How Four Tribal Colleges Are Training Skilled Workers to Meet Regional Demands

The trains and trucks rumble through the oil patch 24 hours a day. The town has doubled in population in just four years to 30,000. And, there are tens of thousands more workers scattered in the four directions, living in once-sleepy towns and foreclosed farms, sprawling man-camps, Walmart and strip mall parking lots, tents, and cars. The average rent in Williston, North Dakota is now $2,400 a month—easily topping New York City and Los Angeles by $1,000. Workers keep arriving by the hundreds per week, and the truckers grind their gears up and down, through sunset and sunrise, darkness and light.

Photo by Dennis Neumann/UTTC

It happened so quickly.

A few years ago, Williston remained a windswept town of 14,000 with little economic promise. Today, the oil patch in northwestern North Dakota is pumping out a million barrels a day. The area is known as the Bakken shale formation, and it is rich with the black gold. The Peace Garden State’s oil fields now produce 12 percent of American oil—worldwide, only Texas, Alberta, and 19 countries turn out more.

In the midst of all of the development, four regional tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) recognized the need to adjust to this rapid growth. United Tribes Technical College (UTTC), Fort Peck Community College (FPCC), Aaniiih Nakoda College (ANC), and Cankdeska Cikana Community College (CCCC) banded together and formed the Tribal College Consortium for Developing Montana and North Dakota Workforce, known simply as DeMaND. The initiative is part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program. The total cost for the three-year DeMaND project is $18.9 million.

The DeMaND workforce project has four main goals: accelerate progress for low-skilled and other workers, with an emphasis on American Indians; improve retention and achievement rates, and reduce the time it takes to complete a degree or certificate program; build programs that meet industry needs, including career pathways; and strengthen online technology– enabled learning. Each college that is a part of the DeMaND consortium is building or enhancing programs to meet these goals. Although there were workforce needs beyond those specific to the oil business, the Bakken boom was, and is, the primary driving force behind the tremendous program development that has taken place at UTTC, FPCC, ANC, and CCCC.

UNITED TRIBES TECHNICAL COLLEGE LEADS THE WAY

When the consortium was launched, UTTC spearheaded the DeMaND grant writing process. And it was under the leadership of DeMaND’s first project director, Dave Archambault II (Standing Rock Sioux), that the venture established a firm foundation for success. “Dave had a significant part in the early message of DeMaND,” says Rae Gunn (Standing Rock Sioux), current DeMaND project director. “Dave went places no one else would in putting out the message.”

To spread this message, DeMaND hired Makoche Recording Studios out of Bismarck—a cuttingedge studio known for its work with the Native sketch comedy troupe “The 1491s.” Promoting themselves as hailing from “the wooded ghettos of Minnesota and the buffalo grass of Oklahoma,” The 1491s were brought in to promote DeMaND to a targeted audience using filmed sketches made available on social media. The group travelled to all four colleges to shoot their uproarious (and effective) videos.

Concerning UTTC and DeMaND specifically, the college offers programs in heavy equipment operation, certified driver’s license (CDL), electrician studies, geographic information system (GIS) technology, and welding. The welding program is so popular and successful that there is currently a waiting list for students to enroll. “We have 17 welding booths, and they are full,” says Gunn. “So, if someone has an emergency and must drop out of the program, we have a waiting list with a time frame where a student can actually jump into a program. We have a 100% graduate and placement rate so our welders have a job before they graduate. . . Right now there are over 25,000 jobs available in North Dakota alone.”

The acquisition of equipment simulators has also contributed to developing a skilled workforce at UTTC. “These are state-of-the-art simulators and without the funding from the Department of Labor, we would not have been able to achieve our goal,” Gunn notes. The students practice on the simulators in the classroom and must reach a certain score before they work on actual equipment. For example, the welding simulator operates much like a video game, and the students must be proficient before they engage in the more expensive live experience. “It saves on our material costs and it is a safe way to learn new skills,” Gunn adds.

GETTING STUDENTS WORKFORCE-READY— QUICKLY—AT FORT PECK COMMUNITY COLLEGE

“We are rigorous, but sensitive to Native cultural needs,” explains United Tribes’ president Phil Baird (Sicangu Lakota). Photo by Jerry Worley

Along with UTTC, Fort Peck Community College is the closest geographically to the flourishing Bakken, which once trickled into eastern Montana, but now has increased to a steady flow. FPCC has always been conscious of economic trends, and the new grant fit the college’s goal “to get our students workforce ready,” as the college’s DeMaND project coordinator, Paula Brien-Firemoon (Fort Peck Assiniboine), puts it. FPCC’s DeMaND programs include the building trades, carpentry, truck driving, and nursing. Other programs prepare students to become electrical line workers, heavy equipment operators, and welders. “FPCC has always offered vocational programs, but our students completed them in degree and certificate [formats]—and some took over two years,” Brien- Firemoon states. “When I became the coordinator for DeMaND, one of the things we thought would be innovative was to accelerate the curriculum. We were looking at block scheduling where students would attend one class and then go right into the next one.”

The Bakken boom underscored this need for an accelerated curriculum. Therefore FPCC shortened the programs from one year to one semester. Curriculum is focused and intense—classes sometimes run as many as eight hours a day. “With the new program we merged them longer [in the day] so we could get them out there in the working force [more quickly],” says Brien-Firemoon.

To meet DeMaND goals, several of the degree programs have been trimmed to certificate level. FPCC faculty discovered that their students were more engaged in the classroom (and in their program of study) if they were in one room all day. Brien- Firemoon maintains that this type of curriculum raises engagement considerably.

To meet job market needs, Fort Peck Community College offers accelerated curricula for DeMaND workforce programs. Photo by Jerry Worley

The shift from degrees to certificate programs was not only carefully planned and launched, but it also elicited profound results. “We find that some younger people are not interested in academia,” Brien-Firemoon notes. “But, they are interested in getting jobs. They want a skill.” FPCC responded to the students’ wishes by introducing more technology and interactive, videogame-like simulators to attract students and engage them in a practical way.

“We received welding simulators that attract younger kids because they are computer literate and technology driven,” Brien-Firemoon says. “And when we use technology to teach them, they seem to have a better desire to want to learn.” The college also procured a heavy equipment simulator, which cuts costs. Actual equipment can be tremendously expensive; simulators allow students to learn a trade in a classroom setting at minimal cost. “The DeMaND grant helped us with this, putting technology right in the classroom. Our kids loved it. It was like playing a giant video game,” Brien-Firemoon reports.

Brien-Firemoon sums up FPCC’s approach, concluding, “Students wanted the actual meat of the trade— they wanted to be done in a shorter time.” And more importantly, they were armed with more skills to support their job quests.

AANIIIH NAKODA COLLEGE OFFERS A JOURNEY TO A BETTER LIFE

Dr. Carole Falcon-Chandler’s favorite time as president of Aaniiih Nakoda College is commencement. This is when Falcon-Chandler (Aaniiih) receives smiles and hugs from students as they earn their diplomas and certificates. And these days at ANC, there are more students both enrolling and graduating because of the new DeMaND grant.

DeMaND funds a wide variety of workforce initiatives, including Certified Driver’s License programs. Photo by Dennis Neumann/UTTC

ANC comptroller, Deb Eve says, “We have had 237 students go through our courses—and that is 237 who have had the opportunity to improve their life.” Like Fort Peck Community College, ANC has offered a variety of programs to see what’s worked for both the workforce and the students. DeMaND programs included training in HazMat (hazardous materials), HazWoper (hazardous waste operations and emergency response), nursing, phlebotomy, truck driving, carpentry, and welding.

“DeMaND is training our people—the young and old,” states Falcon-Chandler. The president laughed as she continued: “Those welders—there were 11 of them—and I didn’t know some of them, because they were in the classroom all day.” One reason that Falcon- Chandler was not able to meet some of the new DeMaND students earlier was that they were immersed in an intensive block schedule at ANC’s new workforce development facility, called the Returning Buffalo Building.

But as much as Falcon-Chandler enjoys meeting students, she and Comptroller Eve recognize that there is a more important objective. “Our goal is to create partnerships with employers, develop programs, and create workforce and employment pathways for our students,” says Eve.

ANC aims especially to enhance its allied health programs, including those that produce Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs) and Phlebotomy Technicians. It is also their objective to someday have a licensed practical nurse (LPN) program. And, they hope, this will come in the next round of DeMaND grants, when they add Blackfeet Community College (BCC) in Browning, Montana to the consortium. BCC will be able to shore up the allied health programs for the group.

“We have health care shortages on the reservation,” says Eve. “We started with a CNA program. Then we added a phlebotomy class that fulfilled a need. After our students take our six-week course, they get jobs. There are a variety of industries that require phlebotomists.” And the DeMaND grant has made it all possible.

PROVIDING A PLACE FOR ASPIRATIONS AT CANKDESKA CIKANA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Instructor Paul Keating is hoping his 35 years of business experience will come in handy in the classroom at Cankdeska Cikana Community College on the Spirit Lake reservation in North Dakota. Keating currently instructs in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC/R) and plumbing programs, both of which are part of the college’s DeMaND offerings. The HVAC/R program has been especially strong. When it was launched, there were 20 students, five of whom landed jobs before completing the program. “It looks like it is going to be a success,” laughs Keating. “We have all the equipment here to train them.”

With an estimated 25,000 job openings in North Dakota alone, TCU welding programs boast a nearly 100% job placement rate. Photo by Dennis Neumann/UTTC

Keating’s colleague and primary HVAC/R instructor, Arthur Carmona (Spirit Lake Dakota), was featured with his students in one of the many DeMaND promotional videos. The students work on actual home furnaces, residential air conditioning systems, and a mobile refrigeration unit trainer, which simulates what they might see in restaurants. “When they graduate from here,” says Carmona, “[The students will be] effective technicians to work in the industry. I have the utmost confidence.” In essence, Carmona and Keating are leading an effective vocational department to meet the workforce needs in the local community and beyond.

To support their student’s needs, CCCC has added another state grant to the federal DeMaND money in an effort to help students find work beyond graduation. “Because a lot of our students prefer to work on their own, we are trying to add that next step of employment,” Keating states. The college is helping students find employment, either with established businesses or by becoming independent contractors themselves. “We are building a business incubator.”

Indeed, the Bakken boom has trickled into the Spirit Lake community, but the real money is four hours away in the oil patch. “With our community, many of our people prefer to stay home,” says Keating, referring to cultural values. “But, we have had several that have gone to the Bakken. We have a couple of HVAC guys that go out there in the summer and earn good money and then come back here in the winter—rather than working outside in the cold. They are taking advantage of it—it is most definitely helping.”

Keating continues, “For the next round of DeMaND, we are going to make use of technology and start to share instructors among the colleges.” Additionally, CCCC hopes to add a welding program. “We are four hours away from the oil,” Keating points out. “But welding is important here, too. We are looking at preparing students for the local economy. They can also put themselves out there as private welders. And, we are also hoping to put our business incubator into the mix where they could use the tribe’s equipment as they build their business. We are trying to tie some programs together—we are not just depending on DeMaND.”

Keating notes, “Our major industry is still farming and ranching out here. Alot of that takes good welding skills on the different metals and so forth—the jobs are out there.” Accordingly, CCCC has searched for ways to underpin this economic sector. “We have one company that manufactures farm equipment just 20 miles away,” says Keating. The CCCC instructor is hopeful about the direction the college is taking, emphasizing the importance of vocational and certificate programs. “I feel that vocational education should be our focus,” Keating maintains. Such skills will allow CCCC students to acquire decent jobs and make a decent living. “Then—if they want—they can move on to their bachelor’s degree.”

Keating emerged from the business world frustrated that there were not enough trained employees in the workforce. “I always felt that is what the colleges need—to have students who know how to use those skills in the workforce such as welding,” he argues. “We need people who can fix a furnace at 40 below.” Keating is an advocate of education. “My mom and dad had 8th-grade educations, but they paid for all six of us to go to college. If we can accomplish [this through the tribal colleges], we will be doing wonders. And that should be our focus.”

FOLLOWING THE WORKFORCE PATHWAY

The DeMaND tribal college consortium has had some significant successes. But one aspect that must be addressed, as project director Rae Gunn and other TCU leaders have noted, is the student’s transition to the job site and the job retention rate. Finances and culture shock remain two of the greatest barriers.

“In terms of preparing our students for the workforce, I feel the project prepares them well. They receive state-of-the-art education in a small community,” says Gunn. “The challenge lies in how well we prepare our students emotionally and psychologically before they get to the workforce.” Such concerns are leading college administrators to work with consultants who can help with things like housing and job shadowing.

Gunn feels those students who support families need special attention. “That first paycheck is always hard. They are worrying about gas and food,” says the director. “UTTC is working on that transition. [The college] has available free housing for two months. . . We are basically helping them get on their feet. So, if they get a job here in town, that two months can [help] them save up their money for that deposit for the rent.” FPCC, ANC, and CCCC are all working on similar measures in an effort to ensure the students’ successful transition to the job site.

Meanwhile, the trucks continue to roll in and out of Williston . . . and 25,000 workers are needed to keep the oil flowing. And through the efforts of four creative and energetic tribal colleges, some of the labor force need of the Bakken and surrounding areas is being met. UTTC, FPCC, ANC, and CCCC are not only creating employment pathways for their students, but they are stimulating and shaping workforce development in the area as well.

Jerry Worley, Ed.D. is an associate professor of social studies education at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.