healthy," said Kathryn Tacke, the Commerce & Labor analyst for North Idaho. "It’s a scramble to find people, especially in the construction industry."

Full Story: http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2005/08/01/news/news01.txt