This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Welcome aboard, thanks for tuning in. Merry Christmas. Thanks to all the truckers out there. I want to start off by saying that thank you to all the truckers out there on the highway. You are out there keeping the wheels of the economy rolling, delivering all the stuff that people are going to be looking for after the Christmas season, as well as all the groceries people are going to be looking at to do their celebrations if they do
more celebrations over the weekend. Again, also first responders want to thank shout out to the first responders, police and fire, hospital workers, food service employees. You know, if you go to a restaurant, if you and your family celebrate Christmas by going to a restaurant, those people are there on Christmas Day when they could be home with their families.
That's why a lot of people in the food service industry and in other industries actually celebrate their holidays a day before, week before, the weekend after, or something along those lines. Also, you got your hotel and motel workers. If you're staying someplace, all those people that are taking care of you while you're at the hotel. There for
you as well, store clerks and convenience store employees. And take the time if you will at some point, you know, when you go into these stores or you go someplace, just take the time to say thank you for being here.
Now, first of all, and I want to talk about this a little bit.
Christmas is not the end of the Christmas season. It is the beginning. There is the common misconception that the Twelve Days at Christmas actually occur before Christmas, when in fact the December twenty fourth and earlier are advent days and a period of preparation, not the actual twelve Days
of Christmas. The Twelve Days at Christmas is a festive Christian season from just remember the twenty fifth, which is Christmas Day, to January the fifth, the twelfth night, ending with the Epiphany on January the sixth, marking the journey of the Magei to Jesus. The celebrations include feasts, religious observances, gift giving, caroling, et cetera. Now, again, as far as the timing is concerned, starts Christmas Day Day one ends on the twelfth night January fifth, leading up to the Epiphany.
On the sixth.
Now, the significance of this commemorates in the Nativity and the arrival of the Three Wise Men, known as the Magi. Activities of feasting parties, caroling famous song, lighting yule logs, exchanging gifts, often on the first day of first or last day, in a mix of religious and secular merriment.
Now there are religious feasts during this.
Specific days for saints like Saint Stephen, which was who was the first martyr on December the twenty sixth, as Saint John December the twenty seventh, and the Holy Innocence
on December third, December twenty eighth. Now, going back into the time and the Bible, at that time, Herod, who was the king, had learned that the King of the Jews had been born, and because he didn't know who that was, and because he was fearful of somebody coming up and taking his title, he sent his people out to kill the first born male child of every family in the area first born male child a slaughter. Again
the feast of the Holy Innocence. The origin of the traditions in Europe, solidified by the Church to unify celebrations around the winter solstice and the Eastern Church's Epiphany. Now a lot of Christian traditions because they were dealing with the time of where you know, at the start of the Christian religion, Catholic religion during the Roman times, Roman
was pretty much pagan. A lot of areas around the world were pagan before non Christian, before Christianity came into existence in those areas, and kind of a way of melding the different celebrations for what they did versus what the Catholics did, they kind of changed things around and kind of incorporated them with those traditions again, Christmas Day.
I'm not even sure when Christmas Day actually was in terms of going back into history, but it was solidified around the winter solstice in order to combine with the other people that might have been celebrating at that time that weren't Christian and kind of had the two celebrations going on at the same time. Course, decorations traditionally Christmas trees and decoration aren't taken down after the Twelfth Night.
I never understood a lot of people, and I know some people that you know, Christmas Day, they have Christmas and so on, and then all of a sudden the next day there ripping do not ripping down, but taking down decorations and cleaning out the house and forget about Christmas. But to do Christmas right, it is not just the area or the time period up to Christmas, but it is a celebration of the Christmas season for the next twelve days. And of course many people know about the
twelve Days of Christmas. Buy the song, of course, twelve days of Christmas, six birds, four groups of performers, one group of farm hands, one set of precious metals, and a tree. Well, if you're following it home, you added that up and you said, Kevin, that's thirteen items. How do you get the twelve days of Christmas from that? Well, you've got the partridge in a pear tree, which is part of the first day of Christmas. So again you've
got basically those items. Now, PNC Bank and they've been doing this for a number of years, and I'll talk about that in a minute. Every year they come out with the PNC Chris Smith's Price Index. I have been following this every year as long as I can remember. Every time I'm on the air around that time period, I talk about the PNC Christmas Price Index. Interestingly enough, CPI, which is like the Consumer Price Index.
Like I said, I have been following this.
I always look forward to around the Thanksgiving season when this index is released, and I look forward to seeing that. Being a numbers guy, being a recovering accountant, I'm always interested in the details behind. I'm interested in the cost. I'm interested in the inflation and how that reflects the P ANDZ. To give you an introduction if you've not heard of this before, the PNC Price Christmas Price Index.
It's an annual tradition which shows the current cost of one set of each of the gifts in the song the Twelve Days of Christmas. It is similar to the US Price and Consumer Price Index, which measures the changing prices of goods and services like housing, food, clothing, and transportation and more that reflect the spending habits of the
average American. The goods and services in the PNC Christmas Price Index are far more whimsical, of course, and for most years the price changes closely mirror those of the Consumer Price Index. And it's been something that's been very amazing to me. Where you take a song, you add up the price of all those items with the various items about that and all the different components to that, and it very closely mirrors what's going on in the
regular economy. For anybody that's interested in this, if you go to PNC their website, the p and C and just look up p and C Christmas Price Index, it is a great tool in order to teach kids about inflation, talk about goods, and talk about different things as far as the economy is concerned. And as I said, this is something where on a usual year, most years it closely mirrors what goes on as far as the economy is concerned. And the consumer price index fun way to
measure consumer spending and trends in the economy. So even if Piper's Piping or Guisa laying didn't make it on your gift list this year, you can still learn about a lot about checking out their prices and how they have increased.
Over the years or decreased over the years.
It all started basically to go back to the beginning forty two years ago as a way to engage clients of PNC's predecessor, Prominent National Bank in Philadelphia during the traditionally light holiday weeks that hatched as the creative brainchild of the banks, and then Chief Economists has since grown into one of the PNC's most popular and anticipated economic reports.
Over the years, trends of emerging the PNC Price Index and has often increased or decreased as the rate is consistent with the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation produced by the US Bureau Department of Labor. And then also through the years, four factors have kind of influenced this.
The Internet.
They've started adding into their what it would cost if you bought these items over the internet. The price of services overall has increased while prices of goods have slowed. This is a flip from forty two years ago when goods were much higher than services. Fuel costs have to be added in here. They have a major impact and major effect on shipping, and as we know, fuel prices
have beencific significantly volatile over the last few years. Also especially challenging go back to the pandemic year and the fact that performers couldn't be out there. They had to eliminate a lot of that from the index, and so the cost of that index went way, way, way way down in conjunction with the way the economy behaved. And then since the PNC price Index. Just give me on
a background. Since they launched the BLS and the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Consumer Price Index has increased two hundred and twenty three percent over those forty two years, while the PNC Christmas Price Index has only increased by fifty seven one fifty seven percent. I should say, let's get into the details of this coming up. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's struck in Network seven hundred WLW.
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We're talking in the previous segment about PNC's twenty twenty five Christmas Price Index. The holiday cheer comes at a premium total of all the gifts. The has risen four point five percent compared to last year, out pacing the Bureau of Labor Statistic Consumer Price Index over the year, which is reading right around three percent. The data and I'll get this, okay. The data is compiled by the PNC's Investment off using sources from across the country including
dance and theater companies, hatcheries, pet stores, and others. Over All, the twelve gifts of Christmas that comprise the p and C Christmas Price index increased to a tree topping. If you just bought each one of the individual items, we've cost you fifty one thousand, four hundred and seventy six dollars and twelve cents this year. According to Amanda Agatti, she is the chief investment officer of P and C Asset Management Group, this year's increase reflects labor market pressures
and economic uncertainty, not tariffs. Truelove's list is all domestic now. That is you know again and what I've been talking about on this program. There are a lot of things in this economy that are not affected by tariffs, even though what we are hearing from the spoon fed regurgitators in the mainstream media. Again, she indicates this year's increase reflects labor market pressures, which is what I've been talking about a lot that people are not factoring that into
the inflation rate. And because this is labored driven, it is at four point five percent increase compared to the overall consumer price index of three percent. Again not tariff related. So the true cost of Christmas, that is, if you were to buy the gifts as the versus repeat, is four point four percent higher at a whopping two hundred and eighteen thousand, five hundred forty two dollars and ninety
eight cents tax. Sevy Tech Savy Santas might avoid long lines and parking lot of adventures by shopping online with its lower inflation rate of three point one percent, but the total shopping bill remains higher at fifty five thousand, seven hundred and forty eight which is above that fifty one thousand dollars number. The convenience of shopping at home still impacts by elevated shipping and packaging costs. Now, getting into the details of this, and this is one of
the things you know as a recovering accountant. Digging into the numbers always fascinates me. And that's one of the things that I love about this particular survey or the PNC Christmas Price Index is again how it normally matte
mirrors in normal years. The consumer price indict All the glitters is not All the glitters is gold five gold rings shine Bright, soaring thirty two point five percent year over year, the single largest increase by far in twenty twenty five, but a bargain compared to the forty five point forty five percent jump in gold prices as of
October thirtieth, twenty twenty five. Serge wasn't holiday magic. It was driven by macroeconomic forces around the world because in times when economic uncertain and this is economic concertainty around the world, given the oil markets and going what's going on in the Middle East, what's going on with the war in Ukraine, and all the different economic areas around the world, those impacts have taken effect and people are
looking at that. So the price of gold, as you've noticed, has gone up considerably, and so that is reflected.
Again mirroring the economy. Five gold rings.
Looking at this performance pricing pops, nine ladies dancing, Ted Lorren's ten Lords of Leaping, eleven pipers piping, twelve drummers drumming might demand an ovation this year. An aggregate price for performers increased five point four percent this year, an encore on top of last year's seven point nine percent, So last year's number actually came in at seven point nine percent increase. This year was relatively tamed below that at five point four percent. Although the partridge in a
pear tree was unchanged. There was a fourteen point three percent jump in the price of the pear tree. Land, labor and fertilizer have driven up tree prices this year. The pear tree can also serve as a proxy for housing costs, which likewise continue to move higher. Despite the average mortgage rates falling off the rooftop by more than one hundred basis points because of the lower interest rates by the Federal Reserve.
Price is held steady this year for two.
Turtle doves, three French hands, four calling birds, seven songs of Swimming swimming, and eight maids of milking. The Core version of the PNC Christmas Price Index, like the Core version and the BLS CPI, which excludes most volatile components of the index. So every year kind of along lines mirroring the Consumer Price Index.
The people that put this together, they will look.
At certain items that are volatile that year pull them out so you get a better gauge for in terms of what is going on in the actual index itself. This year, the number of the item that was pulled out. Let's see the Swans. Swans typically have the most volatile price among items in the PNC Christmas Price Index. However, this year's price remained flat. That might actually be a positive signal for investors who have been bracing for the
investment black swan sightings or finding coal in their stockings. Now, one of the things that wasn't mentioned in this is the actual item of geese a laying and what is interesting about that looking at the numbers on the six geez a laying again, they go into each one of these individual items to talk about what the total cost is and for instance, six GISA laying will be nine hundred and thirty dollars. Geese are loud creatures, honking for all manner of reasons and likely no reason at all.
That's why they're modest three point three percent increase feels so uncharacteristically quiet this year. And they go into all the details in terms of this, and you know, they explain each one of them and talk about them in detail to kind of explain how they got to those numbers.
And again, I just find this very fascinating and imagine the fun it would be if you were one of the members of this team that put this together of going around and checking the different prices of all these things, putting the components together and figuring out how you could actually manage to buy all these things.
If you were to buy those all in one fell swoop.
With the Federal Reserve signaling looser policy in twenty twenty six will reveal whether inflation finally cools or remains the lump of coal in a holiday stockings. Again, according to Amanda Agetti with PNC Bank, is what I'm trying to.
Spit out here.
So, like I said, every year, I get a real kick out of looking at this, looking at the individual details of it, talking about and I do spend some time looking at this in terms of what some of the prices are, where they're advancing and where they're holding flat.
Now, you know, getting into it. You know, I mentioned at the beginning that you have.
Basically six birds group of performers, you know, four groups of performers. You have those you know, ten lords of leaping and so on. Those prices are subject to what the normal performance rates are for the you know, the different performers and the different unions that they belong to. And the eight mades of milking kind of gives you an indication of what the farm prices are, what the labor costs are on the farm, and that type of thing. So again, this is one of those things that where
you look at the individual details. When you look at the what's behind the individual numbers, what makes that up, whether it's feed costs you know, basically buy you know because of buying these things at a pet store or something like that, the cost of producing the birds and the various animals and whatever, and being able to put the all composite into a particular index. Like I said,
I always find it fascinating. I hope you find it too. Again, I will post this on my Facebook page, the summary of this, and hope you enjoy it, because again every year this kind of tends to mirror what is going on as far as the economy is concerned, and the consumer Price Index coming up. We have Sam Collier that joins the program to talk about what is going on.
After us being down at the twentieth anniversary of the Rush Enterprises Tech Skills Rodeo, I thought it would be great to talk to somebody about what's going on in the trades, and of course Gateway Community College Sam Collier, who is the dean of that department, will join us talking about what's available in the trades. I'm Kevin Gordon, americastruct A Network seven hundred WLW.
News traffic and weather News Radio seven hundred WLW Cincinnati.
Just how many more documents are loved to go through? The surprise is a large number. But if you're twelve thirty re parts, I'm Lee Mawen breaking Now. A surprise announcement from the Department of Justice. They say they need more time to sit through over a million more documents tied into the Jeffrey Epstein trial.
It's a surprise Christmas Eve announcement that the FBI and Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have uncovered over a million more documents potentially related to the Epstein case. The Justice Department says it could take a few more weeks to review
them and to make legally required redactions. Critics have accused the administration of moving too slowly to release the files and of blacking out too much, including the names of government officials and of potential co conspirators they referenced in internal emails.
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Ladies forecast from a train heating and cooling weather center on news radio seven hundred WLJWG.
After freely dropping down into the upper forties, ver Santa quickly push into the fifties by the time most of us wake up Christmas morning. That scattered rain will also be out there Thursday morning, but it should be out of here by early afternoon. While gloomy Christmas afternoon, it will be warm highs near fifty nine and we only cool off to forty six into your Friday morning. From your severe weather station, I'm nine first warning meter Religious Mark Stitz News Radio seven hundred WLW.
Scattered rain now in central Butler County as it's starting to spread a little bit further. The heaviest rain is up towards Dark County in Greenville on its way to Troy and Pickwa in Miami County, but the best of the Tri States dry at forty nine degrees. The TSA are learning people about public internet and juice jacking. That's the act of installing malware at USB ports, across airports and other public places to steal information.
Really encourage people to not use those free Wi Fi sites, or if you do, do not do anything with personal information, banking, anything like that. If you have to use free Wi Fi, just keep it real surface leveled.
Eastern Carolina's bb be ALYSSA Parker recommending people use their phones, hotspot or a secure network to surf the net. Just in time for Christmas Day, the iconic since Night signed back on the Convention Center. The old side was pulled down the summer in favor of a new LED sign that's fully customizable and capable of playing videos. The Cincinnati Convention Center reopens January seventh. Your next up there is that one. I'm Ley Mawen, theos Radio seven hundred WLW progressive commer.
Here's your trucking forecast for the Try State and the rest of the country. In the Try State, overnight showers, the low down to forty six for Christmas Day, a chance of morning showers and a slight chance in the late afternoon, otherwise cloudy. The high year sixty rain seen Friday coming to an end by early afternoon with cloudy skies, a high of sixty four, mostly claudy. Saturday highs in
the upper fifties Nationally continuing through Christmas Day. Life threatening flash flooding scene over southern California, while heavy mountain snow and high winds also persist from the Upper Midwest into the mid Atlantic and Northeast. Contry weather we'll spread Friday. Meanwhile, and seasonably warm weather which could break daily record his in places continuing across the middle of the country through the weekend.
I'm Kevin Gord in Americastrucking Network seven hundred WLW. I have the pleasure of bringing back to the program somebody we haven't spoken to in a couple of years, Sam Collier. He is the Dean of Manufacturing Transportation Technology at Gateway Community and Technical College.
Sam, welcome back to the program.
JA, Thanks guy, I appreciate you bringing me back. Yeah.
For people or may not be familiar with him, he's got a very amazing background. He's been an ASA certified technician for twenty five years, got into that, became a division chair of transportation back in two thousand and six, worked as a mechanic for seventeen years, and now is the dean after graduating from CINCINNTI State Technical College with associates and automotive business. So up projecting all through and going back for continuing education to get where you are today.
And that's a fantastic story to talk about.
Sam. I applaud you for that, and I really admire you for that.
Well, it definitely was not the planned when I graduated high school. But it has been a great ride, and I'm glad I'm where I'm at and able to work with all of these wonderful people in college and the students in the trades.
It's been very rewarding.
Well, I am going to skip down to something I was going to talk about earlier. Later I mentioned you off air that last week I was down at the in Nashville for the twentieth anniversary of Rush Enterprises Tech Skills Rodeo, and we got a chance to talk to a bunch of the technicians that competed. Over three hundred thousand dollars in prizes were given away in cash prizes,
and well there was some fantastic looking trophies. But in interviewing them again, this came about and as you were talking about being able to get a career path in terms of not where you expected to be a lot of these people didn't know what they were going to do out of college a college or high school and found their way into a skill and just was open
to that. So I guess before we get started, maybe talk a little bit about that how people can this may be something for them to explore, which is something different than what they had originally intended to be involved.
In well and Kevin, you know, that's a great point because I talked to more and more and more students every year parents that because you know, again, when I was a kid, my.
Dad worked on his own car. We quickly figured out I was much better at it.
Than he was, and next thing you know, he's handed me the tools and I'm doing the work. So I was able to find my niche and figure out, hey, I'm pretty good at this and I really enjoy it.
Those days are gone.
The playing with a point where the appliances and taking things apart is gone. So many people don't know if they have interests, a skill, a talent in the trades at all unless they're have an opportunity where mother, uncle, grandpa, somebody does.
Something in the trades that they get to tag along with.
So we do a lot of touring and talking to students and introducing them to instructors and letting them come into labs and see what programs are about.
Now is that geared towards the high school students at different schools and stuff.
You go around and talk to them kind of basically recruit.
Well. Yeah, so one thing, yes, obviously we're in the high schools.
We have a whole team at Gateway that does that, and then you know, we'll arrange tours at the college for those that still have interest. You know, hey, if you say, man, I'm going to be a chemical engineer, and I know that for a fact, great, go be a chemical engineer. I got But they're like, I don't know, I think I want to work.
With my hands. Okay, let's talk about what does that mean?
Because that opens up so many different avenues, and so we actually have.
High school what we we call.
Them apprenticeship pathways where students can come in and their junior year and their senior year and just take a hodgepodge of classes. So they'll take a welding class, a machining class, a basic electrical class, an auto class, you know, and just kind of get a heating and air conditioning class and they just get a feel for you know,
it's one class in each of these areas. All the classes would count towards either core or electives if they chose any of the technical classes, so they're not wasted, but they can actually come over and work directly.
With That was so popular in the high schools.
That we've actually expanded that now and we have a dedicated pathway for under employed folks. So when we're talking to twenty five, twenty six thirty year old who's working two or three jobs to make ends meet, you know,
just because they're dead end jobs. Retail not the bad thing, but they're just really struggling and you know, hey, but I think I think I want to be you know, so we give them an opportunity to come in, take a couple of classes, and again get there see if you know, because let's face it, you don't want to come in and find out that you're you don't have technical skills, or that you're not interested, or that it's not fun for you, and then this is your career
path for the rest of your life. So we've had to open up a lot of those avenues because people don't get a chance.
To expand and explore those type of things.
And it's not like you can be you know, you can't just walk into a manufacturing plant say I want to play with your machines. That's not going to happen, so you'd probably be arrested and or shot.
Ye.
So but this is cool because so a person could come in take on. By the way, we're speaking with Sam Collier. He is the dean of Manufacturing and Transporation Technology Gateway Community and Technical College. So they could actually try heating, air conditioning, electrical mechanic, diesel mechanic, and so on, just to kind of get a feel for what made what made.
Interest them and so exactly.
All right, Well, let's back up a little bit because I'm going to skip right back to the first question I was going to ask, but we got there was, you know, so many things to talk about to get to that. But since we last spoke, your duties have expanded, and so have the programs expanded as far as what's available at Gateway Community College and Technical.
That is correct, yes, So you know, obviously the great news is we're seeing you know, well, the college in and of itself. Every year, the last four semesters, I believe we've seen growth, and a lot of that is in the trades. So I've had to add on more instructors, both full time and a lot of part time. And that's an interesting endeavor because you know, you first of all, they're working, and many of them are working swing shifts and things like that. So we've got to work with
their schedules. They've already got an eight to five job, or at least a forty hour a week job. They've got families. But then they've also it's not like they're just coming in and teaching. I'm not saying, hey, come in and lecture to these students for an hour and go home. They've got to come in and actually teach the technical thing. So my welding part time instructor comes in and teaches a Saturday morning class from eight to one.
He's a welder and he knows welding, but he's actually got to come in and make sure he understands the equipment and can you you know, know where everything is so he doesn't look silly when a student says, hey, I need a grinder. Oh, that'd be a great tool to have. I bet it's here somewhere.
Now.
They need to learn, you know.
They actually need to learn how where things are at, how we run our shop. Our rules are rags, so that come Monday when our students come back in, everything's back where it belongs.
So it really is a big expansion.
Also because the trades are so shorthanded, so I'm academic everything. I my life is around classes that are based on college. But we have what we call Workforce, and workforce works directly with industry and so they can do a customized class. I'm set to very set boundaries. This class is this long, and this is what you're going to teach in it. But Workforce can come in and say we're going to teach a basic business course or a technical course, or a welding course or.
And it can be very specific.
I need students to learn how to weld pipe and that's it.
Okay, well that's going to be so. But when we're talking with companies.
That group is not necessarily a subject matter.
Expert in every area.
So I spend a lot of my time now not a lot, some of my time actually working with workforce and with these companies talking over what is it that they actually need because they think they need you know,
I need more people to do. But then when you start having the conversations with them, oh okay, it becomes broader or more narrow, or they want more or they think that that has to be college bound, and like, no, you come in, take three hour class, learn to do X. So I come in as the primary subject matter expert, although.
I'm in no way, shape or form a subject maunter expert in a lot of these areas, but I know enough.
O coumpaths are fairly open to this, which is a lot different than some of the stuff that I've seen from people that I've talked with. And we'll pick this up on the other side of the break, I'm speaking with Sam Collier. He is the dean of Manufacturing and Transportation Technology, Gateway Community and Technical College. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network seven hundred Wlwright.
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Continue our tent with Sam Collier, Deano Manufacturing and Transportation Technology, Gateway Community and Technical College. When we stepped out, we were talking about I don't know if you want to say train corporations, but being an ambassador with those corporations that to fill the needs that they have. They may come to you and say that they need, you know, five different skills, but you can give them somebody with
three and we'll explain the process there. Because this is kind of unlike what I'm seeing in some of the corporate rule of other corporations and some of the other jobs, where if somebody doesn't meet all those criteria, their their resume gets thrown in the waste basket. In a lot of instances, I think it's a disservice not only to the company, but to the employee as well.
And Kevin, I agree with you one hundred percent.
And yeah, first of all, finding that unicorn that has all those five anymore, especially if it's a company that has something specialized, you know, it's just not going to happen because again, you used to steal somebody from another company, But the pay rates are at a point and companies know they can't go get somebody else, so they're willing to step up to keep that person they have. So the days of trading off and rotating through a how won't say they're gone, but they're definitely.
Much less than they used to be.
So so, yeah, we do have these you know, have to have these conversations with companies and we say, okay, you know what, I got students here that have you're asking for these five?
I got three. But they're a good student.
They've shown up for class every day, They've put forth a lot of effort, they show great initiative, they have people skills. Are you willing to work with them and train them? And then the training side can be multiple things. They mentorship where they put them with somebody in the company, and a lot of companies that we're working with are seeing that that's unnecessary evil I'm just going to have to pay somebody to not be quite as profitable because
they're in a training mode. Or do they come back to Gateway as I was mentioning before the break and or with a workforce group like ours and design a very specialized class for those three or five people that they just hired to give them those skills that they didn't have.
So, okay, come work for the company.
You stay with me for three six months, you show up for work every day, and then I'm going to pay for this training that will help you and help me the company. And you know, now you're you know you've actually developed from within. The students wins, the company wins. The student feels like the company's investing in them, so they're you know, they're more likely to hang around. So it's a it's a win for everybody.
And Gawayne and Gateway has gone to bat for these people to make sure that they get employed. It's not just hey, exactly, pay your fee, get a grade, and good luck.
Well exactly, yeah, my god, I always you know, that's one of those things that we know when we're looking at programs and making sure that programs are viable, that is very important that there is first of all, career opportunnities that are good career opportunities.
And we're not going to put you.
Into a into a job that is fading away or that AI is taking over. That's not fair to our students. So are their career opportunities and are there companies that are willing to help, because again, you're just not going to find a ten year veteran sitting around looking for these jobs anymore.
Well ly, in the.
Economy, we have this no hire, no fire policy because of you know, people kind of holding back whether they're going to expand or not, and of course economic issues out there, which you know, I think are being overplayed by them.
We won't go into that.
But anyway, I think we've got a very strong economy. It's just that I think that a lot of companies are kind of waiting on the in the wings to possibly expand. But which is a good segue here, because again we talked about the fact that there you've expanded programs there, and those are more programs than what you originally well what we what you had the last time we spoke. So let's talk a little bit about that
as well. Because again, as I've said before, as I mentioned in the previous segment, being at that tech schools rodeo, the trades have become cool again, not that they were. Actually they've always been cool. They were cool before cool was cool, you know, And so it's always been a necessity, and people are realizing that, yes, this is a necessity and it's a cool possibility of a good career path.
So let's talk about some of the expanded programs. And as you mentioned, this isn't like just sitting there saying hey, let's start this program here, let's start teaching this today and then roll the red carpet.
Out you're exactly right, and I'll be honest. When Gateway was a little bitty college many many years ago, when I started, it was kind of like that a company and say, hey, we think the world needs are our area needs X, and we'd go out and we'd try and set up whatever that was, and then we'd find out that there's two companies that actually need three people, and we just spent a lot of time and money
on an area that's already now flooded. So you know, there are companies that actually do this research the nationally and then narrow it down to areas, and we were Gatway, like many colleges, works with those groups. We review that information, we take that information back to our companies and we have conversations with them and say, you know.
Hey, statistically it says right.
Here that we're going to need people doing this and I'll use So it's actually a crossover. We have a we've had a computer information technology program since before I started, but now we have a computer engineering technology program, which is a crossover between computers, the normal computer classes, and electronics.
So this person is teaching students.
You know, computers is kind of that replaced software update. Things keep up the kind of thing. But this person is actually looking more in more or in depth into the electronics side of it, the repair of a board, you know, getting more into the electronics side of it, the manufacturing side of it, you know, the actual manufacturing
of components. You know, computers don't just build themselves yet, so somebody's actually got to design them and engineer them up and make sure that they're working right and then repair them. So that's one of the areas that's actually I'm not fully in charge of it there. It's a crossover between two divisions, but we looked at a lot of you know, did a lot of research again, went
and talked to the companies. They're like, yeah, that's what I've been talking about, that's what I've been asking for.
I'm like, well, you didn't say that, you know so.
And which is interesting in that area because of the technology changing and by the way, we're speaking with Sam Collier of Manufacturing Transportation Technology at Gateway Community and Technical College, that technology is changing. It doesn't really do what he could. And I'm trying to think of a certain technology or a certain computer from ten to fifteen years ago doesn't help to know how to repair that when you've got
the new computers that are out there. I mean, you've got to have exactly the current technology so that they're trained on what is going to be a profitable or a useful skill.
Right and you know, and again we'll go back to manufacturing world just because that's one of the big ones in Northern Kentucky. A lot of the machinery now, you know, you go back fifteen years ago, you had a whole bunch of mechanical.
Failures belt drives and things like that. But now it is computerized.
It's you know, programmable logic control issues, it is electronic issues, it's computer software issues, it's that are causing plants headaches. So yeah, you've still got the maintenance of the line and all of the machinery, but you've also now got the maintenance and repair of all of this computerized equipment, you know, and automation and all of that stuff that there wasn't there wasn't a problem. You know, even pre
COVID was less of a problem. COVID really accelerated companies going that route.
Because they didn't have a choice. They couldn't have people on the floor. So yes, it really is a big deal that you continue to do.
That research and you continue to look at Allied health is another area where we've added some programs. Again, thank goodness, not mine. You do not want me dealing with allied health. But but you know, we've added several different pathways and there's they're just minor changes in you know, to give students slightly different training depending.
On where they're going.
And and that's part of the job of the college is to look at that and then talk to your industry and say does this make sense. If they look at you like you you've got three heads, then okay, probably not. But if they say, yeah, that's what I'm talking about, then that's That's the way We've got to
continue to grow and build. And I think we're going to continue to see that, you know, even within programs our Manufacturing Engineering Technology Program, which is a small program built inside of the manufacturing program more for students that want to get into middle management or go into the side of plant redesign or five S lean engineering type of technologies, you know, that side of it rather than
the plant side. More. I'm going to work with companies to set up new plants or like the automotive industry where hey, guess what, Every year, a new car line comes out, so the plant has to totally be redesigned.
We've only got about a little over a minute, actually about thirty seconds here to continue this. Some of these courses, I'm going down the list here, air conditioning technology, apprenticeship programs, Associate in Arts, business administration, automotive technology, all kinds of things. I would suggest people go to this website, which again is Gateway.
You want to give the website out.
Yeah, it's Gateway dot KCT, which is Kentucky Community Technical College System dot edu.
Now, a lot of these courses, what is the length of these? How long does it take to go through some of these? I guess the shortest of the longest.
Yeah, so the longest. I'll go backwards.
Most of our programs are set up for a full time.
Student to finish a degree in two years.
But embedded in most at least the technical programs are short term certificates so I can come in and take just a very and we try and make those certificates industry ready so that you are at least getting enough skill to be employable. And that's that's the goal of those and some of those are as short as one semester sixteen weeks, you actually get a job.
So if anybody is interested, if anybody's working third shift and says, you know, I got a dead end job here, I want to try something different, this is the opportunity for you and an area a career path that you should pursue. And again, the website is Gateway dot.
KCTCS dot edu.
All right, enjoyed the conversation, Sam, Folks. Just a wealth of knowledge here and I would very much suggest the trades are cool again. Get on board. I'm Kevin Gordon. America Struck a network seven hundred WLW.
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