Arizona is creating a network of sites designed to train residents in rural areas for the jobs local employers need.
In an announcement Thursday, Gov. Katie Hobbs said the first two of these “workforce accelerators” will be in Yuma and Kingman. A total of six are envisioned, though neither the governor’s office nor the Arizona Commerce Authority would provide specifics.
Hobbs, in a separate interview with Capitol Media Services, acknowledged there’s another issue for rural areas: how to get companies to locate there in the first place. That means dealing with a different set of hurdles and a different set of solutions, she said.
The more immediate problem, Hobbs said in her speech to the Arizona Workforce Summit, is matching up workers with companies already there and closing a gap.
“According to our most recent data, Arizona employers have more than 200,000 job openings in April,” she said.
As to rural areas, each of these new sites will be focused on specific needs of existing local employers, Hobbs said.
In Yuma, for example, the plan is to work with Arizona Western College to offer training in electrical technology, advanced manufacturing, broadband fiber optics and solar installation. That in turn is being done with companies such as Yuma Electric, Sunray Electric, Allo Fiber and the General Motors proving ground.
The 30,000-square-foot facility planned for Kingman, in partnership with Mohave Community College, is a bit different. There the focus is on manufacturing, transportation and mining, working with Freeport McMoRan on the latter.
Need growth beyond Maricopa County
Asked how Arizona will get new employers to set up and create jobs in rural areas, Hobbs responded: “We have to be deliberative about making sure the growing economy is benefiting Arizonans across the state, not just in Maricopa County.”
Still, she said, it’s not a simple matter of telling firms they ought to be in, say, Kingman versus Chandler.
“There’s a lot of factors that go into deciding where a company decides to move or build,” Hobbs said.
Some of that is having a trained local workforce and these training centers will help solve some of that, she said.
“It’s kind of like chicken and egg,” Hobbs said. “If you have the workforce, you can attract the business. If you build the partnership, you can also do it that way.”
But she said that, alone, won’t do it.
“Broadband is part of it,” she said, citing an announcement earlier this week that the state will get nearly $1 billion of federal funds to use during the next five years to build infrastructure and put technology in place that will expand high-speed internet access beyond the major metropolitan areas.
Hobbs is not alone in that view. Mignonne Hollis, executive director of the Arizona Regional Economic Development Foundation, called the funding “a game changer.”
“This is especially so in rural areas, where access to reliable high-speed is one of the biggest impediments to economic development, access to telehealth, and quality of life,” Hollis said in a written statement about the grant.
That goes to another impediment.
Health care a key component
Companies are often loath to locate in some rural areas because of the level of health care that would be available to their executives and employees. Hobbs acknowledged there are just two Level 1 (top level) trauma centers outside of Maricopa County, one in Tucson and one in Flagstaff.
That may never change. But she said broadband may help address some of the other gaps in rural health care, making specialists in urban areas available statewide through telehealth.
Maintaining a system of transport is also important, Hobbs said, “making sure we have the ability to get folks to those Level 1 trauma centers.”
There are other issues including housing and water supplies.
“They’re all part of the puzzle,” Hobbs said. “And if they’re not all there, together, (training) the workforce alone isn’t going to help the problem.”
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