JONESBORO—A new forestry technician program slated to begin this fall at South Arkansas Community College will help fill a much-needed space in the area’s workforce, according to college officials and local employers.
An award of more than a quarter-million dollars to help start the program was announced by the governor’s office here on Tuesday at Be Pro Be Proud Draft Day and the Career Education and Workforce Development Board meeting. It was one of several different education and training projects around the state to receive awards totaling more than $8 million through the Arkansas Office of Skills Development.
The timber industry makes up more than 5 percent of the state’s economy, according to information released by the State Capitol, with an employment rate on the rise and forecasted to continue growing over the next decade. Forestry jobs carry an average wage of $22 an hour in Arkansas.
And there is a particular demand for these workers in our area of the state, according to employers, but few Arkansas-based forestry training programs.
“This project will result in new forest technicians to fill high-demand, entry to middle-skill positions of which there is an immediate need in the region and across the country,” F&W Forestry U.S. forest operations manager Brent Williamson said, in a letter of support for the grant. “SouthArk will assist us in meeting our staffing needs by providing valuable, hands-on training to their students.”
The program will launch this fall. Program options will include non-credit training and stackable certificates of proficiency (designed to be completed in one semester each) leading to a technical certificate (the two CP tracks combined). Every point of completion is intended to provide employable skills.
Curriculum will include safety, surveying, dendrology, measuring, soil science, harvesting, technical math and writing, and other training.
The program also will dovetail into SouthArk’s existing associate’s degree program for general studies, if a student chooses to continue with additional higher education.
The new program will be housed on the college’s East Campus, which sits among 30 wooded acres. It also will make use of the South Arkansas Arboretum, which the college manages.
