This interview originally aired on In the Moment on SDPB Radio.
Partnerships between the state of South Dakota and the state's tech schools are bringing students into industries of high demand and addressing the worker shortage.
The Build Dakota Scholarship Fund offers a full ride for a technical degree and connects students with workplaces.
Applications for 2023 close on March 31. Learn more.
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Lori Walsh:
Tell us a little bit about the Build Dakota Scholarship, especially its origins and the problem that it was trying to solve back in 2015.
Deni Martin:
Well, South Dakota and the country is experiencing a workforce shortage like we've never seen. And back in 2015, our founders, T. Denny Sanford and Dana Dykhouse, our board chairman, kind of got together and decided what can we do to address the workforce shortage? And they came up with the Build Dakota Scholarship. They took the idea to then-Governor Daugaard and said, we're willing to put $25 million into this project if you would match it. And he did.
The project was to offer full ride scholarships to students going into high-need areas at technical colleges in South Dakota because what we know is that those high-need areas are the areas that the technical college programs put graduates out into the workforce in. And so there's a lot of people out there looking for good paying jobs and constantly applying and working hard to get to a better paying career.
And there are employers who are always hiring. And the problem is a lot of the people who are looking for those better paying careers don't have the skills that those employers need.
So Build Dakota was started to address that workforce gap and train the workforce in the jobs that are actually available here in South Dakota. We pay for full ride scholarships to the four South Dakota technical colleges. By full ride, I mean everything, tuition fees, books, tools, laptops and anything a student needs to complete that program.
Also, when the program started, the board that oversees the program said, how can we get the most out of this $25 million? We do not want to just throw $25 million at a problem and have it be gone.
So the technical colleges were each given the task of starting an industry partner program where they work directly with their local businesses and industries to talk to them about what are your needs. They asked, how can we better serve you and our local communities?
The South Dakota industry partner programs were started and we have businesses across the state who are now partnering with us to help sponsor these students and their full ride scholarships. So if a student has an industry partner, they end up with a separate contract with that partner. For Build Dakota, they have to work in South Dakota for three years in the field that Build Dakota paid for. If they have an industry partner, usually that three year employment obligation is tied to that partner. So they go work for them for three years following completion of the program.
We've been really successful with this industry partner part of the program. And since the inception in 2015, T. Denny Sanford has reinvested, Governor Noem has also been very supportive and invested in the program. And we have continued to see our industry partner programs expand each year.
Lori Walsh:
So Deni, my dad was a construction worker and a plumber, and I think my whole life he told me to go into the trades, which of course I did not do unless you count journalism as a trade and maybe we should. But he wanted me to do this kind of work in the world. Have you noticed that that's uncommon though?
Is it difficult to convince people that technical school and different trades are a promising pathway for people, or was it just really finding the right road to make the right connections?
Deni Martin:
What I've seen over these last seven years, it has been kind of transitional with technical education in South Dakota. I think it was a little bit harder to get people to consider the value of technical education a long time ago. But over the last few years, they've really experienced a lot of transition with the start of the Board of Technical Education and they're seeing enrollment increase and people are understanding the value of being able to get in for one or two years, get the classes that they need to be successful in that career and launch into a really good paying career out there in the workforce.
So when I first started, I traveled to high schools and gave presentations and I used to hear a little bit more negative impressions from the students about technical education. But as these years have progressed, I think there's just been a huge trend in the support of our schools here in South Dakota. People are realizing how valuable they are to keeping our world moving.
I think COVID really opened everybody's eyes. When COVID shut everything down, our essential workers had to keep going. They were the ones that were out there keeping our economy and our lives moving, and these careers are those essential careers that we really need more people in in South Dakota.
Lori Walsh:
I want to bring Alex Johnson into the conversation. We'll talk to some people who have been through the program in a minute, but Alex is operations manager at Applied Engineering in Yankton.
Alex, tell me as an industry partner what some of the opportunities and challenges have been for you.
Alex Johnson:
The only challenges that I can think of is just as Deni spoke. Just maybe even not enough students yet, even with the promotion of the program and our specific trade in precision machining that we could use two or three a year. And right now we're kind of concentrating on that one a year.
So the only challenge is that we need more people to sign up and to continue to promote the program. As far as benefits go, kind of endless to be honest. Some of the high ones obviously are we're getting a highly skilled operator in our specific field that really helps our business thrive.
It's advantageous for both the student and the employer, obviously. It allows us to plan for future business growth as well. As Deni said, we typically reach the agreement with these students out of high school and through the two years of technical college, we can plan our workforce, we can plan our business accordingly after they graduate with that skillset. And as we're taking on new work, we can plan those resources into our timeline.
That's definitely a benefit for the students as well. They have a very defined path for success after they join us, and that's both in their careers as well as their personal lives coming out of college with no student loans and no debt hanging over their head. It really gives them a step ahead in their lives. So that helps as well with that foundational educational background, just an accelerated path for growth after they get here in their careers as well.
Lori Walsh:
Yeah. Alex, what kind of students are you looking for?
Alex Johnson:
It's hard to put a box around it. It's really just somebody with a desire to learn and that wants to go into a technical skillset path. Like I said, our specialty specific to our business is precision machining. And with that good math skills and just hard work and a good work ethic and willingness to learn and be open to new things, it's not a field that is widely publicized. So a lot of people don't even know that it exists. It's not a plumber, it's not an electrician. A lot of people have never sat in front of a machine and machine depart before.
it's very specific, but that is the great part about the program, the Build Dakota Program, as well as what we do on-site here is if you're willing to learn, we can definitely teach it. And we've partnered with Lake Area Tech out of Watertown primarily. They have a tremendous precision machining program and that really sets that solid foundation.
Lori Walsh:
Alex, did anybody help you in this way? Are there things that you can look back to where you got your start that you are paying forward at this point?
Alex Johnson:
Personally, I didn't know things like this existed until I started my current position at Applied Engineering. I've been here about 12 years and this has been one of the highlights of my career is to promote this program and meet the people along the way that have helped promote the program even more so. What I will say is meeting the students along the way, establishing a relationship with them and a bond with them, they always kind of stick out a little extra in your head because you get to know them out of high school and really are part of their career growth and their career path. You can see them grow, mature, take on skillsets and just be successful.
As a manager, that is one of the most rewarding things that you could ask for. So I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of the program secondhand, I will say.
But as far as my start, no, nothing like this existed at the time, and what a great program and glad that it was conceptualized.
Lori Walsh:
Let's bring Ledgend Thorson into the conversation. Hey Ledgend, thanks for being here.
Ledgend Thorson:
Thanks for having me.
Lori Walsh:
You're a machinist. Tell us what that means. If you had to explain it to a high school junior who was thinking about this field, what do you do?
Ledgend Thorson:
I'm kind of the start of everything. So essentially taking just a stock bare piece of aluminum or whatever we're working on and turning it into something that can run production parts on. So like hundreds of different parts on one plate essentially.
Lori Walsh:
Did you have certain classes that you enjoyed in high school that pointed you in this direction? How did you get on this pathway?
Ledgend Thorson:
I actually took a high school machining class. I always liked doing the hands-on classes because I'm not good at, I can't sit still and be in a classroom, so I always was doing the hands-on stuff. And my high school machining teacher actually kind of got me on the path to Build Dakota and stuff like that. So that's how I got introduced to all of that stuff.
Lori Walsh:
Talk a little bit Ledgend, if you will, about this idea that you're on this pathway, but also you're making a commitment to stay in South Dakota to do work for an organization. It's a partnership that, you're young and just like signing up for a four-year college or a six-year stint in the military, it's a commitment and that can be a little intimidating. How did you approach that?
Ledgend Thorson:
You're not wrong. It can be intimidating for sure, especially because I'm actually originally from Watertown, so I had to move down here.
It's kind of like a head start on life though. Once you realize that you're not going to have any student loans coming out of college, and it just gives you a lot more financial freedom once you come into that new job and a good place to work like I have here. It makes things a lot easier.
Lori Walsh:
No student loans. What else have you been able to do fairly soon in your life as far as establishing yourself financially, establishing yourself as a homeowner perhaps? Tell me a little bit about that.
Ledgend Thorson:
I did actually buy a house when I was 20. So not many people could say that. So that's kind of cool. And I actually just did recently just purchase a new pickup as well, so I wouldn't be doing that if I had a lot of student loans to pay off, I can tell you that.
Lori Walsh:
Let's bring one more person into our conversation. Kaden Kilber is with us. Hi Kaden. Thanks for being here.
Kaden Kilber:
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Lori Walsh:
You're also part of this Build Dakota Scholarship pathway. Tell me how you first made the connection and what you're doing now.
Kaden Kilber:
So in high school I kind of found out about it through my counselor. I was trying to decide what my career path was going to look like, whether I was going to go to a four-year school, a two-year school or just go right into the workforce. And after I heard about this program, it definitely instilled some confidence in being able to go to school, leave school with a guaranteed job and not have any student loans behind it.
Lori Walsh:
Were there obstacles to you? Were there hesitations or people that said, Hey, maybe you haven't thought this through?
I'm just thinking about how difficult it can be to be a high school student when everybody is telling you about your decision and weighing in on it. What kind of support or critique did you get at that time?
Kaden Kilber:
Yeah, it was definitely a big leap for me, especially coming to Yankton and signing on to that two years before it would ever happen. I wasn't really sure what my life was going to look like two years out, but most people were pretty supportive. I kind of planned on going to a two-year school the whole time, so this just kind of reinforced it. It made it a lot better experience.
Lori Walsh:
What would your advice be to high school students who have similar interests as what you did?
Kaden Kilber:
I'd say just kind of explore all the options that are available depending on what path you're going. But if you're going to go to a tech school look at different programs.
I actually applied for robotics and got accepted into that and switched over to precision machining last minute. I never had taken a machining class in high school or anything. It was kind of a last minute risk. I went for it. I wasn't sure what any of it really entailed, but I think I was pretty happy that I made that leap.
Lori Walsh:
Deni Martin, I want to ask you another question about this, if I may. As we're talking about the kind of work that Ledgend and Kaden are doing, what industries does the Build Dakota Scholarship Fund really cover?
Deni Martin:
We have something out there for everybody. We have programs in agriculture, automotive, building trades, lots of health care, energy, engineering, computers and also welding. So we really encourage people to visit our website. We've got a lot of information out there with our programs. We work with the Department of Labor to determine what are the high-need fields in South Dakota. Where is the opportunity if students want to go into these fields?
Lori Walsh:
And Alex, how do you keep people moving once they've been through this program? These are jobs. And many jobs will change. They will be advanced learning that needs to be done. Some jobs will be obsolete. So you want those skilled workers to move into the next thing that they're able to do to keep their career going and building. What's the future of this program, Alex? Once we get through the initial schooling and commitments, what's ahead on the horizon?
Alex Johnson:
So I can talk in-depth about that, but I'll try to keep it brief. So we have so many success stories here at Applied Engineering. So the same degree that Kaden and Ledgend came out with, we have people in the building that have been here actually 15-plus years, that have worked from what Ledgend is doing now to more leadership type positions. We have them as CNC programmers and everything in between.
So really the sky's the limit kind of based on personality type and what we want to achieve. And like I said, everything from manager positions to programming is the next step.
Kaden is actually a great example of that right now as well. He started in machining and he's actually working more in machine maintenance and really helping us diagnose the machine itself instead of just making parts. And so he's already experienced growth in his career because of his foundation that he got with the Build Dakota Program and the precision machining degree that he graduated with.
So like I said, I could talk your ear off about that, but really the sky is the limit. And you really said it, there really is a lot of opportunity. The job changes, the business changes and with that is growth, but it all comes really down to that foundation that is achieved through the Build Dakota Program.
Lori Walsh:
Yeah, I hope we can have these conversations in the future. Kaden, do you feel like you have a bright future or you have a good foundation? Are you optimistic about the years ahead?
Kaden Kilber:
Yeah, I'm definitely confident about the position I'm in. I've learned a lot here, things I can use at work, outside of work. I feel like, especially in the position I'm in maintenance, I have pretty good job security because there's always going to be things breaking regardless of what field you're in. So I feel like I have the ability to go anywhere that has any sort of machines and be able to get trained on how to repair them and make sure they're running at tip-top shape.
Lori Walsh:
Yeah, things will always break. That's job security in some ways.
Kaden Kilber, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate your time.
Kaden Kilber:
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Lori Walsh:
Ledgend Thorson, thanks for being here. We really appreciate it.
Ledgend Thorson:
Thank you for having me.
Lori Walsh:
Alex Johnson, thank you.
Alex Johnson:
Thank you.
Lori Walsh:
And Deni Martin, thanks as well.
Deni Martin:
Thank you so much.
