 Paul D. Camp Community College |
The Windsor, Virginia distribution centre of Safco Products Co has donated four forklifts to a college initiative to train entry-level warehouse workers.
Safco contributed the battery-powered cushion-tyred counterbalance forklifts ─ two eight-year-old Toyota 5FBE18 riders and two five-year-old Crown RC3020-55TT stand-ups ─ and a conveyor system, says Scott Bauer, manager for distribution in Safco's east coast centre.
Paul D Camp Community College in Franklin plans to start a one-semester three-course warehouse and distribution certification program for up to 20 students, according to Randall Betz, the college's vice president for workforce development. The college took possession of the forklifts on 4 December. Classes are set to begin on 11 January.
In addition to the Safco contributions, the Cost Plus World Market Distribution Center in Windsor donated a conveyor system.
"We have had tremendous program and financial support," Betz says. The Norfolk, Virginia-based Hampton Road Workforce Development Board, which operates as Opportunity Inc, is fiduciary agent for a grant to the college from the US Department of Labor's workforce innovation in regional economic development (WIRED) initiative. Megan Robinson is the WIRED project director.
The program may be the only one of its kind in the nation.
"The program is designed to train employees who will work inside a warehouse," says Bob Hayes, coordinator of the college's workforce development division. One course provides basic instruction. Another focuses on teamwork and problem solving to prepare students to work with others. The third course deals with warehouse and distribution operations to teach the individuals how to move products around.
Hayes seeks storage racks to help "train students on going in and out of the aisles using the forklifts."
Al Will, a retired US Marine Corps colonel, provides instructional expertise on the basis of his 25 years in warehouse and logistics management.
"In the future, we may condense the courses for a summer program," Hayes notes.
The college's location places it near a growing number of warehouse operations utilising ocean-accessible deepwater Port of Virginia container shipping facilities in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport Mews. "Many warehouse and distribution facilities have sprung up" in south eastern Virginia, Hayes says. "We want to develop qualified entry-level workforce for those facilities."
The college began conceptualising the training program in 2005.
Safco, a unit of Liberty Diversified International, manufactures office products including furniture, file storage devices, organisers and, for material handling, folding platform and hand trucks.
Based in New Hope, Minnesota, Safco invested about USD17 million in constructing and establishing the 308,000 sqft (27,720 sqm) centre. Safco expected to create 40 jobs in opening the Windsor distribution facility in the Shirley T Holland Intermodal Park. Operations began in December and now utilise 22 battery-powered forklifts.