Right place, right time -Robert Ketchum makes harmonic convergences pay off for North Idaho College’s Workforce Training Center

Coeur d’Alene _ A decade ago, Robert Ketchum started at North Idaho College with a single secretary in a small office on the Lake City campus.

Winston Ross
Spokesman Review Staff writer

Now, he can whip out a flow chart that shows more than 100 employees. His gleaming office anchors a 30,000-square-foot building. Enrollment at his Workforce Training Center in Post Falls has skyrocketed from 2,282 in 1991 to 9,408 last year, from 174 classes offered to 1,011.

Ketchum, executive director of the center that teaches new skills to working adults throughout North Idaho, is working with banks in China to help modernize their business practices. China recently joined the World Trade Organization.

Ketchum was instrumental in convincing Harpers Inc. to relocate in Post Falls because of training the center could offer the company.

He found a company that allows customers at the training center to register for programs online. He is talking to a faith-based group in Florida that might start paying for training of overseas missionaries.

And Ketchum led an effort to develop an anti-terrorism training institute six months before Sept. 11, 2001. The center hopes to offer training to businesses across the country, as well as the U.S. National Guard.

"A lot of innovation is keeping one’s eyes open," Ketchum says.

If that’s true, Robert Ketchum’s eyes are wide open.

His constant quest for new ideas and business partnerships improves the profile of NIC, as the college boosts higher education opportunities here.

And the center could become solvent one day. Where 75 percent of the college’s core institution is taxpayer-supported, the Workforce Training Center is 75 percent self-sustaining.

Ketchum does all this for a $67,000 annual salary.

"North Idaho College would probably lose him to some much larger institution that could afford to pay much more money for his skills — if it weren’t for the fact that he’s Spokane born-and-bred," said Steve Schenk, a former NIC vice president. "He’s a bright, articulate, visionary, capable administrator."

Ketchum was born in 1951 in Spokane. His father ran a wholesale dry goods company, dealing in clothing, sheets, blankets and pillows.

With the advent of big-box stores, like Wal-Mart, Ketchum’s father couldn’t see passing the business to his son.

"He said, `Find something else to do,"’ Ketchum said.

So when Ketchum graduated from Lewis and Clark High School, his dad’s alma mater, he decided to go for a bachelor’s degree in industrial technology.

Ketchum describes himself as "invisible" in high school, but good at shop, working with his hands.

After college, he started teaching at a junior high school in industrial arts, but decided quickly that he’d rather teach adults. So Ketchum got a fellowship to return to school at Eastern Washington University, to get his master’s degree. He earned a doctorate in vocational-technical education in 1985.

Ketchum next went to Fairfield, Iowa, to indulge a hobby he’d picked up from the Beatles — transcendental meditation. It is an effort to focus on nothing, as opposed to a single word or a contemplation of your thoughts.

But he soon missed home.

Ketchum learned of an opportunity at NIC, to start a vocational program.

"I’m grateful I was able to fall into this job," he said. "It was right place, right time."

That would seem the story of Ketchum’s success. In truth, the center has grown so vast largely because Ketchum is always looking for the right place at the right time.

"I have more and more respect for Robert all the time," said Fred Ostermeyer, a trustee on NIC’s board. `He’s able to grasp things other people may not see. Robert can connect the dots. He has the ability to listen.

"He knows his stuff."

A few years ago, Ketchum met a woman at Maricopa Community College in Phoenix, Ariz., who mentioned that the school had developed a relationship with a province in China to provide some training in American management methods.

"What an interesting deal," Ketchum thought, and filed it away.

Later, a position opened at the Workforce Training Center, and Vern Jenkins applied for the job. Among Jenkins’ other accomplishments, Ketchum noticed that Jenkins spoke fluent Mandarin, and had run an independent consulting firm in China.

"You can imagine, that resume rose to the top of the pile," Ketchum said.

Jenkins wasn’t sure NIC was right for him, so Ketchum gathered a commitment from the administration to try to offer training in China.

Months later, Jenkins was on board, and the two of them were off to Asia.

China has looked to join the World Trade Organization for many years, but other countries have resisted, partly because China’s economic and business laws didn’t meet requirements of the WTO for membership.

Some Chinese banks have hired high-priced consulting firms to modernize. Ketchum and Jenkins could offer a low-cost alternative at NIC’s Workforce Training Center.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne helped convey that message during his recent trade mission to China.

Ketchum returned from his latest trip to China with more good news. More banks want more training, including services that Ketchum can offer off-shore. In addition, there are other companies seeking training in the English language.

The college has been hired by Phillips Oil in China to teach management practices. On his latest trip to China, Ketchum started talks with a clearinghouse for such companies — a center that offers training for many businesses similar to Phillips Oil. That means NIC’s services could expand exponentially.

Ketchum also met with representatives from Shell Oil, which is launching a major effort in China, and is interested in having NIC provide some training for its employees.

"It was an exciting trip," Ketchum said.

What’s also exciting is a proposed $498,000 allocation a congressional committee is considering that could be used for the Fort Sherman Terrorism Training Institute — an idea spawned months before Sept. 11.

"Another harmonic convergence," Ketchum said.

The Workforce Training Center had contracted with Fairchild Air Force Base to do some top-secret training work for the Defense Department, in software. The center came across David Dose, an expert in anti-terrorism and hostage survival, and Ketchum convinced NIC to hire him.

"Suddenly, 9/11 occurred," Ketchum said. "Now, we have $498,000 in a bill in the House, to fund the launch of Fort Sherman.

"It could allow us to have a rocket engine attached to our efforts."

Enrollment in the Workforce Training Center’s programs sloughed off this year, because of economic downturns that have forced companies to cut back on training.

But Ketchum continues to look for and find new options — all over the globe.

Winston Ross can be reached at (208) 765-7132, or by e-mail at [email protected].

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