В Теннесси запускают программу сертификации операторов производства керамической плитки

Those seeking jobs in Tennessee's tile industry can now earn an industry certification through the Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology. The new Ceramic Tile Manufacturing Operator program begins next week at TCAT Upper Cumberland in Cookeville and Crossville. TCAT UC President and TCAT graduate Cliff Wightman said the area is home to several tile manufacturers. "In our service area, we have three, Portobello (in Baxter); StonePeak in Crossville and what is now called AHF Products in Crossville, that's formerly Crossville Ceramics," he said. "They're three of the largest right here in our service area. It turns out, of the eight ceramic tile plants across the state of Tennessee, that was just a drop in the bucket of the actual economic impact. "West Tennessee is where they get the raw materials, the clay, all that stuff that goes into the components of ceramic tile," he said. "East Tennessee has a lot of the minerals and things they use in it for bonding agents and things like that. It's much, much larger than just the production facilities. It's huge to Tennessee's economy." Wightman said that TCAT has always been involved in entry level skill training. "It turns out that this production tile is a touch above what is traditionally a non-skilled entry level labor person," he said. "They do have to have a little bit of understanding of basic control systems, monitoring systems, measuring things. A lot of these things are so high tech they have laser measuring. That's more than just a person that's just gonna stand and watch a line run itself." Wightman said the tile industry communicated the need for those workers with the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, which turned to TCAT's workforce development department. TCAT worked with a tile trade association to help develop the program. "We used the platform that was based off the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council, the certified production technician," he said. "We took a version of that and incorporated some training more specific to the tile industry, and then, the key component of it is, after we train that, it's OSHA basic safety, forklift, all those kind of things, basic programming, machine resetting. Second part of it is they actually go into the tile manufacturers themselves. We call it work-based learning, on-the-job training. What's been so neat about it, all the tile companies that are participating, they're all on board. Right now, it's just three TCATs: TCAT Upper Cumberland, TCAT Hohenwald and TCAT Dickson, which has a campus in Clarksville." Wightman said the classroom time includes hands-on working with simulators and trainers that mimic the control systems in the ceramic tile plant. It's also open to TCAT's dual enrollment partners, including Cookeville High School students. "With high school partners, it becomes a true work-based learning," he said. The program can accommodate up to 20 students during each enrollment period. "At the end of the day, we don't exist without our industry partners," Wightman said. "Our job is to produce students and help change their lives but at the same time, putting those people in industries that are going to hire them." According to the Tennessee Economic and Community Development website, 3,000 Tennesseans are employed in ceramics at 60-plus ceramics-related companies, and Tennessee is number one in the country for growth in ceramics employment. Wightman said, "The ceramic tile, those jobs, they pay well. The goal with us, these jobs will lead into what we hope will be continuing education for the people who are employed in the factories." A representative from Portobello didn't respond by press time to a question about what salaries they pay the tile manufacturer operator certified employees, but an attorney with the Cookeville Industrial Development Board in 2019 said that the average hourly wage of Portobello employees would be $21. Portobello celebrated its grand opening in Baxter in October 2023. The Ceramic Tile Manufacturing Operator program costs about $3,000 and takes approximately five months to complete. Financial aid is available. To learn more, visit tcatuppercumberland.edu/programs/tile-manufacturing-operator.