Many Groups Cooperate To Create Pilot Apprenticeship

A German-style apprenticeship – the first in the United States to involve high school students – will start this fall in Coweta County.

Eleven students will participate in Coweta’s first year, compared to 1.5 million in Germany. Even so, creating the new program – an opportunity for local students to begin on-the-job training for pay while completing their high school studies – has required the cooperation of many people from different facets of the community.

Business leaders, educators and officialdom in both Germany and Georgia have hammered out the details that have made the program possible.
The Georgia Consortium of Advanced Technical Training, or GA CATT, was inaugurated Monday at the Newnan Centre. Eight local industries are involved along with Central Educational Center, a local charter school that already combines traditional high school curriculum with technical training.

GA CATT will allow students to begin their apprenticeships in 10th grade with a combination of traditional high school classes, college-level manufacturing courses, and apprenticeship modules that will pay $8/hour. By 12th grade, students will spend 80 percent of their day learning at manufacturing sites, earning $12/hour.

Participating corporations in the pilot program include Grenzebach, E.G.O. North America, Yamaha, Kason, Yokogawa, Winpak, Chromalloy and Groov-Pin.
The idea began four years ago with Martin Pleyer, who heads the local plant for Grenzebach, a German company. He imagined “a real German apprenticeship program.”

Pleyer wore another hat that helped speed the creation of GA CATT; he also is chairman of the Central Educational Center board.

He wanted to get younger high school students connected with real manufacturing. Contact was made with the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Southern United States. Stefanie Jehlitschka, of the German American Chamber, arranged for Coweta educators to get the apprenticeship curriculum used in Germany – translated into English – as well as the “train the trainer documentation,” Pleyer said.

Pleyer said he was aware that multiple companies needed to be involved if the apprenticeship program was to be a success, so he contacted David Keller of E.G.O.

“He was happy to accept,” Pleyer said.

Like Pleyer, Keller is familiar with the German approach. Typically, German students around age 15 are guided toward a college-bound program or one that provides them with an apprenticeship.

“That’s just the norm and the standard. That’s why unemployment for youth in Germany is about 7 percent,” Keller said.

That’s about half the rate for youth in the United States.
“It’s worked perfectly for a long, long time,” Keller said of German apprentice training. “It’s a great program.”

Keller agreed with Pleyer that commitments from several industries were needed to make the apprenticeship idea a reality.

“You need a synergy,” he said. “You need a group.”

While GA CATT is a first in the United States, Jehlitschka said similar programs are taking place in nations as far flung as Venezuela and Russia. Some 40 German chambers of commerce are working with officials in the countries where they are located.

Jehlitschka described the programs as “flourishing.”

Mark Whitlock, CEO at Central Educational Center, said Coweta County is uniquely poised to launch GA CATT. He pointed to CEC as an example of how educators, business people and others in the local business community can collaborate.

“There is not another community in Georgia at this time that could have pulled this off,” he said.

With the apprenticeship project, “we had to have local business involved in an even more intense way,” Whitlock said.

The Technical College System of Georgia in general and West Georgia Technical College in particular also were involved in the development of GA CATT.

Meeting the immediate needs of business is “right in the wheelhouse of what we do,” said Mark Peevy of TSCG. “The rubber meets the road for us at the local level.”

Steve Cromer of WGTC said GA CATT is just the latest approach to meeting industry needs for workers in the area.

The technical schools makes every effort to “make those quick adjustments to industry needs,” he said.

At the state level, there is a desire to see GA CATT grow.

“You have to till the soil. You have to plant the seed,” said Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who was interested enough in GA CATT to attend the kickoff ceremonies and personally sign the memorandum of agreement with Jehlitschka.

“Providing these opportunities across the state for younger students is a goal,” Peevy said.

Larry Alford of the Georgia Institute of Technology, another player in the creation of GA CATT, also said he sees an expanded future for apprenticeships in Georgia.

There are “many others who evaluated the program and hope to join it in the future,” Alford said.

Pleyer has already heard from officials in Michigan who are interested in an apprenticeship program.

“We can shine here in Coweta County for Georgia. It’s something to be proud of,” he said.

“I’m really really excited,” Jehlitschka said. “I can’t wait for this to spread across the state.”

Hiring younger workers means less potential turnover and fewer human resources costs, an economic payoff for participating businesses.

“Having a younger skilled workforce is essential,” Cromer said. “The opportunity for economic growth in that company – and in that region – goes up.”

“In Germany you see this loyalty where people work 20-30 years for the same company,” Jehlitschka said. “We’ve taken the best part of the German system that’s already worked for hundreds of years.”

“We need this,” Whitlock said, “and our students need this very much.”

“I’m proud of this consortium and all the people who have made this a reality,” Cagle said.