ExxonMobil bringing back retooled north BR job-training program

With workforce training one of the most pressing issues facing local industry, ExxonMobil says it is retooling its North Baton Rouge Industrial Training Initiative, a job-training program the company rolled out to much fanfare in the fall of 2012. ExxonMobil officials say the program, which graduated 46 of the original 60 enrollees, was an unqualified success and exceeded its first-year goal of graduating 45. But they also concede the company learned a lot in the initial year of the program, which is why—after the first class graduated in the spring of 2013—they put the program on hold for a year to evaluate and revise it. “We are looking to see how we can better plan and prepare these candidates for the expectations of being in the industrial workplace,” says Stephanie Cargile, public and government affairs manager for ExxonMobil. The company recently announced a $200,000 workforce grant, half of which will go specifically to fund the initiative. In its second go round, the program will concentrate more heavily on life-skills training, as well as on preparing students for the realities of working in a plant. “We want to help them understand that when you have an industrial job you are going to have to work when it’s cold, when it’s raining, on holidays,” Cargile says. Of the of 46 students who graduated from the first class, 22 were initially employed in industry and 15 are still employed today. The main contractors who hired graduates are Turner Industries, ISC and Performance Contractors. Cargile says that 33% success rate from the first year shows the program can work—but also that it can do better. “We want this to be the gold standard,” she says. —Stephanie Riegel