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Local Co-Op committee working to bring technical career academy to Wilkes County If a group of Wilkes County leaders and concerned members of the community have their way, they will leverage a state program and lots of local effort to help create a technical career academy in Wilkes County to train workers for jobs. The local Co-Op committee has been working for a year brainstorming with representatives from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs as a pilot site for the state Communities of Opportunity Initiative. A draft work plan is being finalized now, said Tina Hutcheson, DCA Region 7 Representative, and Wilkes County representatives will present their plan to Georgia RDC for approval in June. The local committee set three goals for the next two years: to initiate technical training in Wilkes County with the development of a career academy; to determine workforce needs of Wilkes employers by creating and disseminating a survey to local employers; and finally, to provide the Wilkes County workforce with public transportation to education and employment. To bring the plan to fruition, local organizations and government entities will work with state partners. The Washington-Wilkes Payroll Development Authority, Chamber of Commerce, Wilkes County Board of Education, the City of Washington and Wilkes County government will work with Athens Technical College, the state Departments of Labor, Human Resources, and Training and Adult Ed and other entities to put the plan into action. "It will be our part to bring in state partners to help bring about the action steps Wilkes County has identified in its plan," Hutcheson said. "Then the work starts." The local committee identified the lack of a skilled workforce as the main issue in recruiting and keeping high-wage jobs in the county. The local school system is not able to provide the technical "hard" skills needed for good jobs, or provide training in the soft skills needed to get and keep jobs, their study said. The draft plan will address those issues with action items that begin this year. Launched by Governor Sonny Perdue and the Georgia Rural Development Council last year, the Communities of Opportunity (Co-Op) Initiative is a collaborative, locally driven community-development strategy focused on enhancing the economic vitality of rural Georgia communities. Under the Co-Op plan, Washington Wilkes is set to be a model for what a locally driven rural economic development strategy could do to overcome major issues in the community. The initiative will also leverage state and Federal resources with enhanced eligibility for grant money. The state chose Region 7 to launch the initiative because of the great need for economic development in the area. In addition to Wilkes County, Region 7 covers Burke, Glascock, Hancock, Jefferson, Jenkins, Lincoln, McDuffie, Taliaferro, Warren, and Washington Counties.
The Co-Op will be administered by the Georgia Department of Community of Affairs in partnership with a number of public and private partners. DCA, the Georgia Rural Development Council and UGAFanning Institute will work closely with the counties on the initiative.
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