The Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Fluor Fernald Partnership

In Greater Cincinnati, a company?s partnership with career and technical education helps prepare its workers for new careers as their current jobs are phased out.

By Marie Bowling, Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development

Fluor Corporation is a global building and services corporation that has the responsibility for cleaning up the nuclear waste facility in Fernald, Ohio, just west of Cincinnati. The cleanup is contracted through the Department of Energy.

Originally, in the 1950s, the plant in Fernald was a uranium processing facility. During the 1980s, after the Cold War was over, it was determined that there was no longer a need for production of nuclear weapons. At that time, Westinghouse was in full production at the site.

When the decision was made to stop production and clean up the area, the Department of Energy awarded a contract to Fluor to manage the task of cleaning up the waste. At the time Fluor began its work, there was an employee base of 3,000. Currently, there are 1,500 employees. The company is phasing out departments as the cleanup of the site progresses. The new target date for site closure is December 2006.

A Working Partnership

Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development has been serving the southwestern Ohio area for more than 30 years, and during that time, the district?s mission has been to strengthen the economy through the development of a highly skilled workforce. The partnership with Fluor Fernald is just one example of many partnerships throughout the region in which Great Oaks has participated toward meeting that mission.

In early 1998, Fluor Fernald associates and Great Oaks began talking about a commercial driver?s license training (CDL) program for employees who currently work at the plant. The purpose for this and other training programs is to prepare associates to change careers as their current jobs are phased out. Presentations were given to large groups, and the interest in the program was high. By June 1998, the details were worked out, and our first class was held at the company site.

Pete Branham and Dave Smail from the transportation department at Fluor volunteered to be the instructors, and it has been a tremendous selling point for this class. Branham and Smail have strong backgrounds in the CDL field and communicate their knowledge base with ease. In addition, they have an excellent rapport with their team members. Students are comfortable with them and trust their judgment about the skills that they teach. The instructors have done an outstanding job.

Gene Branham, who is the president of Fernald Atomic Trades & Labor Council, has had nothing but praise for the program: ?It has been a flagship of training programs that we?Mr. John Bradburne, president/CEO, and I?refer to as we travel across the country to other Fluor waste management sites. It has exceeded our expectations, and we could not have achieved this success without the cooperation of Great Oaks and the Department of Energy.?

John Bradburne has since retired, but Jamie Jameson, who replaced him as president, is very supportive of the training programs provided by Great Oaks.

Branham says, ?Some of the associates who have earned their CDL licenses and are still employed have been able to use their skills on their current jobs as the need arises. The others will have the skill when they leave Fernald as the plant closes. The reputation of this program has been so good that one of our own senior executives, Mr. Ed Zobrist, enrolled in the course and earned his CDL license.?
A Drive to Succeed

To date, 18 classes have been taught onsite with 144 students, including Edward Zobrist, mentioned above. Zobrist, who comes from a long line of Teamsters, comments that the course had offered him an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream. ?The goal of the course is to make sure that everyone who wants a commercial driver?s license has the chance to get it, and the instructors do whatever it takes to make that happen,? he says.

Two more classes are anticipated for the fall of 2002.

The class is 80 hours total, with 20 hours of classroom instruction and 60 hours of hands-on. The students meet two evenings per week, right after their work schedule, and all day on Saturday. Two tractor-trailers are rented for a period of five weeks to allow ample time for eight students to complete the driving/maneuvering portion of the course. The class is completed in five weeks.

According to instructor Dave Smail, ?All the students who took the CDL test have received their licenses. Several of the students who have left Fluor are now driving trucks. One individual is driving part time while his job is still intact at the plant.?

Laura Steenbergen, who served as career counselor in the Career Development Center, had this to say about the training program: ?Strong customer service is more than a concept at Great Oaks. They demonstrate it by working with us to provide quality training during convenient hours that do not interfere with work. They understand our desire to prepare our people for jobs after the site cleanup is complete. The partnership of Great Oaks with Fluor Fernald is a tremendous asset for our employees and our community.?

Pete Branham, the other instructor in the course, says, ?The cooperation between Fluor Fernald and Great Oaks has been super. Having the course onsite has been a great benefit, and our company was very supportive in providing the site. The staff in our Career Development Center were very enthusiastic about the training program and have helped make it successful.? He is quick to add, ?I wish everyone we worked with was as good to work with as Great Oaks staff.?

?There are so many reasons the company can be proud of this program,? Zobrist says. ?It provides post-Fernald opportunities to our employees, they can receive tuition reimbursement to cover the cost, and the classes are conducted onsite. The job market looks great for this skill and will provide comparable wages for associates as they leave Fluor Fernald.?

None of this would have been possible without the cooperative partnership between Fluor and Great Oaks and the support of the Department of Energy. Through a tuition reimbursement fund, employees have taken advantage of the opportunity to train for another field as they are forced to make a career change as a result of the plant closing. Fortunately for them, they were made aware of the need for this type of training, so they could prepare for life after Fernald.

On a personal note, Zobrist adds, ?The driving portion of my daily life has forever changed. We need these guys and gals, and they deserve our respect and help whenever we can give it. Not a day goes by that I don?t see an opportunity to help a trucker during one of his or her maneuvers, and I have used my headlight high-beam flasher to signal to them, ?I understand the maneuver you?re trying to execute; let me help.? In nine out of 10 of these cases, I get an acknowledgement, and they flash back ?thanks,? and the pride that swells up inside of me confirming I am one of them is indescribable.?

Other training programs that have been provided for associates by Great Oaks at the Fernald site include Quality Tools, Introduction to ISO9000 and Industrial Forklift Training.

Making It Work

A major ingredient in the success of this partnership is the working relationship developed among key players involved. The Great Oaks representative, as the provider of services, works with top management: President Jamie Jameson; President of Fernald Atomic Trades & Labor Council Gene Branham; Training Director Ray Beatty; human resource personnel, Paul Mohr, Scott Wallace and Bob Race; industrial relations personnel, Mike Kopp; and all of the instructors for the training programs. Communicating with individuals in the various roles is a vital part of developing a plan for training that is to be offered to the associates in the plant.

Program offerings being considered for the near future are heavy equipment operation, heating and air conditioning, and industrial maintenance.

The heating and air conditioning and the industrial maintenance courses are being planned for offering through the Great Oaks-Cincinnati State Technical and Community College partnership. The two education institutions recently held an education fair to present information about training programs to employees at Fernald.

President and CEO of Great Oaks Cliff Migal notes, ?No one organization can meet the diverse training needs of business and industry, thus partnerships are an essential part of quality business today.?

The partnership between Great Oaks and Fluor Fernald was recognized as a ?Best Practice in a Business Partnership? at the ACTE Annual Convention in December 2001.

For more information about the Great Oaks and Fluor Fernald partnership, contact Marie Bowling at bowlingm@greatoaks.com.