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S. HRG. 114–340 

HOW INNOVATIVE EDUCATION SYSTEMS 

BETTER PREPARE STUDENTS 

TO ENTER THE WORKFORCE (PART 1) 

FIELD HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS 

AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

FEBRUARY 19, 2015 

Printed for the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov 

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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana, Chairman 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland, Ranking Member 

JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho 

MARCO RUBIO, Florida 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

TIM SCOTT, South Carolina 

DEB FISCHER, Nebraska 

CORY GARDNER, Colorado 

JONI ERNST, Iowa 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington 

JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware 

MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii 

GARY C. PETERS, Michigan 

ZAK BAIG, Republican Staff Director 

ANN JACOBS, Democratic Staff Director 

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(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

OPENING STATEMENTS

Page 

Vitter, Hon. David, Chairman, and a U.S. Senator from Louisiana ................... 1 

WITNESSES

Statement of John Fleming, U.S. Representative from Louisiana ...................... 5 

Statement of Alvin Bargas, President, Pelican Chapter, Associated Builders 

and Contractors .................................................................................................... 7 

Statement of Sandra Partain, Dean of Technology, Engineering, and Math, 

Bossier Parish Community College .................................................................... 15 

Statement of David Helveston, Vice President for Workforce, Career and 

Technical Education, Louisiana Community and Technical College System .. 24 

Statement of Gayle Flowers, Director of Career, Adult, and Alternative Education, Caddo Parish School Board ..................................................................... 28 

ALPHABETICAL LISTING

Bargas, Alvin 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 7 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 9 

Fleming, John 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 5 

Flowers, Gayle 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 28 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 31 

Helveston, David 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 24 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 26 

Partain, Sandra 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 15 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 18 

Vitter, Hon. David 

Opening statement ........................................................................................... 1 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 3 

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(1) 

HOW INNOVATIVE EDUCATION SYSTEMS 

BETTER PREPARE STUDENTS TO ENTER THE 

WORKFORCE (PART 1) 

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2015 

UNITED STATES SENATE, 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP, 

Shreveport, LA. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:30 a.m.,in the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, 3015 Greenwood Rd., Hon. David 

Vitter, Chairman of the Committee, presiding. 

Present: Senator Vitter. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID VITTER, CHAIRMAN, 

AND A U.S. SENATOR FROM LOUISIANA 

Chairman VITTER. Well, again, good morning, everybody, and 

welcome to our Small Business Committee field hearing and Town 

Hall Meeting. I’m really glad all of you could join us. I’m really 

glad Congressman John Fleming could join me and co-host this 

event. 

Thank you, John. 

Why don’t we all get started in the right frame of mind and the 

right frame of heart by standing, if you can, for a prayer, and 

please remain standing. Immediately following the prayer, we’ll 

have the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. 

But first, we’ll be led in prayer by Bishop Larry Brandon of the 

Praise Temple Full Gospel Baptist Cathedral. 

[Prayer.] 

Thank you, Bishop, so much. 

And now we’ll be led in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag by 

Harold Coats, and Harold is accompanied by Ray Urban, a distinguished World War II veteran. 

[Pledge of Allegiance.] 

Thank you so much, Harold and Ray. Everybody be seated. 

Welcome again. I also want to recognize and thank for their service State Representative Henry Burns who is with us; BESE member Jane Smith; and Bossier Parish Police Juror Doug Rimmer. 

Thank you all so much for your service. Thank you for being with 

us. 

As I said, this is both a Town Hall Meeting—and there will certainly be opportunity to hear from you—and a field hearing of the 

Senate Small Business Committee. I’m the brand new chair of the 

Senate Small Business Committee, and I wanted to bring the comDeShaun on LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER

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mittee to Louisiana and focus on important small business issues 

here. 

John, do you have any introductory comments? 

[The prepared statement of Chairman Vitter follows:] 

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STATEMENT OF JOHN FLEMING, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE 

FROM LOUISIANA 

Mr. FLEMING. Thanks, David, and thanks for having this Town 

Hall and hearing and, seemingly, on two unrelated subjects, one 

being education and then, of course, the other is entrepreneurship. 

But, in fact, they’re closely aligned and closely connected. 

For those of you who may not know my background, I was, of 

course, a physician for a number of years in Minden. But along the 

way, I fell into the entrepreneurship lane as well, opening up Subway restaurants here in Shreveport, Bossier, and the area, and 

then getting into other things such as real estate. 

And, you know, I learned very quickly when I opened up my 

practice in 1982 that I didn’t know a single thing about business. 

I didn’t know a debit from a credit, and I had to get on a very 

sharp learning curve if I was to survive as a physician. 

But I really found all of the unique values that we have in a free 

economy, that we have in this society, and began to apply it again 

in small business and entrepreneurship and learned that we can be 

very successful as a nation—in fact, most jobs come from small 

businesses. The problem is that we’re all on a learning curve, and 

it’s necessary for us not only to understand how the economy 

works—and that’s where our education comes in—but also we must 

have a skill. 

Whether you start with an education and then work into business or a skill and into a business, either way, both are essential. 

And one of the other surprising things that I’ve found is that we’ve 

reached a point in time now where we have a lot of people with 

college educations, but they can’t find a job. But we have a huge 

demand for skilled jobs, and we can’t meet that demand. So that’s 

really the modern day challenge, and I’m sure we’re going to talk 

about how we match these two together. 

So, once again, thank you, and I look forward to working with 

our panel and Senator Vitter. I yield back. 

Chairman VITTER. Thank you, John. John, as you said, these topics are closely related, and one of our big challenges in Louisiana 

is to make sure we give our young people the education, the training, and the skill sets they need to benefit from good jobs. 

You know, the good news is we do have a lot of those good jobs 

coming our way in Louisiana—about $80 billion in new and expanding economic development in the state over the next several 

years. That’s great, but right now, as it stands, we will be unable 

to meet those workforce demands. 

A lot of these companies will have to bring folks in from out of 

state, and not put young Louisianans to work. We need to change 

that and maximize this opportunity for young Louisianans. 

Right now, our Louisiana workforce is about 2.3 million working 

adults. Over a million of those have not obtained a college degree 

or postsecondary credentials, and an another 600,000 have not obtained a high school diploma. 

As today’s industries rely more and more heavily on technology, 

we need to fix that, and we need to give these folks the training 

they need. That doesn’t necessarily mean college, but the higher ed, 

vo-tech, or community college or skills training they need. 

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Now, Louisiana has taken several steps to alter the landscape of 

workforce development over the last few years, both at the high 

school and post-high school level. High school students now have 

greater access to career courses through dual enrollment programs, 

partnerships with outside businesses, et cetera. There’s a Jump 

Start program that’s very important in high school. 

But we can go further. In addition, the state legislature established the WISE Act, a $40 million workforce incentive initiative 

that has also spurred partnerships between industries and institutes of higher education. However, that is in jeopardy as well with 

proposed budget cuts at the state level. So we need to fix that. 

Nationally, our current system of higher education really, in my 

opinion, stifles innovation in a lot of cases. It limits schools’ ability 

to quickly respond to the needs of businesses and employers. It limits students’ ability to access financial aid in innovative ways. So 

we certainly need to address that at the national level. 

Much of the debate in Congress surrounding higher education focuses solely on the cost of traditional, four-year institutions, colleges and universities. I think we need to expand that focus because a lot of the prime opportunities in places like Louisiana is 

skills training. So we need to allow states to accredit and access 

financial aid more easily and enable some of the 1.63 million working adults in Louisiana with the skills training they need to get 

better jobs that are coming our way. 

I look forward to our witnesses today. As I suggested a minute 

ago, they are directly involved in this issue of improving our system of skills training, and preparing Louisianans for the workforce. 

Well, let’s move to our panel. Again, our primary focus today is 

how innovative education systems can better prepare students to 

enter the workforce. We have four great panelists who are all involved in that work in very important ways. I’m going to introduce 

all four, and then they’ll speak briefly in turn, and we’ll have a 

conversation with them following that. 

First will be Al Bargas, who is a lifetime resident of Baton Rouge 

and a graduate of LSU with a degree in business administration. 

A former CPA, Al worked in the public accounting area for several 

years before pursuing a career in the construction equipment industry, where he served in various capacities for 30 years. 

He is very involved in Associated Builders and Contractors and 

is the President of the Pelican Chapter. He became that in 2002. 

ABC, Associated Builders and Contractors, has several skill training programs that they are very involved in. 

Next will be Sandra Partain, the Dean of Technology, Engineering, and Math, who has worked for the Bossier Parish Community 

College for seven years. Before BPCC, she taught at the LSU 

Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, the School of Allied Health 

Professionals, for about eight years. 

After Sandra will be David Helveston. He serves as the Vice 

President for Workforce, Career and Technical Education at the 

Louisiana Community and Technical College System. Previously, 

David served as the Director of the Louisiana Workforce Investment Council and the Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives 

for the Louisiana Workforce Commission. 

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And finally will be Gayle Flowers, Director of Career, Adult, and 

Alternative Education for Caddo Parish Public Schools. She has 

served in this position since 2006 and leads the Career and Technical Education Program for the school district. She established 

Northwest Louisiana’s nine-district regional Jump Start Partnership. We were talking about Jump Start earlier, which is very, very 

important. She previously served for 14 years as principal of the 

nationally recognized Caddo Career and Technology Center, the 

apex of Caddo’s Career and Technical Education Program. 

Thank you all very much for being a key part of this program, 

and we’ll get started with Al Bargas. 

Al. 

STATEMENT OF ALVIN BARGAS, PRESIDENT, PELICAN 

CHAPTER, ASSOCIATED BUILDERS AND CONTRACTORS 

Mr. BARGAS. Chairman Vitter, Congressman Fleming, members 

of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 

and the other honored guests in the audience, good morning, and 

thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify before you 

today. 

As the senator mentioned, my name is Alvin Bargas, and I serve 

as the President of the Pelican Chapter of Associated Builders and 

Contractors located in Baton Rouge. The Pelican Chapter’s volunteer leaders are committed to training a safe, highly skilled construction workforce. 

The Chapter offers construction craft education programs in 

Baton Rouge and Lake Charles training centers and 19-plus satellite locations to currently more than 2,100 students. Since 1983, 

ABC member contractors and industry-related partners have privately funded more than $56,000,000 in industrial craft training. 

ABC has partnership agreements with 53 high schools in 23 

school districts. This includes 84 classes with more than 1,200 students per year in high-demand crafts such as welding and pipefitting. We also engage high school students through craft competitions and a three-day Build Your Future event. In addition to direct funding of these programs, ABC members also donate more 

than $60,000 a year in materials and equipment and volunteer 

over 1,800 hours annually in the classrooms. 

Louisiana’s construction industry now faces a work force challenge. Project announcements in excess of $60 billion in new construction, plus the expansion of existing facilities, is driving the 

need for skilled workers. Retirements and career changes will drive 

the demand for an additional 51,000 workers. 

Even with an exploding demand for a skilled construction workforce, public high schools continue to focus on four-year college prep 

curriculums. While this pathway is important, students should be 

offered opportunities to learn skills that prepare them for high-paying, in-demand careers that do not require a bachelor’s degree. 

That said, the expansion of Career and Technical Education or 

CTE options should never come at the expense of academic rigor 

or quality instruction and must clearly align with industry workforce needs and postsecondary credentials. 

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try and education stakeholders established a Craft Workforce Development Task force, which created a strategic roadmap entitled 

‘‘Building Louisiana’s Craft Workforce.’’ The Task force has ensured 

that an industry recognized and academically rigorous construction 

CTE curriculum will be consistently delivered across Louisiana’s 

training programs. 

The Louisiana Community and Technical College System, or 

LCTCS, as we know it, and the Louisiana Department of Education 

have adopted the curriculum of the National Center for Construction Education and Research, or NCCER. This curriculum blends 

classroom instruction with hands-on training and articulates to 

postsecondary credential and community college programs. 

Training providers are focused on leveraging capacity at high 

schools as well as leveraging assets such as facilities and funding 

with private providers. Training delivery includes compressed 

schedules for industry-based certifications as well as evening and 

weekend class alternatives. 

The Louisiana state government has also enacted innovative education reforms, such as Supplemental Course Academy, or SCA, as 

you may know it. This program gives high school students the option to choose from a diverse range of courses, including core academics, college preparation, and career training. 

Through SCA, students can customize their learning path by 

gaining industry-based certifications, in addition to earning high 

school and college credit. The program provides all Louisiana students equal access to career training and a head start on a postsecondary credential and ultimately a career. So a student doesn’t 

have to take the course at his school. Charter school students can 

come to ABC or come to the LCTCS location and take those 

courses. 

SCA can serve as a catalyst to recruit and train capable young 

people to either step into higher wage construction jobs or continue 

on to complete postsecondary courses. To achieve this, SCA provides that students, parents, and school counselors collaborate to 

make sure students register in courses that are appropriate for 

their age, their interests, and their capabilities. 

As an SCA provider, ABC is providing electrical, pipefitting, millwright, and welding to over 138 students currently. Our challenge 

ahead is to focus our current resources to support CTE programs, 

such as SCA and JumpStart, for in-demand industries that provide 

students with innovative and flexible training options that stretch 

from high school to advanced postsecondary credentials. This includes promoting new and existing partnerships between industries, government, and education providers while establishing clear 

accountability indicators and easily understood measures of success. 

On behalf of the Associated Builders and Contractors Pelican 

Chapter, I’d like to thank the committee for holding today’s hearing 

on this important subject. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Bargas follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Thank you very much, Al. Thanks for all the 

continuing work of ABC. 

Next is Sandra Partain, Dean at BPCC. 

Sandra. 

STATEMENT OF SANDRA PARTAIN, DEAN OF TECHNOLOGY, 

ENGINEERING, AND MATH, BOSSIER PARISH COMMUNITY 

COLLEGE 

Ms. PARTAIN. Chairman Vitter, Congressman Fleming, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak with 

you today about the efforts Bossier Parish Community College has 

made to improve our education systems and better prepare our students to enter the workforce. 

As Dean of the Division of Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, I am fortunate to have a team of innovative faculty and 

staff who don’t mind tackling challenges as they champion for our 

students. Ranked as one of the fastest growing community colleges 

in the United States by Community College Week, Bossier Parish 

Community College is faced with a growing number of students 

each semester who believe that a two-year associate’s degree is the 

best plan for their future. 

Our faculty and staff have been tasked to do more with less. Innovation is the best solution for a school reaching to deliver the 

best education to more students each year with depreciating resources. 

Our division is home to three U.S. Department of Labor Trade 

Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training, 

TAACCCT, grants. We are using these funds to transform delivery 

methods and accelerate credential attainment in the cyber technology, advanced manufacturing, and advanced welding career 

pathways. These programs will serve more than 1,900 TAA-eligible 

workers, veterans, and other individuals in the northwest region of 

Louisiana. 

Research shows that sector initiatives and career pathways work 

when training in technical occupations at an accelerated rate. Participants in sector-focused training programs earned significantly 

more; were more likely to work; and, in the second year, worked 

more consistently. They were working more hours and earning 

more hourly wages and were significantly more likely to receive 

benefits. 

By aligning programs in a sector-based design, credential attainment and articulation are accelerated. One significant obstacle for 

many nontraditional, adult learners is the intimidation of returning to school with the complex programming often associated with 

obtaining a college degree. 

To help remedy this situation, our division has incorporated career coach advisors in many of our technical degree pathways. A 

recent study demonstrates that intensive coaching increases retention graduation rates by 10 percent to 15 percent and is found to 

be cost effective when compared to other traditional retention strategies, such as financial aid. 

These coaches are available to take students at the point of admission and help them navigate career pathways by advising on 

course schedules and other wraparound services like completing 

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administrative paperwork and locating tutoring and other services 

on campus. For our division, this is now considered a best practice 

for programs in technical career education. 

Finally, working directly with industry has become critical to the 

success of our students being placed directly into the workforce 

after graduation. Industry-based credential attainment and direct 

contact with employers have provided job placement opportunities 

for our graduates. 

Our TAACCCT3 award focuses on growing needs in the advanced 

manufacturing and mechatronics areas. It’s a new day in manufacturing. Today’s employers need employees with advanced skills. 

They need problem solvers and trouble shooters. 

BPCC is excited to work with the Louisiana Economic Development Fast Start program to bring a state-recognized, industry certification that is rising to meet our area industry needs in advanced manufacturing. The program consists of four college courses 

that can be completed in one semester, or 16 weeks, and covers the 

essential skills needed in the modern manufacturing environment. 

The short-term program is ideal for nontraditional students who 

want to work in the manufacturing industry, but who require 

training in this area. Through the TAACCCT3 award, the rollout 

of this program has been a team approach to both implementation 

and job placement. 

This award has funded personnel within my division who meet 

regularly with area manufacturers. Most of these manufacturers 

are small businesses and employ 50 people or less. Other large 

manufacturers, like Benteler Steel/Tube, have moved into our area 

and will employ more than 500 people. It is critical that BPCC continues to have a program that meets the needs of industry as a 

whole rather than meeting the needs of one or two individual employers. 

Working directly with employers is key to the program’s success 

in placing students. More than 10 area manufacturers are working 

with the TAACCCT3 team to drive curriculum in this area and 

hire students upon graduation. These students meet regularly with 

program directors and faculty to give input on the skills being 

taught in this program. 

Furthermore, these employers come to campus several times a 

year and participate in a round-robin interview day where each of 

our graduating students gets a 15-minute opportunity to interview 

with each employer. In the year that this program has been in 

place, more than 80 students have been retrained, over 800 interviews have been conducted, and to date 30 graduates have reentered the workforce earning a better living wage. 

This innovative program is meeting the needs of all of our students by working directly with them on an individual basis and 

working directly with business and industry in both curriculum 

and credential attainment. This process, including job placement, 

has become a best practice for our division and our school. It is important that higher education continues to work with industry 

leaders to make sure our students graduate with the credentials 

and skills necessary to be employed. 

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in-hand with employers to make sure that students are trained for 

high-demand, high-wage workforce opportunities. Our future goals 

include the establishment of a flagship weld shop in Northwest 

Louisiana with the TAACCCT4 and state grant awards to add another option for our students. 

Traditional academics is being merged with workforce development to create a new age in education valuing career technical education as a marketable trade skill necessary for our students to 

prosper in Louisiana. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today. 

I am happy to answer any questions you may have regarding our 

programs at BPCC. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Partain follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Thank you very much, Sandra. 

Next is David Helveston with the Louisiana Community and 

Technical College System of which BPCC is a part, of course. 

David. 

STATEMENT OF DAVID HELVESTON, VICE PRESIDENT FOR 

WORKFORCE, CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION, LOUISIANA COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE SYSTEM 

Mr. HELVESTON. Thank you, Chairman Vitter and Congressman 

Fleming, for the opportunity to speak today, and guests in the audience. I am David Helveston. I am the Vice President for Workforce, Career and Technical Education at the Louisiana Community 

and Technical College System, or LCTCS. 

As we’ve discussed today, Louisiana is in the middle of a boom 

in the petrochemical industry. Over the next few years, advanced 

manufacturing, industrial construction, and IT is projected to experience unprecedented growth. With investments in facilities and 

new expansions nearing $100 billion, the impacts will be felt across 

Louisiana.They’ll be felt by large corporations. They’ll be felt by 

small businesses and entrepreneurs. They’ll be felt by the individuals out there struggling to make a better life for themselves. 

With the forecast demand out there for skilled labor, it shows 

that anyone in Louisiana who obtains the necessary skills will have 

not just a job, but a life-long career and a clear path to the middle 

class. Occupational forecasts also show that most of these job openings in Louisiana in the coming years will require more than a 

high school diploma but less than a four-year degree. 

It is essential that Louisiana’s higher education system delivers 

market-responsive training to meet employers’ demand and prepare students to enter directly into the workforce. To produce those 

graduates who transition seamlessly into the workforce, we have to 

align our program offerings to match occupational outlooks, and we 

must partner closely with business and industry to develop the curricula that meets their specific needs for workers. 

At LCTCS, one of our system goals is to quadruple the number 

of partnerships we have with business and industry by the year 

2020. A great example of one of those partnerships is right here at 

BPCC between Benteler Steel and other area manufacturers and 

the community college. 

At the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering on 

BPCC’s campus, students can earn their Certification for Manufacturing, which is an industry-based certification and an industrybased curriculum that was developed by Louisiana Economic Development and those manufacturing partners. Students will train 

on the real equipment that they will work on at the job. They will 

be ready from day one for their employment, and the manufacturing employers in the area will have access to a highly skilled 

pool of workers throughout the area. 

Partnerships like this one at BPCC are happening across the 

state amongst various industries. Our partnership with Associated 

Builders and Contractors to expand training capacity for the skilled 

crafts by sharing facilities and instructors is another public-private 

partnership that is producing real results at a number of locations. 

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We are also developing partnerships with local businesses to encourage nontraditional students to consider nontraditional careers. 

For example, in Baton Rouge at the Baton Rouge Community 

College, we’re working with Dow Chemical for a Women in Welding 

program. This program offers unemployed or underemployed 

women the opportunity to get into welding. There is a scholarship 

that provides mentoring from experienced welding women and provides direct connections to employers at the end of the program. It 

is partnerships such as these with business and industry that are 

key to our success in Louisiana in higher education. 

Louisiana’s budget has been in the news a great deal lately, particularly as it relates to higher education. I would say that regardless of potential cuts, it is our job at the Louisiana Community and 

Technical College System to have a laser-like focus on producing 

skilled graduates prepared for the high-wage, high-demand careers 

of tomorrow and driving that further economic growth. This is our 

obligation to our students, to our employers, to our taxpayers. 

By aligning our programs to meet the needs of local business and 

industry, our community and technical colleges are part of the 

budget solution. It may be somewhat over-simplified, but our tax 

base as a state increases when the unemployed, the underemployed, and those on government assistance have the skills they 

need to enter the workforce and become prosperous taxpayers. 

At the federal level, we have heard the president’s proposal of 

free community college for all. While we understand and appreciate 

the recognition—the discussions that are happening at the national 

level—we understand there is a lot that goes into such a proposal, 

a lot of complicated issues to sort out. 

I would say a more modest proposal and one that Senator Vitter 

referenced earlier is greater access to financial aid. An adjustment 

to the Pell grant system where short-term training, reducing the 

clock-hour requirements on Pell grants, would go a long way in 

Louisiana. 

For example, a welding program, a rigorous 12-week welding program, full time, where a student comes out with an industry-based 

certification that employers are demanding—nearly certain employment—is not eligible for that full Pell grant that an academic program might be. This full time, compressed training leads directly 

to a high-wage career, yet that financial barrier exists for many of 

our state’s unemployed and underemployed. 

While discussions surrounding higher education and workforce 

will continue at the state and federal level, Louisiana’s community 

and technical colleges remain committed to partnering closely with 

business and industry to produce more graduates prepared for 

high-wage, high-demand jobs here in Louisiana. 

Senator Vitter, Congressman Fleming, we look forward to working with you and your staffs in the future. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Helveston follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Thank you very much, David. 

Our final witness will be Gayle Flowers with the Caddo Parrish 

Public School System. 

Gayle. 

STATEMENT OF GAYLE FLOWERS, DIRECTOR OF CAREER, 

ADULT, AND ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION, CADDO PARISH 

SCHOOL BOARD 

Ms. FLOWERS. Thank you. Chairman Vitter, Representative 

Fleming, members of the Senate Committee on Small Business and 

Entrepreneurship, and our honored guests who are here, good 

morning. Thank you for this opportunity. As mentioned, I’m Gayle 

Flowers. I’ve been Director of Career, Adult, and Alternative Education in Caddo since 2006. 

Previously, I served as principal for 14 years at Caddo Career 

and Technology Center. While there, I implemented the first high 

school industry-valued certifications in the state. We started with 

AYES, which is ASE’s high school program for the automotive area. 

Then we added NCCER and construction, HVAC excellence, and 

EPA in heating, air conditioning, and ventilation. 

It really became a competitive component of our school’s culture 

for teachers to work with their advisory councils to identify and 

add industry certifications. Today, we offer 18 industry certifications, and we’re working to add more. 

Because of my background and experience leading this effort, I 

was recruited to serve on the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s 

IBC Committee. I’m also honored to serve as a leader for the 

Northwest Louisiana Regional Jump Start Team, a partnership of 

industry leaders, small business people, economic development, 

workforce development experts, and both K–12 and postsecondary 

educators. 

I want to recognize one of our members in the audience, Ricky 

Hall with Hall Builders. We’re glad to have you here. 

We have a growing number of Northwest Louisiana stakeholders 

who are serving on our Regional Jump Start Team. In education, 

we have nine different school districts, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, 

Claiborne, Desoto, Natchitoches, Red River, Sabine, and Webster. 

Postsecondary, we’re working with Southern University Shreveport, Bossier Parish Community College, North Louisiana Technical Colleges, LSU Shreveport, and Northwestern State University. 

We have a very broad and growing number of employer partners 

that are working with us. I won’t bore you by reading all of them, 

but I’m very glad to make that list available to any of you that are 

interested. 

We also have community stakeholders, the Community Foundation, a number of Chambers of Commerce, Shreveport, Desoto, 

Natchitoches, Providence House, the Louisiana Workforce Commission, the City of Shreveport, North Louisiana Economic Partnership, Cyber Innovation Center, to name a few. Our employer partners are a significant and driving force, and as we started our 

Jump Start partnership, we wanted to make sure that they made 

up 50 percent or more of our membership, because we want them 

to drive our efforts. 

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The Northwest Louisiana Regional Jump Start Team received a 

2014 competitive grant to develop a suite of career development 

courses that students in our region are now taking in middle and 

high school. These courses enable them to learn about a wide range 

of career opportunities, develop study skills to succeed in high 

school and beyond, create a life plan for themselves, and at the end 

of high school master those skills that are needed to secure employment, engage in lifelong learning, and become excellent employees, 

team members, and workplace leaders. 

After a thorough review of our labor market data in this region, 

looking at those trends as well, we’re focusing on four primary 

business sectors that have been mentioned previously: manufacturing, construction, healthcare, and transportation. And we added 

two others that have also been mentioned here today: information 

technology, because it cuts across all types of industries, and energy, because even though we have ups and downs, it’s been a 

backbone historically of our region. 

Our Regional Jump Start Team is committed to continuing to develop, implement, and align innovative curricula that teach our 

students key work-related skills and help them attain industry— 

not just based, but valued certifications. We make this commitment 

on behalf of all students, including those with disabilities, because 

we firmly believe that there’s a pathway for every student. 

That’s one thing that I am very proud of that we have—and we 

have been able to offer to the state—is an awareness of some of 

those certifications that are more accessible for students. 

Our Northwest Louisiana Regional Jump Start Team won a second competitive grant for 2015, forming a regional workplace experience exchange where high schools and employers are coming together to develop a wide variety of workplace experiences that develop our students beyond the classroom: workplace visits, industry 

speakers in classrooms, internships and more. 

Most importantly, we’re focused on creating a maximum number 

of teacher externships, where our teachers can work for a week and 

counselors for a day during the summer in small and large businesses to learn current industry best practices. These externships 

help our teachers, both career technical teachers and academic 

teachers and counselors, to better relate what students are learning with what students need to learn to become successful in the 

workplace. 

In addition to being Jump Start leaders, our Regional Team is 

dedicated to working with young adults who are underemployed or 

unemployed. We will work with these young people to get them 

training and opportunities through a variety of arenas in our region so that they can find career opportunities and become productive adults. 

In Northwest Louisiana, we’re expanding career and technical 

student organizations, also known as CTSOs, as apart of our student career preparation. Through CTSOs, students learn and practice leadership, teamwork, and communication skills valued by employers. 

We’re also dedicated to investing in our teachers to help them develop the expertise needed to teach and guide our students as they 

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continue their individual journeys to college and, most importantly, 

a satisfying career. 

Caddo Parish Public Schools and the Northwest Louisiana Regional Jump Start Team are both dedicated to innovation. Going 

before BESE in March are 10 graduation pathways that we have 

developed, focused on workplace safety and industry credentials, 

like an electrician’s helper, that are clearly relevant to helping 

small businesses succeed. 

These pathways include four specifically designed for students 

with disabilities covered by Act 833. We are confident that these 

pathways will not only be of benefit to students across our region 

and state, but will provide a pool of qualified, trained, and motivated young people to the small businesses of our region. We’re 

currently collaborating with the Department of Education and 

other regional teams across the state in developing a micro-enterprise graduation pathway specifically designed to provide students 

with skills and credentials needed to start, work in, and lead small 

businesses. 

I come here today as part of a regional team dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurialism. Our goal is to help our region’s employers succeed, which we know will raise our whole region’s standard of living and, by definition, help our students succeed. We 

stand ready to contribute to the conversation about innovation and 

entrepreneurialism in any way that we can and to support innovation in both industry and education. 

Again, I thank you for the opportunity to testify here today and 

to let me share my excitement about Jump Start and high-quality 

career and technical education with you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Flowers follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Thank you very much, Gayle. Thanks for your 

testimony. Thanks for your leadership. 

Now we’re going to have a discussion about these issues, and I’ll 

kick it off and then throw it to John. Let me start with David. 

It’s obvious from all of the testimony that we’re on the right 

path, generally, in Louisiana, and we’re partnering with businesses 

and we’re developing very practical training programs better than 

ever before. But a lot of the constraints, including some you mentioned, are at the federal level, I mean, things like traditional Pell 

grants that are part of this bias that I talked about awhile ago toward four-year institutions. What are the top one or two or three 

things John and I should fight to change at the federal level to create more flexibility and more opportunity for this skills training 

here in Louisiana? 

Mr. HELVESTON. Well, I mean, I guess you could go a lot of ways 

on that. I pick out Pell, specifically, in access to financial aid because it’s an easy one to bite off, I think. It’s something—you know, 

a 600 clock-hour requirement for Pell. We’re making programs 

longer when employers want them shorter. They want the worker 

next week. 

Chairman VITTER. So you’re actually artificially lengthening 

some programs—— 

Mr. HELVESTON. Correct. 

The CHAIRMAN [continuing]. Because of that requirement of Pell. 

Mr. HELVESTON. Yes. 

Chairman VITTER. Even though the real world is telling you to 

do the opposite. 

Mr. HELVESTON. Correct. We’re embedding multiple industrybased certifications to make it longer. So that would be one tweak 

that should be relatively simple to make, I would think. 

Chairman VITTER. Al, do you want to jump in? 

Anybody else want to add to the list? 

Mr. BARGAS. We don’t need to expand the funding of Pell, necessarily, but we do need to expand the access to technical education. It’s just not conducive to technical education, as David 

talked about. 

Chairman VITTER. Right. 

Mr. BARGAS. So we don’t want more money. We just want to open 

it up to people who want to be welders and pipe fitters or nurses 

or—— 

Chairman VITTER. Right. And, in fact, to the extent some of 

those folks are going into a four-year English degree, we’ll save 

money, and we’ll do better by them. 

Mr. BARGAS. Many of them take the college path because that’s 

the only way they can get a grant, and they really don’t want to 

go to college, and they’re not going to be successful. 

Chairman VITTER. Right. 

Ms. FLOWERS. And I would say that because of that, when I was 

at Caddo Career and Technology Center, we had folks from our 

community that formed a foundation, and they offered competitive 

scholarships to our students. This will be our 20th year. They raise 

about $60,000 a year to help students continue their education 

wherever they deem appropriate. And that’s a community effort 

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with no federal support, because of that need, and Pell grants 

would help change that. 

Chairman VITTER. Right. Sandra, any addition to the list? 

Ms. PARTAIN. I agree with what they’ve said so far. I really 

would also encourage you to, at our state level, look at the completion rate. We’re actually penalized as a community college when we 

have someone complete a shorter degree versus the longer degree, 

whereas the employers are actually telling us to give them shorter 

certificate programs so they can go right to work. But then as an 

institution, we’re penalized because they didn’t complete the associate degree, even though they were actually employed. 

Chairman VITTER. Right. Yes, it’s obviously different if somebody 

leaves a program because they got a good job versus flunking out 

or dropping out. 

John. 

Mr. FLEMING. Yes, great information. I want to first of all thank 

the panel for being here today, and your testimony is very valuable 

and most enlightening. My first question is for Sandra. 

In your written testimony, you discussed the importance of the 

BPCC programs collaborating with local industries to ensure students are fully trained and equipped as skilled workers so that 

they’re able to move seamlessly from the classroom to a job. 

Now, several months ago, I went out and visited with Benteler 

Steel—very impressive, state-of-the art. In fact, they told me it is 

the most modern advanced steel piping manufacturer in the world. 

And the bottom line was that they came here because energy is 

cheap. Otherwise, they would still be in Germany. 

So we are happy that Germany has bought into this idea of driving energy costs up. We’re just trying to stop that over here so we 

can get all of those jobs. But they tell me that they typically send 

employees, many of them, back to Germany for nine months of 

training. But they would like to partner with us to train them here 

so they don’t have to do that. 

So use that as an example and any others where we have this 

smooth, seamless transition from education to job. 

Ms. PARTAIN. Well, that relationship we have with Benteler Steel 

is a good example of that. We’re actually continuing to work to improve that relationship even further. Our TAACCCT4 funding and 

some of the other state funding that we received is to kind of expand our apprenticeship possibilities. And one of the flagship philosophies of Germany is that they support apprenticeships very 

strongly. So we look forward to even being able to place more students with Benteler. 

But we are trying to plug into what the philosophy is of a number of companies. The Computer Science Corporation is also one of 

the companies that we work very closely with to, again, align what 

we are currently doing in developing curriculum and in determining which industry-based certifications we should pursue so 

that when those students have completed their training, they will 

be employed without any issues. 

Mr. FLEMING. And for you and the rest of the panel, doesn’t this 

require a paradigm change in education? Typically, we form fit our 

education curriculum to a specific degree and knowledge base, and 

then they have to go out and somehow put a square peg in a round 

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hole in job. Doesn’t this make more sense to form fit exactly the 

tools they need so when they finish, it slides right into a job which 

is high paying? 

Ms. PARTAIN. We do start with the end in mind now, which is 

not that far from—my personal experience is in healthcare, and 

you wouldn’t train physicians with just arbitrary theory if it wasn’t 

something they actually could apply. So we just basically take that 

same philosophy and apply it to all technical education at BPCC. 

Chairman VITTER. Great. 

Gayle, you talked a lot about Jump Start. You’re very involved 

in that, obviously. And, again, to remind everybody, Jump Start is 

the program that’s pretty new based in high schools to highlight 

and develop students’ interest in skill training opportunities. 

Obviously, here in this region, it’s pretty developed, as you have 

described. How would you honestly rate Jump Start statewide, and 

how can we get it to the next level statewide? 

Ms. FLOWERS. I would say that, statewide, we’re in our infancy 

with Jump Start because it’s in a four-year transition period from 

areas of concentration to Jump Start pathways. The first pathways 

were approved by BESE in December. We’ll have another round of 

pathways approved in March, and I see that as a continuing process as we grow in that direction. 

But we’ve hit the ground running. There are a number of things 

that we have been able to do immediately. The grants that we have 

received are small. When you’re talking about the large partnership that I mentioned, we received $75,000 last year and $75,000 

this year. So it doesn’t go very far, but we have worked hard to leverage that so that it has maximum impact. 

So I would look at ways to fund and then ways to remove bureaucracy. One thing that I would encourage strongly is looking at 

career tech ed courses that have rigorous academic content and giving credit for both academic and career technical in that course. 

I’ll give an example of welding—a lot of geometry in welding, and 

I can give example after example—healthcare—I know, Sandra, 

you could help me there. But there are other states in our nation 

that give both academic and career technical credit for courses. 

And if we’re talking about accelerating a student’s opportunity for 

industry-valued certifications, that would really open up their high 

school schedule a great deal. 

Chairman VITTER. So to follow up on that, Gayle, say if a high 

school student is doing some welding work or courses, right now in 

Louisiana, what credit does he or she get and what—— 

Ms. FLOWERS. They get an elective credit. 

Chairman VITTER. So it’s limited to that. 

Ms. FLOWERS. Typically, in a high school student’s schedule, they 

have room for eight, maybe 10 elective credits at the most. So if 

you’re trying to create any kind of depth of knowledge in a career 

field, it’s possible, but it takes a lot of planning and coaching with 

students and parents to help them understand the potential. 

Chairman VITTER. Okay. Great point. 

John. 

Mr. FLEMING. Just to kind of follow up on what we’re talking 

about—Jump Start and other programs—how are you working with 

the K through 12s, the local school boards? How are you 

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transitioning there? We’ve been talking about transitioning to the 

employers and the final job destination. But what about from the 

schools, the basic school—— 

Ms. FLOWERS. The employers are actually easier to work with 

sometimes than the education system, because you have that huge 

shift in paradigm that you mentioned earlier. But we’re focusing 

with counselors, teachers, and then educating at every level. 

The externships really help change that paradigm quickly and move it faster. And with our $75,000 that we received last year, we 

really focused in on those externships and getting teachers out into 

work places to see best practices to help shift and accelerate that 

change of understanding. 

Mr. FLEMING. Al, did you want to respond? 

Mr. BARGAS. Yes. We work real hard with the high schools, and 

we’re blessed. We’ve got a couple of guys that run our training centers. One is a past superintendent of education for Ascension Parish, and he has 30-plus years of experience. So he’s quite well 

versed in public education and knows a lot of folks. We just go from 

district to district, and, as Gayle mentioned, we visit with the high 

school principals. 

First, you have to find a school that has the facilities. We’ve 

helped build out a number of facilities to do welding and electrical 

labs and stuff like that. But you’ve got to search through the districts and find the schools that have the physical assets, the welding labs, the electrical labs, or what-not, to do those programs. We 

try to put an industry professional, someone—a journeyman—out 

of the different crafts into that school and start a high school program. 

The other thing I wanted to mention—the Supplemental Course 

Academy. If your schools aren’t looking at it, or the schools where 

your children go aren’t involved with that, that’s something that’s 

really been a great plus, and there’s money there to provide this 

type of training. It just needs to be accessed, and I think as time 

goes by, it’ll be more successful. 

But a Supplemental Course Academy and just one-on-one working with the schools to put people in—whether it be the medical 

profession, the automotive, or construction—help get them involved 

with the schools and develop these programs. We have a great network now, and we’ll continue to build on that. 

Mr. FLEMING. Great. 

Ms. FLOWERS. I would add that I had mentioned earlier that the 

professional development piece is so very critical and that professional development can be the externships, it can be upgrading 

teachers so that they’re able to offer those industry certifications, 

which requires them to upgrade their own skills, and it’s also that 

career development and career counseling component that has to 

be made much more rigorous and much more targeted and focused 

for students starting at the early grade levels. 

When you’re talking about elementary school, you’re really talking about career awareness, and not just those traditional areas, focusing in on at least the six that we know are high-demand, highwage occupations in our region. Then as you move into middle 

school, you’re looking at not only career awareness, but some career exploration. 

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And then at the high school level, career preparation—really getting out and starting to form some of those experiences, whether 

it’s with a guest speaker, a field trip, a short-term or long-term internship, job shadowing, so that they know what that workplace is 

like and they can find their niche early and how it fits with their 

lives and their goals. 

Chairman VITTER. Great. Al, let me follow up with you. Associated Builders and Contractors—so that’s private sector, a private 

sector training opportunity. For your typical student trainee, 

what’s the average cost to them, and how does a typical person in 

that ABC slot finance that? I assume that is a big factor in terms 

of your ability to expand. 

Mr. BARGAS. Well, our school is funded by area industries in the 

surrounding areas. Where the school is located—it’s by the Southwest Louisiana Construction Users Roundtable in the Lake Charles 

area and by the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance in the 

Baton Rouge area. So they help us with the funding. But the students typically pay $140 a semester for tuition. Most 

of our employers, if they successfully complete that semester, will 

reimburse that. So we collect the money straight from the student 

or we’ll get it from our employers. It’s very inexpensive to the students, and we believe that that’s one of the keys why we are so 

busy. 

Our typical training model is we train from 6:00 to 9:00 at night 

two nights a week in all of our courses, and we pretty much cover 

the gamut on construction crafts. We also offer a summer daytime 

training for students coming out of high school, especially for the 

students transitioning from junior to senior and senior graduates. 

We do this at no cost for those students. We fund that out of our 

operating budget. 

And then, of course, we take advantage—we are a provider approved by the Supplemental Course Academy. We’re approved by 

or licensed by the BESE board. 

So we’re able to provide those types of training and achieve some 

of that funding, which, quite frankly, is good to get, but it doesn’t 

quite cover your entire cost. So we supplement that cost with our 

private funding. So we’re able to offer the students coming from 

high school as well as—and I mentioned one of the charter schools. 

We have 70-something students from one of the charter schools, 

who were in a terrible situation because they come from a disadvantaged area of Baton Rouge, and so it’s been a blessing for 

those young men and young women. They’ll finish in welding and 

pipefitting and go on and have great careers. 

Chairman VITTER. So those programs that are at night—obviously, all of those students are working during the day, or at least 

the huge majority? 

Mr. BARGAS. The vast majority. That’s correct. 

Chairman VITTER. And $140 a semester is a great deal. Obviously, the cost to you is way beyond that. What do you think the 

typical cost is compared to the $140? 

Mr. BARGAS. Probably for a welder on a semester, it probably 

runs about $1,250 to $1,300. 

Ms. FLOWERS. And I’d like to mention that Caddo Career and 

Technology Center is also a Supplemental Course Academy, and we 

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did that so that students who are home-schooled, in a private 

school, or a charter school in our region could take advantage of 

those career technical opportunities. 

Chairman VITTER. Right. 

John. 

Mr. FLEMING. Gayle, in your testimony, you described a four-step 

program for Northwest Louisiana. Are you collaborating with other 

regions throughout the state on a similar Jump Start kind of program? 

Ms. FLOWERS. Yes. With the grants that have been funded, we 

have partnership meetings and conference calls together. And then 

because I’ve been a career tech ed director for a number of years, 

there’s a strong statewide cooperation and networking that we 

have. So there is a lot of sharing back and forth. 

When we got the grant to work on the career development suite 

of courses, only one other region was funded, and we worked independently on that development. But this year, we’re training together so that we can take the best of each development and make 

it even better and then share that throughout the state. 

Mr. FLEMING. So I’m hearing cross-pollination between different 

school segments as well as with employers. 

Ms. FLOWERS. And trying to share those best practices, because 

somebody that’s been doing it for a long time will have great ideas. 

Somebody that’s just into it might have some fresh ideas we 

haven’t thought of. So that is very important, that collaboration 

and sharing. 

Chairman VITTER. Great. We’re going to start to wrap up. I really want to thank our four witnesses, who are at the heart of the 

program, for being here today. It was a great time sacrifice for 

them and, more importantly, for their ongoing work. Let’s give 

them a round of applause. 

[Applause.] 

I also want to thank my co-host and participant today, John 

Fleming. Congressman Fleming and I work together on all sorts of 

issues important to Northwest Louisiana, certainly including education and workforce training issues. 

John, thank you for being here very much. 

[Applause.] 

Thanks to you for coming out. And, obviously, I don’t want this 

to be an isolated visit. If you have ideas, suggestions, questions 

about what we’ve talked about today, other small business issues, 

or other issues, in general, please contact John and myself. For me, 

the easiest way is to go to my Senate Web site, 

www.vitter.senate.gov. There’s easy email access there and all of 

our phone numbers, including the Shreveport office as well. 

And, finally, I want to thank the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum for hosting us. This was a great venue for it, and I want to 

thank them. 

John, any closing thoughts? 

Mr. FLEMING. David, yes. Once again, I want to thank you for 

hosting this. This is a real Senate subcommittee hearing. This is 

not—or, actually, a full committee hearing—excuse me. And, of 

course, a record is taken back to Washington on this. We’ll spread 

this information among our staffers, and it will be put to good use. 

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We thank you so much again, panelists. 

And I’d like to have an applause for Senator Vitter and all the 

work that he’s doing. 

[Applause.] 

Chairman VITTER. Thank you all very much. Have a great rest 

of the day, and we’ll stay in touch. 

[Whereupon, at 1:10 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.] 

Æ 

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