ENID – Every month during the school year James W. Strate, superintendent and CEO of Autry Technology Center in Enid, meets with an executive officer network.
The 14 members of the group represent 65 percent of the jobs in Enid.
“They have a common interest,” Strate said. “They serve as an advisory group for us and really provide a lot of leadership for this institution.”
Autry Technology Center provides a lot of industrial training. Last year the school’s business and industry center provided training for more than 26,000 individuals. The school has 20 full-time employees on the business and industry training staff.
What Strate knows from meeting with the executive officer network and from demand for worker training is that Enid has more jobs than qualified people.
“Our biggest challenge is on the business and industry side,” Strate said. “We have industries that are expanding. We need people to help them expand.”
Most of the members of the area labor force already have jobs. Garfield County’s unemployment rate in May was 3.4 percent. Out of a countywide labor force of 32,614, 31,492 members had jobs and only 1,122 members were listed as unemployed, according to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.
Expanding area employers are seeking workers.
With more than 1,600 employees in production facilities, a distribution center, a bakery and administration in Enid, recruiting and hiring the workforce for AdvancePierre Foods is a never-ending process.
“We are always hiring people,” said Janet Byrum, director, HR operations west in Enid for AdvancePierre Foods.
AdvancePierre’s screening process eliminates some job applicants. Usually three applicants are interviewed for each hourly employee hired, she said.
To fill job vacancies, the company recruits workers from other parts of Oklahoma and other states.
“We need to find ways to recruit people to this part of the state,” Strate said.
The shortage of workers is not just in the energy sector but in manufacturing across the board, he said.
“In northwest Oklahoma, we are short more than 200 truck drivers,” he said. “These are good jobs but they have to pass drug and other tests. They have to be well-qualified to fill those positions.”
Expanding companies that have used Autry Technology Center for employee training include Aircraft Structures International Corp., which rebuilds, repairs and refurbishes Cessna Caravan aircraft at Woodring Regional Airport in Enid.
“They (Autry Technology Center) have helped us immensely and they will help us in the future,” Mickey Stowers, who owns ASIC with his wife, Kay, said in an interview in April.
ASIC has approximately 35 employees and Stowers plans to hire more.
“In the next two years we hope to have another 40 to 50 employees,” he said. “We have the work. We can’t keep up.”
Hiring more employees expands space requirements.
ASIC recently completed construction on a hangar that is 120 feet wide and 110 feet deep and plans to build three more hangars at Woodring Regional Airport.
Autry Technology Center plans to help other companies develop businesses at the city-owned airport.
Three years ago the technology center opened a business incubator at the James W. Strate Center for Business Development on the school’s main campus. Five companies are currently operating from the incubator and one company has already graduated from the program, said Brian Gaddy, center coordinator for Autry’s Center for Business Development.
Now the technology center hopes to repeat the process with a second incubator at the airport.
“We hope to get a couple of companies going at the airport,” Gaddy said. “We have 8,000 square feet at the airport. We could break it up as people need it.”