MCC provides Russia with industrial insights

State high school grads rise but still behind U.S.

Appointments

Grant News

MCC provides Russia with industrial insights

Mike Davenport recently exported lean manufacturing principles from Madisonville to Russia.

"A private Russian training company was searching the Web to gather information on lean manufacturing and saw our Web site," said Davenport, director of community and economic development for Madisonville Community College.

Hamish McKewen of the Center for Business Skills Development of Russia asked him to travel to Moscow to make several presentations on the program. The Kentucky Community and Technical College System, however, primarily offers services inside the state. Davenport connected McKewen with the University of Kentucky, which offers a similar program.

"He insisted that I come because he had seen the work that we do here," Davenport said. "UK was more than happy to take me with them."

The Aug. 1-9 trip included six days of work, two days of travel, and just one day of sightseeing.

"Lean is a term for cutting waste out of a process," Davenport said. "What our program is about is providing hands-on training for organizations to identify waste and then provide them with the skills and tools to cut the waste out of the process to save money."

The group had a two-part mission in Russia. They started the lean manufacturing certification process for CBSD, which will, in turn, provide training for Russian companies. They also introduced the program to two companies: York of Russia, a firm with holdings in the United States and a former Madisonville plant; and Rusal, the country's largest aluminum manufacturer.

Each company got a two-day presentation.

"For four days, we presented the lean manufacturing program and it required us to work through an interpreter on everything we said," Davenport said. "Normally, it's a one-day presentation to each company."

While there, he learned about Russian manufacturing, including its needs, strengths and weaknesses.

"We're far more advanced than they are," he said.

Russia is a lot different from the U.S., he said.

"I had no idea Moscow was that big," Davenport said. "I knew it was a big city - but there are 13 million people in Moscow."

It's also the fastest city he's ever seen, as far as transportation.

"They have bumper-to-bumper traffic that moves very fast," he said. "It was scary. ... In all that traveling I did in Moscow, I only saw one accident. To me, that was amazing. Cars were about 6 inches away from each other going 60 miles per hour downtown with no hesitation."

The food "was not of my taste," he said, although he tried everything. There was a lot of cold food, including soups, lots of fish, and pickled or marinated food.

"Moscow is a very pretty town in the tourist areas, but in the nontourist areas, it is very bleak looking," he said. "There are statues of Stalin and Lenin all over the place.

"The training center where we were actually training was the summer home of Peter the Great," he said. "It was very old. They wouldn't let us go into the basement of it. I don't know what was in it, but we wanted to find out."

Davenport has already been invited back to Russia, but doesn't know if he'll go.

"The way I feel the Russia trip benefited me and my organization, KCTCS, the most is it gave me the opportunity to see organizations in other countries - how they could utilize and benefit from this process," he said. "I also gained new ideas in manufacturing from around the world that I can bring back to Kentucky.

"Our goal will always be to service Kentucky industries first, but sharing these ideas and gaining international exposure makes us a better partner for the industries in Kentucky," Davenport said. "It can even help us gain research dollars and supportive dollars to service Kentucky industries."

Courier-Journal
August 15, 2003

State high school grads rise but still behind U.S.

The number of Kentuckians with a high school diploma increased by nearly 10 percentage points over the past decade — the fastest growth in the nation, according to census data released yesterday.

But don't pop the champagne cork just yet.

The state still has virtually the lowest percentage of people with a high school education, ranking 49th of 50, just above Mississippi. Kentucky does only slightly better in the percentage of people with a college degree, ranking 47th of 50.

The data, culled from Census 2000 forms, show the United States has achieved its best education levels in history, with 80 percent of the nation holding a high school diploma — 5 percentage points more than in 1990. About one in four earned a bachelor's degree.

Even with its gains, Kentucky ranked below those national figures.

About three quarters of Kentuckians ages 25 and over had completed high school in 2000; the number was about 65 percent a decade ago. Meanwhile, 17 percent of residents had a bachelor's degree, up 3 percentage points from 1990.

Indiana did better. About 82 percent of Hoosiers graduated from high school, higher than the national average, while 19 percent had a bachelor's, below the national average.

"The good news is we did make jumps," said Rachel Phillips, a spokesman for Kentuckiana Works, a Louisville agency that advocates a better-educated work force. "But I don't want people to think we are doing great.

"For us to compete (with other states), it's not good enough," she said. "We need to make quantum leaps."

KENTUCKY'S INCREASE in the last decade may be attributed to several factors, officials said.

For example, Lisa Gross, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, credited an emphasis on education by state leaders — including the landmark Kentucky Education Reform Act and the postsecondary reforms by Gov. Paul Patton and his administration. She said it might also result from a realization among Kentuckians that higher education is necessary for higher salaries, a message the state championed a few years ago with road signs that read "Education Pays."

"It's a social issue as much as an educational issue," Gross said.

Gross said the Department of Education does not track graduation rates, although it soon will because it's required by President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.

However, she said, the census figures appear to mirror other data collected by the department, including the school dropout rate falling for the third consecutive year. Nearly 6,000 students — roughly 4 percent — in grades nine through 12 left school last year. That's down from 4.8 percent a year earlier and 5.1 percent in 1999-2000.

She predicted that the percentage of the population with a high school education will increase in the future because younger people are better educated than older ones.

Kentucky's state demographer, Michael Price, said the state's gains reflect not only the number of Kentuckians graduating from high school and college but also the number of such people who moved to the state. Kentucky saw a net migration gain of 34,127 people between 1995 and 2000. Migrants tend to be better educated, Price said, so they would naturally improve the state's educational levels.

PRICE ADDED that while the gains are good, it's disappointing that the state didn't improve overall, ranking 49th nationally in high school rates.

The census data and an accompanying report noted, among other things, that the six states with the lowest percentages of high school graduates in 1990 — Mississippi, Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee — were also among the states with the largest jumps in graduation rates.

Phillips said high school and college graduation rates in Kentucky must improve dramatically, not just incrementally, if the state is going to be a true competitor in today's knowledge-based economy. "Other cities (and states) are going to make jumps, too," she said.

A University of Louisville study released earlier this year for Kentuckiana Works shows that, among 14 competitor cities, Louisville ranked 11th in high school graduates and 15th in college graduates.

Tamia Johnson, 21, who is beginning her sophomore year at the University of Louisville, said graduating from high school and attending college were always expected.

"It was something important to me," Johnson said yesterday while stocking textbooks at Gray's College Bookstore downtown, where she works.

But Johnson, a psychology major and women's studies minor, added that she would be the first in her family to graduate from college. She wants to work for a nonprofit agency that helps women, she said.

COURTNEY WREN, 26, who was buying books at Gray's yesterday, is about to start classes at Jefferson Technical College to become a surgical technician. A 1994 graduate of Elizabethtown High School, Wren attended Elizabethtown Community College and Hair Design School in Radcliff. For the last six years, she worked as a nail technician. The job was rewarding, she said, but offered no benefits. So, she is returning to school so she can make more money — and have perks.

"I would like a paid vacation, benefits and insurance," she said. "All the perks that go with a job."

Community College Times
August 19, 2003

Appointments

At Hopkinsville Community College in Kentucky, Robert Milam was appointed dean of academic affairs and Alissa Young was promoted to associate dean of extended campuses.

Community College Times
August 19, 2003

Grant News

Ashland Community and Technical College has received a $99,924 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Business Enterprise Grant program for another year of operation of The Entrepreneur Center in downtown Ashland, Ky. This is the second year ACTC has received USDA funding for the Center. Through grant funding the Center is being remodeled to host a larger number of start-up businesses and to present a more professional atmosphere, improve and increase the number of client computers, install networked printing capabilities, offer training throughout the college's service region and expand the number and types of training opportunities available to entrepreneurs.