| Sullivan County pushes for better educated workforce |
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Sullivan County continues its push to generate a home-grown educated workforce "We want to make education so convenient that there is no reason for folks not to get a two or four-year degree in Kingsport," says Dennis Phillips, the mayor of Kingsport. To those on the outside looking in, this might sound like a lofty goal for Kingsport, a micropolitan city of approximately 44,500 people. Add to that the fact that Kingsport is the largest city of its size in the state without a college campus. But that goal is well on its way to being met—and exceeded—with the success of the Regional Center for Applied Technology (RCAT), which opened in 2002, and the new Kingsport Higher Education Center (KHEC), due to break ground soon. The city of Kingsport joined forces with Northeast State Technical Community College in Blountville (and its president, Bill Locke) to create RCAT—Kingsport provided the capital and Northeast State agreed to operate the facility. The facility opened in 2002 in downtown Kingsport, providing higher education opportunities for everyone in the Tri-Cities area of Kingsport, Bristol and Johnson City, including traditional and nontraditional students, high school students through dual-enrollment programs, and senior citizens. RCAT was an immediate and resounding success. More than 800 students currently study for their associate degrees at the downtown RCAT campus, and nearly 100 more are studying offsite through RCAT. After RCAT was up and running, the city created "Educate and Grow" scholarships, offering graduates of Sullivan County and Kingsport high schools two-year scholarships toward pursuing associate degrees at Northeast State. Students can attend Northeast State on the main campus in Blountville, or they can attend classes at the downtown RCAT center. "We made it widely known that money should not be an issue to getting an education," says Tim Whaley, community and government relations officer for the city of Kingsport. Currently, in Kingsport, approximately 23.6% of the population has bachelor's degrees. In Sullivan County, as a whole, the number drops to 19%—the national average is 27%. "With the success of RCAT, discussions began on how to encourage our students—our citizenry as a whole—to pursue bachelor's degrees," Whaley says. The need for a more educated workforce in the area is not new. Business leaders in Kingsport and the county have been vocal about their difficulties in finding the kinds of employees they need. Brian Ferguson, chairman and CEO of Eastman Chemical Co., an international chemical company located in Kingsport that produces more than 400 chemicals, fibers and plastics, has repeatedly communicated his uncertainty that his company would be able to hire an educated workforce to meet Eastman's needs in the coming years. Eastman currently employs 11,000 people. "We took that personally," Phillips says. "We decided we were going to make sure that we'd have those people available for Eastman, and for other companies, too." RCAT was flourishing, and the next obvious step was to implement a new concept. Studies show that employees can expect a marked increase in salary over the course of a working life when they advance from high school diplomas to a two-year degree and on to a four-year degree. With such statistics in mind, business and civic leaders in Kingsport began to examine how they could get four-year institutions interested in providing opportunities for students to work toward bachelor degrees. The KHEC, as a concept, grew organically out of the success of the RCAT. Kingsport turned to Bill Locke and Northeast State again, discussing possible plans for a higher education center in Kingsport, an "academic village" modeled after one in Greenville, S.C., that is run by Greenville Technical College. "We proceeded to talk with universities, both public and private—including UT-Knoxville—who were interested in providing classes at the center," Phillips says. At present, eight four-year colleges are interested in the KHEC: Northeast State, Carson-Newman College, King College, Lincoln Memorial University, Milligan College, Tennessee Tech University, Tusculum College, and UT-Knoxville. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen is staunchly behind the project. With the No.2-ranked secondary education system in the state (behind only Oak Ridge), Kingsport has proven its willingness to spend money to provide educational opportunities for its students. "We're putting our tax dollars where they need to be—behind education," Phillips says. John Campbell, Kingsport's city manager, agrees. "In today's world, you need college-educated people, and the graduates need to match the needs of the businesses in a community," he says. "Certainly, Kingsport's effort is one of the most significant moves in the state to demonstrate how important educating your populace is—to show the world that you're ready for economic growth and quality jobs." Eastman is already raising the bar and, in essence, building the demand for that future supply of graduates. The company recently implemented a five-year, $1.3 billion program, a significant reinvestment in their facilities and processes. Eastman already has quality jobs requiring tremendous engineering talent and research capabilities. Other area businesses that have expressed support for the KHEC include AccuForce, AmSouth Bank, Cooper Standard Automotive, Domtar (formerly Weyerhaeuser), and Hunter, Smith & Davis, to name just a few. Another growing concern is the need for an available workforce for Kingsport's medical community. Kingsport is the only city in the Tri-Cities region that has a hospital from each of the major hospital systems: Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System. The Holston Medical Group—one of the largest private medical practices in the state with 130-plus doctors and over 800 employees—is also in the region. Cardiovascular Associates is the largest specialty group practice in the region with over 200 employees. A number of other spinoff health industries and businesses are opening or moving into the area, so there is a high demand for talented workers in the medical field. The planned academic village will consist of nine or ten buildings, two blocks from downtown, on a campus of approximately eight acres. The Board has voted and approved the building of a 50,000-square-foot higher education center, and a second building of 40,000 square feet—a $4.8 million Allied Health Building that will consolidate a number of health programs on several campuses. King College, in Bristol, and Lincoln Memorial University, in Harrogate, have already initiated programs in Kingsport in nursing and education, respectively. The Allied Health Building will open in the fall of 2008. The larger building will open in 2009. The only building still standing in the acreage set aside for the education center will house a community daycare center supported by the United Way. "There's no need to spend money on economic development in your city or county if you cannot supply an educated workforce to fill jobs," Mayor Phillips says. The KHEC, like RCAT, is just one initiative, but the community of Kingsport and Sullivan County believe that these initiatives are essential to attracting new capital and high quality jobs to the area, in addition to contributing to the quality of life that already exists there. "It's a process, not an event, and it's a process we have to commit to over the long haul," says Andy Burke, president and CEO of The Regional Alliance. The city of Kingsport has proven that it has what it takes to support their new academic village—a record year for new business investments, $123.3 million in private investments in the last fiscal year—and this is just the tip of a positive trend. With the building of the new Kingsport Higher Education Center, post-secondary education in a town that hasn't previously boasted a college campus is no longer a lofty goal—it is a reality. |
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