About the Little Red Industrial Training Council

Back in 1999 the CCEDC invited representatives from area industries to get together and discuss the common challenges of our existing and potential new workforce.  That first meeting was held at the Anderson House Inn.  We discussed many items like competitive wages, benefits packages, attendance policies, and the like.  The sheer openness of the discussion was fantastic.  As that first meeting and subsequent meetings went on and as our discussions and trust grew deeper, we discovered that above all there was one highly common theme that we all faced and that not one of us alone was able to achieve effectively.

That facet was training.  What we discovered was that our area high schools were not preparing non-college bound graduating seniors well enough to fill the skilled worker gap we were experiencing in this area.  We needed an entity to not only fill that void, but also to work with area schools to help them better prepare graduating seniors who were entering the workforce.  Time wore on and a few initial members stepped aside while new members joined the group and in 2003 the Little Red Industrial Training Council was formed.  Through this collaboration of area industry, we have been able to request and receive considerable grant monies from the State of Arkansas that would have been otherwise impossible or near impossible for each individual business to acquire on their own.  We have offered to our employees such basic courses as math for industry, blueprint reading, how to use gauges, metrology, and others to more advanced courses like Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T), which many world class companies require suppliers be able to know when interpreting their blueprints.  Intermingled with these courses, we’ve also held classes in Microsoft Word, Excel, Access & PowerPoint.  We’ve also given our employees the skills to be better leaders for tomorrow through Motivational & Leadership Development courses.  Currently, the LRITC is working very diligently with local industry and Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions to bring the concepts of Lean Manufacturing to Heber Springs industry.  These concepts are the building blocks that have made companies like Toyota the giants they are in their field.

We are not limited to just the courses that I’ve just stated.  The future is ours to write, and in most cases we can get the state to pay for it.  All the LRITC requests is your involvement, ideas, and your needs.  By becoming a member, you can tap into the best resource our area has to offer existing industry.  We want to help your business grow and succeed.  Through your assistance and the assistance of our community, we can make Heber Springs a more wonderful place to live where industry can not only flourish, but also become able to attract much needed new business to support our friends and neighbors.