POPLARVILLE – Two Poplarville legislators got a crash course in the value of workforce training Tuesday, July 15, at Pearl River Community College.
Rep. Herb Frierson, chair of the House Appropriations committee, and Timmy Ladner, vice chair of the House Workforce Development committee, toured the welding, pipefitting, automotive and construction equipment operators technology programs.
“I’m going to use this to help other legislators understand workforce training,” Ladner said. “I want to learn how all this works.”
Instructor Joel Dickens showed the representatives examples of the work pipefitting students learn to do in the 270-hour course.
“The numbers look real good for employment coming out,” he said. “We don’t have to hold their hands. We just send them out and they get hired. The most important thing to me is they go to work and make money.”
Heath Ladner will be teaching the course this fall from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday. Cost is $300.
Information from such tours helps legislators connect the dots as they make decisions about spending tax money, Frierson said.
“It’s good to see how the money is being used in a practical manner to train people,” he said. “We need more of it.”
Pearl River Community College instructor Joel Dickens, center, talks to Rep. Timmy Ladner, left, and Rep. Herb Frierson about a pipe system mockup students in the PRCC pipefitting program learn to make.
PRCC Public Relations photo