State, local officials promise training for BFGoodrich workers

Bradley Byrne, chancellor of the Alabama Community College System, came to Opelika Wednesday to deliver a message to the 1,000 BFGoodrich employees who will soon be out of work: There’s help coming. 

Byrne, along with other local and state officials, stopped by Southern Union State Community College to talk about the recent news that the BFGoodrich plant will close by Oct. 31.

Byrne and others at the press conference said plant employees may need retooling to make them more attractive to future employers.

To help accomplish that, a three-day employment expo, “Retool/Re-Train/Re-Employ,” is scheduled for early June. The specific date has not been set.

“That will be offered here, on this campus, the first week of June,” Byrne said.

The program, billed the RRR Expo, will bring together Alabama employment programs and area community colleges to help BFGoodrich workers learn about a range of services and opportunities available to them.

It will include help identifying new career goals and the education and training requirements associated with them.

“Coming to us will cost them nothing. They don’t have to pull money out of their pocket to take advantage of these services,” Byrne said.

In addition to Byrne, representatives from Southern Union, Chattahoochee Valley Community College and Central Alabama Community College spoke at the press conference and stressed the importance of technical and non-credit based training.

“The non-credit divisions in most of our colleges are growing by leaps and bounds,” said Amelia Pearson, interim president of SUSCC.

The list of short-term training options, such as training in automobile painting and refrigerator repair, is growing, especially for adults, she said.

“They are skills that are very much needed in the work force today,” she said.