Business View Magazine Feb 2023

98 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 This includes truck drivers, a profession that has seen shortages for over 10 years, and heavy diesel mechanics, who are also in short supply. “We offer year-round courses in various truck driving programs, mechanics training, and welding. In the summertime, we will offer heavy equipment training as well. We do have some weather issues in Alaska during the winter when it gets a little bit more dangerous and a lot more expensive to dig in ice. Over the last two years, we’ve restarted our carpentry programs, and a program that’s designed as a skilled laborer.” The company has also developed online programs to support skilled training from within. “When they are trying to recruit people out there, we’ve basically approached them with the idea of, ‘look, you have this typical young person who has a good work ethic because they’re still employed by you’. Let’s invest or start some training programs and mentorship that will allow that person to grow. The idea is that their line-haul fleet will be supplemented, and maybe someday fully populated by those that started at the loading dock,” he describes. Stressing that upward mobility without skills development is not beneficial, Crum adds that NIT has added subject matter experts, education, and development to help companies provide opportunities for employees without sacrificing standards or skill. He maintains, “We are big believers in mentorship, and the demographics, in our state particularly, but nationwide show that we have a very large gap, meaning that a huge segment of our population is close to retirement. In a very short period of time, we are going to lose hundreds of years of institutional knowledge. We have to tap into that now before these people decide to retire.” On the corporate service side, Crum says, “We follow a format so that if one of our employees is embedded within your program, they are employees of NIT before they go. So, that means that they’re coming in with a knowledge base and a course library of the entire company behind them.”