Comments on: Why aren’t we utilizing NCC’s skilled labor?

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 01:05:29 +0000

I was personaly involved with having NCC

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 04:49:36 +0000

No offense taken! I’m understand what you meant, I just wanted to make sure that others would understand how well we train our operators and carpenters. And there’s no way on God’s green earth that we would ever want to get in on a super high pressure gig like a downtown renovation! That would be a nightmare for me. :-)

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 02:36:36 +0000

Mark,
I meant no offence by my comments about Boyden giving NCC time “to mess around” and I am sorry if it caused any. I chose my words poorly. My point wasn’t that NCC isn’t capable or that they won’t work hard enough. My point is that a “streetscape” project isn’t a fit for NCC or any trade-school program.
I could go into a 10 page tangent on the importance of trade schools in today’s world, but I’ll save it for another day.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 15:14:27 +0000

I’m going to have to throw the flag on the part about us “messing around” in the dirt. I have been out there sometimes until 9 at night. We have to account for almost every gallon of fuel burned, so they have to think efficiency all the time. We have to put our machines on payments, which have to be made on time, just like the private sector. What this means, is that we have to be mindful of the balance between education (which darn well better be first and foremost), and loss control. We aren’t out to make money at it, but we surley don’t want to go broke doing it either. Life’s about balance! Also, the students have built perfectly good building pads and roads in the past, so it’s not like the quailty is worse than anyone else’s. In fact, we have gone in and fixed more than one contractor screw-up, corner-cut, etc. I must emphasize that we do NOT want to compete with our local contractors, and the work must be public work, City of ______, parks and recreation, economic development, etc. Our program runs from 7am until ?, just like a real world job. This way there are no surprizes when they graduate and take that first job. OK, so for my friend that runs the carpentry program: they have the new house for this year 95% enclosed already. In the last 2 weeks or so. They’re like Tazmanian devils over there. Once they start, it goes up super fast.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not attacking you or your logic, but merely sticking up for a few things that I know about first hand.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:08:04 +0000

NCC is a gem. Northwest Iowa is fortunate.
Heard it was one of the few community colleges to gain attendance this year.
If only they had sports teams.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 04:03:31 +0000

I understand your frustrations and I follow your logic concerning NCC students.
But, I think the reason we aren’t using the NCC skilled labor around town is because the labor isn’t skilled yet.
Also – those kids in the carpentry, electrical, and other trades classes spend a few hours every day in class studying theory and generals like math, english, human psychology. You only get a few hours a day of actual “work” out of the classes. They have class from 8 to 1 or 2 and then go to their part time jobs in order to fund their extra curricular habits of smoking and drinking (i’m just kidding… or am I?)
But seriously, the time they could spend on a real project like the streetscape would be pretty limited. Then you have the question of insurance, bonding, etc. NCC probably likes to keep their kids in on campus in the labs. I know the businesses in town would rather not compete against public funded institutions like NCC for jobs.
As for Boyden’s street project – Boyden had all the time in the world to give NCC to mess around. The class could spend a few hours every day doing different tasks out there in the dirt. They were no where near as efficient or timely as a private business would be, but that wasn’t the point. The point was to mess around and gain experience.
I back up most of my comments with the fact that I attended a technical/trades school not that long ago. Now I operate a business in Sheldon.
Thanks for reading!