America's Truckin' Network

Kevin talks about the actual cost of the 12 days of Christmas. He also talks learning the trades with Sam Collier of Gateway Community College.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome aboard, thanks for tuning in. Merry Christmas. Thanks to
all the truckers out there. I want to start off
by saying that thank you to all the truckers out
there on the highway. You are out there keeping the
wheels of the economy rolling, delivering all the stuff that
people are going to be looking for after the Christmas season,
as well as all the groceries people are going to

(00:30):
be looking at to do their celebrations if they do
more celebrations over the weekend. Again, also first responders want
to thank shout out to the first responders, police and fire,
hospital workers, food service employees. You know, if you go
to a restaurant, if you and your family celebrate Christmas
by going to a restaurant, those people are there on

(00:51):
Christmas Day when they could be home with their families.
That's why a lot of people in the food service
industry and in other industries actually celebrate their holidays a
day before, week before, the weekend after, or something along
those lines. Also, you got your hotel and motel workers.
If you're staying someplace, all those people that are taking

(01:11):
care of you while you're at the hotel. There for
you as well, store clerks and convenience store employees. And
take the time if you will at some point, you know,
when you go into these stores or you go someplace,
just take the time to say thank you for being here.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Now, first of all, and I want to talk about
this a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Christmas is not the end of the Christmas season. It
is the beginning. There is the common misconception that the
Twelve Days at Christmas actually occur before Christmas, when in
fact the December twenty fourth and earlier are advent days
and a period of preparation, not the actual twelve Days

(01:54):
of Christmas. The Twelve Days at Christmas is a festive
Christian season from just remember the twenty fifth, which is
Christmas Day, to January the fifth, the twelfth night, ending
with the Epiphany on January the sixth, marking the journey
of the Magei to Jesus. The celebrations include feasts, religious observances,

(02:15):
gift giving, caroling, et cetera. Now, again, as far as
the timing is concerned, starts Christmas Day Day one ends
on the twelfth night January fifth, leading up to the Epiphany.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
On the sixth.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Now, the significance of this commemorates in the Nativity and
the arrival of the Three Wise Men, known as the Magi.
Activities of feasting parties, caroling famous song, lighting yule logs,
exchanging gifts, often on the first day of first or
last day, in a mix of religious and secular merriment.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Now there are religious feasts during this.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Specific days for saints like Saint Stephen, which was who
was the first martyr on December the twenty sixth, as
Saint John December the twenty seventh, and the Holy Innocence
on December third, December twenty eighth. Now, going back into
the time and the Bible, at that time, Herod, who

(03:11):
was the king, had learned that the King of the
Jews had been born, and because he didn't know who
that was, and because he was fearful of somebody coming
up and taking his title, he sent his people out
to kill the first born male child of every family
in the area first born male child a slaughter. Again

(03:36):
the feast of the Holy Innocence. The origin of the
traditions in Europe, solidified by the Church to unify celebrations
around the winter solstice and the Eastern Church's Epiphany. Now
a lot of Christian traditions because they were dealing with
the time of where you know, at the start of
the Christian religion, Catholic religion during the Roman times, Roman

(04:01):
was pretty much pagan. A lot of areas around the
world were pagan before non Christian, before Christianity came into
existence in those areas, and kind of a way of
melding the different celebrations for what they did versus what
the Catholics did, they kind of changed things around and

(04:22):
kind of incorporated them with those traditions again, Christmas Day.
I'm not even sure when Christmas Day actually was in
terms of going back into history, but it was solidified
around the winter solstice in order to combine with the
other people that might have been celebrating at that time
that weren't Christian and kind of had the two celebrations

(04:43):
going on at the same time. Course, decorations traditionally Christmas
trees and decoration aren't taken down after the Twelfth Night.
I never understood a lot of people, and I know
some people that you know, Christmas Day, they have Christmas
and so on, and then all of a sudden the
next day there ripping do not ripping down, but taking
down decorations and cleaning out the house and forget about Christmas.

(05:06):
But to do Christmas right, it is not just the
area or the time period up to Christmas, but it
is a celebration of the Christmas season for the next
twelve days. And of course many people know about the
twelve Days of Christmas. Buy the song, of course, twelve
days of Christmas, six birds, four groups of performers, one

(05:29):
group of farm hands, one set of precious metals, and
a tree. Well, if you're following it home, you added
that up and you said, Kevin, that's thirteen items. How
do you get the twelve days of Christmas from that? Well,
you've got the partridge in a pear tree, which is
part of the first day of Christmas. So again you've
got basically those items. Now, PNC Bank and they've been

(05:53):
doing this for a number of years, and I'll talk
about that in a minute. Every year they come out
with the PNC Chris Smith's Price Index. I have been
following this every year as long as I can remember.
Every time I'm on the air around that time period,
I talk about the PNC Christmas Price Index. Interestingly enough, CPI,

(06:15):
which is like the Consumer Price Index.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Like I said, I have been following this.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
I always look forward to around the Thanksgiving season when
this index is released, and I look forward to seeing that.
Being a numbers guy, being a recovering accountant, I'm always
interested in the details behind. I'm interested in the cost.
I'm interested in the inflation and how that reflects the
P ANDZ. To give you an introduction if you've not

(06:41):
heard of this before, the PNC Price Christmas Price Index.
It's an annual tradition which shows the current cost of
one set of each of the gifts in the song
the Twelve Days of Christmas. It is similar to the
US Price and Consumer Price Index, which measures the changing
prices of goods and services like housing, food, clothing, and
transportation and more that reflect the spending habits of the

(07:04):
average American. The goods and services in the PNC Christmas
Price Index are far more whimsical, of course, and for
most years the price changes closely mirror those of the
Consumer Price Index. And it's been something that's been very
amazing to me. Where you take a song, you add
up the price of all those items with the various

(07:26):
items about that and all the different components to that,
and it very closely mirrors what's going on in the
regular economy. For anybody that's interested in this, if you
go to PNC their website, the p and C and
just look up p and C Christmas Price Index, it
is a great tool in order to teach kids about inflation,

(07:48):
talk about goods, and talk about different things as far
as the economy is concerned. And as I said, this
is something where on a usual year, most years it
closely mirrors what goes on as far as the economy
is concerned. And the consumer price index fun way to
measure consumer spending and trends in the economy. So even

(08:09):
if Piper's Piping or Guisa laying didn't make it on
your gift list this year, you can still learn about
a lot about checking out their prices and how they
have increased.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Over the years or decreased over the years.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
It all started basically to go back to the beginning
forty two years ago as a way to engage clients
of PNC's predecessor, Prominent National Bank in Philadelphia during the
traditionally light holiday weeks that hatched as the creative brainchild
of the banks, and then Chief Economists has since grown
into one of the PNC's most popular and anticipated economic reports.

(08:46):
Over the years, trends of emerging the PNC Price Index
and has often increased or decreased as the rate is
consistent with the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation
produced by the US Bureau Department of Labor. And then
also through the years, four factors have kind of influenced this.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
The Internet.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
They've started adding into their what it would cost if
you bought these items over the internet. The price of
services overall has increased while prices of goods have slowed.
This is a flip from forty two years ago when
goods were much higher than services. Fuel costs have to
be added in here. They have a major impact and
major effect on shipping, and as we know, fuel prices

(09:27):
have beencific significantly volatile over the last few years. Also
especially challenging go back to the pandemic year and the
fact that performers couldn't be out there. They had to
eliminate a lot of that from the index, and so
the cost of that index went way, way, way way
down in conjunction with the way the economy behaved. And

(09:48):
then since the PNC price Index. Just give me on
a background. Since they launched the BLS and the Bureau
of Labor Statistics CPI Consumer Price Index has increased two
hundred and twenty three percent over those forty two years,
while the PNC Christmas Price Index has only increased by

(10:09):
fifty seven one fifty seven percent. I should say, let's
get into the details of this coming up. I'm Kevin Gordon,
America's struck in Network seven hundred WLW.

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Speaker 1 (11:16):
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Speaker 3 (11:22):
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Speaker 2 (11:28):
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Speaker 3 (11:31):
Thank you so much for being there.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
We're talking in the previous segment about PNC's twenty twenty
five Christmas Price Index. The holiday cheer comes at a
premium total of all the gifts. The has risen four
point five percent compared to last year, out pacing the
Bureau of Labor Statistic Consumer Price Index over the year,
which is reading right around three percent. The data and

(11:55):
I'll get this, okay. The data is compiled by the
PNC's Investment off using sources from across the country including
dance and theater companies, hatcheries, pet stores, and others. Over All,
the twelve gifts of Christmas that comprise the p and
C Christmas Price index increased to a tree topping. If

(12:17):
you just bought each one of the individual items, we've
cost you fifty one thousand, four hundred and seventy six
dollars and twelve cents this year. According to Amanda Agatti,
she is the chief investment officer of P and C
Asset Management Group, this year's increase reflects labor market pressures
and economic uncertainty, not tariffs. Truelove's list is all domestic now.

(12:44):
That is you know again and what I've been talking
about on this program. There are a lot of things
in this economy that are not affected by tariffs, even
though what we are hearing from the spoon fed regurgitators
in the mainstream media. Again, she indicates this year's increase
reflects labor market pressures, which is what I've been talking

(13:05):
about a lot that people are not factoring that into
the inflation rate. And because this is labored driven, it
is at four point five percent increase compared to the
overall consumer price index of three percent. Again not tariff related.
So the true cost of Christmas, that is, if you

(13:26):
were to buy the gifts as the versus repeat, is
four point four percent higher at a whopping two hundred
and eighteen thousand, five hundred forty two dollars and ninety
eight cents tax. Sevy Tech Savy Santas might avoid long

(13:47):
lines and parking lot of adventures by shopping online with
its lower inflation rate of three point one percent, but
the total shopping bill remains higher at fifty five thousand,
seven hundred and forty eight which is above that fifty
one thousand dollars number. The convenience of shopping at home
still impacts by elevated shipping and packaging costs. Now, getting

(14:09):
into the details of this, and this is one of
the things you know as a recovering accountant. Digging into
the numbers always fascinates me. And that's one of the
things that I love about this particular survey or the
PNC Christmas Price Index is again how it normally matte
mirrors in normal years. The consumer price indict All the

(14:29):
glitters is not All the glitters is gold five gold
rings shine Bright, soaring thirty two point five percent year
over year, the single largest increase by far in twenty
twenty five, but a bargain compared to the forty five
point forty five percent jump in gold prices as of
October thirtieth, twenty twenty five. Serge wasn't holiday magic. It

(14:52):
was driven by macroeconomic forces around the world because in
times when economic uncertain and this is economic concertainty around
the world, given the oil markets and going what's going
on in the Middle East, what's going on with the
war in Ukraine, and all the different economic areas around
the world, those impacts have taken effect and people are

(15:13):
looking at that. So the price of gold, as you've noticed,
has gone up considerably, and so that is reflected.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Again mirroring the economy. Five gold rings.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
Looking at this performance pricing pops, nine ladies dancing, Ted
Lorren's ten Lords of Leaping, eleven pipers piping, twelve drummers
drumming might demand an ovation this year. An aggregate price
for performers increased five point four percent this year, an
encore on top of last year's seven point nine percent,

(15:44):
So last year's number actually came in at seven point
nine percent increase. This year was relatively tamed below that
at five point four percent. Although the partridge in a
pear tree was unchanged. There was a fourteen point three
percent jump in the price of the pear tree. Land,
labor and fertilizer have driven up tree prices this year.

(16:05):
The pear tree can also serve as a proxy for
housing costs, which likewise continue to move higher. Despite the
average mortgage rates falling off the rooftop by more than
one hundred basis points because of the lower interest rates
by the Federal Reserve.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
Price is held steady this year for two.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Turtle doves, three French hands, four calling birds, seven songs
of Swimming swimming, and eight maids of milking. The Core
version of the PNC Christmas Price Index, like the Core
version and the BLS CPI, which excludes most volatile components
of the index. So every year kind of along lines

(16:47):
mirroring the Consumer Price Index.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
The people that put this together, they will look.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
At certain items that are volatile that year pull them
out so you get a better gauge for in terms
of what is going on in the actual index itself.
This year, the number of the item that was pulled out.
Let's see the Swans. Swans typically have the most volatile
price among items in the PNC Christmas Price Index. However,

(17:12):
this year's price remained flat. That might actually be a
positive signal for investors who have been bracing for the
investment black swan sightings or finding coal in their stockings. Now,
one of the things that wasn't mentioned in this is
the actual item of geese a laying and what is
interesting about that looking at the numbers on the six

(17:34):
geez a laying again, they go into each one of
these individual items to talk about what the total cost
is and for instance, six GISA laying will be nine
hundred and thirty dollars. Geese are loud creatures, honking for
all manner of reasons and likely no reason at all.
That's why they're modest three point three percent increase feels

(17:56):
so uncharacteristically quiet this year. And they go into all
the details in terms of this, and you know, they
explain each one of them and talk about them in
detail to kind of explain how they got to those numbers.
And again, I just find this very fascinating and imagine
the fun it would be if you were one of

(18:19):
the members of this team that put this together of
going around and checking the different prices of all these things,
putting the components together and figuring out how you could
actually manage to buy all these things.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
If you were to buy those all in one fell swoop.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
With the Federal Reserve signaling looser policy in twenty twenty
six will reveal whether inflation finally cools or remains the
lump of coal in a holiday stockings. Again, according to
Amanda Agetti with PNC Bank, is what I'm trying to.

Speaker 5 (18:52):
Spit out here.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
So, like I said, every year, I get a real
kick out of looking at this, looking at the individual
details of it, talking about and I do spend some
time looking at this in terms of what some of
the prices are, where they're advancing and where they're holding flat.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Now, you know, getting into it. You know, I mentioned
at the beginning that you have.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Basically six birds group of performers, you know, four groups
of performers. You have those you know, ten lords of
leaping and so on. Those prices are subject to what
the normal performance rates are for the you know, the
different performers and the different unions that they belong to.
And the eight mades of milking kind of gives you
an indication of what the farm prices are, what the

(19:35):
labor costs are on the farm, and that type of thing.
So again, this is one of those things that where
you look at the individual details. When you look at
the what's behind the individual numbers, what makes that up,
whether it's feed costs you know, basically buy you know
because of buying these things at a pet store or
something like that, the cost of producing the birds and

(19:55):
the various animals and whatever, and being able to put
the all composite into a particular index. Like I said,
I always find it fascinating. I hope you find it too. Again,
I will post this on my Facebook page, the summary
of this, and hope you enjoy it, because again every
year this kind of tends to mirror what is going

(20:17):
on as far as the economy is concerned, and the
consumer Price Index coming up. We have Sam Collier that
joins the program to talk about what is going on.
After us being down at the twentieth anniversary of the
Rush Enterprises Tech Skills Rodeo, I thought it would be
great to talk to somebody about what's going on in

(20:39):
the trades, and of course Gateway Community College Sam Collier,
who is the dean of that department, will join us
talking about what's available in the trades. I'm Kevin Gordon,
americastruct A Network seven hundred WLW.

Speaker 6 (20:53):
News traffic and weather News Radio seven hundred WLW Cincinnati.

Speaker 7 (21:01):
Just how many more documents are loved to go through?
The surprise is a large number. But if you're twelve
thirty re parts, I'm Lee Mawen breaking Now. A surprise
announcement from the Department of Justice. They say they need
more time to sit through over a million more documents
tied into the Jeffrey Epstein trial.

Speaker 8 (21:19):
It's a surprise Christmas Eve announcement that the FBI and
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have uncovered over a million more
documents potentially related to the Epstein case. The Justice Department
says it could take a few more weeks to review
them and to make legally required redactions. Critics have accused
the administration of moving too slowly to release the files
and of blacking out too much, including the names of

(21:41):
government officials and of potential co conspirators they referenced in
internal emails.

Speaker 7 (21:46):
ABC News National correspondent Stephen Portnoy now the.

Speaker 6 (21:50):
Ladies forecast from a train heating and cooling weather center
on news radio seven hundred WLJWG.

Speaker 9 (21:56):
After freely dropping down into the upper forties, ver Santa
quickly push into the fifties by the time most of
us wake up Christmas morning. That scattered rain will also
be out there Thursday morning, but it should be out
of here by early afternoon. While gloomy Christmas afternoon, it
will be warm highs near fifty nine and we only
cool off to forty six into your Friday morning. From
your severe weather station, I'm nine first warning meter Religious

(22:18):
Mark Stitz News Radio seven hundred WLW.

Speaker 7 (22:22):
Scattered rain now in central Butler County as it's starting
to spread a little bit further. The heaviest rain is
up towards Dark County in Greenville on its way to
Troy and Pickwa in Miami County, but the best of
the Tri States dry at forty nine degrees. The TSA
are learning people about public internet and juice jacking. That's
the act of installing malware at USB ports, across airports

(22:44):
and other public places to steal information.

Speaker 10 (22:47):
Really encourage people to not use those free Wi Fi sites,
or if you do, do not do anything with personal information, banking,
anything like that. If you have to use free Wi Fi,
just keep it real surface leveled.

Speaker 7 (22:58):
Eastern Carolina's bb be ALYSSA Parker recommending people use their phones,
hotspot or a secure network to surf the net. Just
in time for Christmas Day, the iconic since Night signed
back on the Convention Center. The old side was pulled
down the summer in favor of a new LED sign
that's fully customizable and capable of playing videos. The Cincinnati

(23:18):
Convention Center reopens January seventh. Your next up there is
that one. I'm Ley Mawen, theos Radio seven hundred WLW
progressive commer.

Speaker 11 (23:32):
Here's your trucking forecast for the Try State and the
rest of the country. In the Try State, overnight showers,
the low down to forty six for Christmas Day, a
chance of morning showers and a slight chance in the
late afternoon, otherwise cloudy. The high year sixty rain seen
Friday coming to an end by early afternoon with cloudy skies,
a high of sixty four, mostly claudy. Saturday highs in
the upper fifties Nationally continuing through Christmas Day. Life threatening

(23:56):
flash flooding scene over southern California, while heavy mountain snow
and high winds also persist from the Upper Midwest into
the mid Atlantic and Northeast. Contry weather we'll spread Friday. Meanwhile,
and seasonably warm weather which could break daily record his
in places continuing across the middle of the country through
the weekend.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
I'm Kevin Gord in Americastrucking Network seven hundred WLW. I
have the pleasure of bringing back to the program somebody
we haven't spoken to in a couple of years, Sam Collier.
He is the Dean of Manufacturing Transportation Technology at Gateway
Community and Technical College.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Sam, welcome back to the program.

Speaker 5 (24:35):
JA, Thanks guy, I appreciate you bringing me back. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
For people or may not be familiar with him, he's
got a very amazing background. He's been an ASA certified
technician for twenty five years, got into that, became a
division chair of transportation back in two thousand and six,
worked as a mechanic for seventeen years, and now is
the dean after graduating from CINCINNTI State Technical College with

(24:58):
associates and automotive business. So up projecting all through and
going back for continuing education to get where you are today.
And that's a fantastic story to talk about.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
Sam. I applaud you for that, and I really admire
you for that.

Speaker 12 (25:12):
Well, it definitely was not the planned when I graduated
high school. But it has been a great ride, and
I'm glad I'm where I'm at and able to work
with all of these wonderful people in college and the
students in the trades.

Speaker 5 (25:27):
It's been very rewarding.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Well, I am going to skip down to something I
was going to talk about earlier. Later I mentioned you
off air that last week I was down at the
in Nashville for the twentieth anniversary of Rush Enterprises Tech
Skills Rodeo, and we got a chance to talk to
a bunch of the technicians that competed. Over three hundred

(25:51):
thousand dollars in prizes were given away in cash prizes,
and well there was some fantastic looking trophies. But in
interviewing them again, this came about and as you were
talking about being able to get a career path in
terms of not where you expected to be a lot
of these people didn't know what they were going to
do out of college a college or high school and

(26:12):
found their way into a skill and just was open
to that. So I guess before we get started, maybe
talk a little bit about that how people can this
may be something for them to explore, which is something
different than what they had originally intended to be involved.

Speaker 12 (26:26):
In well and Kevin, you know, that's a great point
because I talked to more and more and more students
every year parents that because you know, again, when I
was a kid, my.

Speaker 5 (26:37):
Dad worked on his own car. We quickly figured out
I was much better at it.

Speaker 12 (26:42):
Than he was, and next thing you know, he's handed
me the tools and I'm doing the work. So I
was able to find my niche and figure out, hey,
I'm pretty good at this and I really enjoy it.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
Those days are gone.

Speaker 12 (26:52):
The playing with a point where the appliances and taking
things apart is gone. So many people don't know if
they have interests, a skill, a talent in the trades
at all unless they're have an opportunity where mother, uncle, grandpa,
somebody does.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
Something in the trades that they get to tag along with.

Speaker 12 (27:11):
So we do a lot of touring and talking to
students and introducing them to instructors and letting them come
into labs and see what programs are about.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Now is that geared towards the high school students at
different schools and stuff.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
You go around and talk to them kind of basically recruit.

Speaker 5 (27:31):
Well. Yeah, so one thing, yes, obviously we're in the
high schools.

Speaker 12 (27:33):
We have a whole team at Gateway that does that,
and then you know, we'll arrange tours at the college
for those that still have interest. You know, hey, if
you say, man, I'm going to be a chemical engineer,
and I know that for a fact, great, go be
a chemical engineer. I got But they're like, I don't know,
I think I want to work.

Speaker 5 (27:50):
With my hands. Okay, let's talk about what does that mean?

Speaker 12 (27:54):
Because that opens up so many different avenues, and so
we actually have.

Speaker 5 (27:59):
High school what we we call.

Speaker 12 (28:00):
Them apprenticeship pathways where students can come in and their
junior year and their senior year and just take a
hodgepodge of classes. So they'll take a welding class, a
machining class, a basic electrical class, an auto class, you know,
and just kind of get a heating and air conditioning
class and they just get a feel for you know,

(28:21):
it's one class in each of these areas. All the
classes would count towards either core or electives if they
chose any of the technical classes, so they're not wasted,
but they can actually come over and work directly.

Speaker 5 (28:34):
With That was so popular in the high schools.

Speaker 12 (28:38):
That we've actually expanded that now and we have a
dedicated pathway for under employed folks. So when we're talking
to twenty five, twenty six thirty year old who's working
two or three jobs to make ends meet, you know,
just because they're dead end jobs. Retail not the bad thing,

(28:59):
but they're just really struggling and you know, hey, but
I think I think I want to be you know,
so we give them an opportunity to come in, take
a couple of classes, and again get there see if
you know, because let's face it, you don't want to
come in and find out that you're you don't have
technical skills, or that you're not interested, or that it's
not fun for you, and then this is your career
path for the rest of your life. So we've had

(29:20):
to open up a lot of those avenues because people
don't get a chance.

Speaker 5 (29:26):
To expand and explore those type of things.

Speaker 12 (29:28):
And it's not like you can be you know, you
can't just walk into a manufacturing plant say I want
to play with your machines. That's not going to happen,
so you'd probably be arrested and or shot.

Speaker 10 (29:41):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
So but this is cool because so a person could
come in take on. By the way, we're speaking with
Sam Collier. He is the dean of Manufacturing and Transporation
Technology Gateway Community and Technical College. So they could actually
try heating, air conditioning, electrical mechanic, diesel mechanic, and so on,
just to kind of get a feel for what made

(30:05):
what made.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
Interest them and so exactly.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
All right, Well, let's back up a little bit because
I'm going to skip right back to the first question
I was going to ask, but we got there was,
you know, so many things to talk about to get
to that. But since we last spoke, your duties have expanded,
and so have the programs expanded as far as what's
available at Gateway Community College and Technical.

Speaker 12 (30:26):
That is correct, yes, So you know, obviously the great
news is we're seeing you know, well, the college in
and of itself. Every year, the last four semesters, I
believe we've seen growth, and a lot of that is
in the trades. So I've had to add on more instructors,
both full time and a lot of part time. And

(30:49):
that's an interesting endeavor because you know, you first of all,
they're working, and many of them are working swing shifts
and things like that. So we've got to work with
their schedules. They've already got an eight to five job,
or at least a forty hour a week job. They've
got families. But then they've also it's not like they're
just coming in and teaching. I'm not saying, hey, come

(31:09):
in and lecture to these students for an hour and
go home. They've got to come in and actually teach
the technical thing. So my welding part time instructor comes
in and teaches a Saturday morning class from eight to one.
He's a welder and he knows welding, but he's actually
got to come in and make sure he understands the
equipment and can you you know, know where everything is
so he doesn't look silly when a student says, hey,

(31:31):
I need a grinder. Oh, that'd be a great tool
to have. I bet it's here somewhere.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Now.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
They need to learn, you know.

Speaker 12 (31:37):
They actually need to learn how where things are at,
how we run our shop. Our rules are rags, so
that come Monday when our students come back in, everything's
back where it belongs.

Speaker 5 (31:46):
So it really is a big expansion.

Speaker 12 (31:48):
Also because the trades are so shorthanded, so I'm academic everything.
I my life is around classes that are based on college.
But we have what we call Workforce, and workforce works
directly with industry and so they can do a customized class.
I'm set to very set boundaries. This class is this long,

(32:10):
and this is what you're going to teach in it.
But Workforce can come in and say we're going to
teach a basic business course or a technical course, or
a welding course or.

Speaker 5 (32:20):
And it can be very specific.

Speaker 12 (32:21):
I need students to learn how to weld pipe and
that's it.

Speaker 5 (32:26):
Okay, well that's going to be so. But when we're
talking with companies.

Speaker 12 (32:32):
That group is not necessarily a subject matter.

Speaker 5 (32:35):
Expert in every area.

Speaker 12 (32:37):
So I spend a lot of my time now not
a lot, some of my time actually working with workforce
and with these companies talking over what is it that
they actually need because they think they need you know,
I need more people to do. But then when you
start having the conversations with them, oh okay, it becomes

(32:58):
broader or more narrow, or they want more or they
think that that has to be college bound, and like, no,
you come in, take three hour class, learn to do X.
So I come in as the primary subject matter expert, although.

Speaker 5 (33:10):
I'm in no way, shape or form a subject maunter
expert in a lot of these areas, but I know enough.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
O coumpaths are fairly open to this, which is a
lot different than some of the stuff that I've seen
from people that I've talked with. And we'll pick this
up on the other side of the break, I'm speaking
with Sam Collier. He is the dean of Manufacturing and
Transportation Technology, Gateway Community and Technical College. I'm Kevin Gordon,
America's Trucking Network seven hundred Wlwright.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
News Radio seven hundred WLW, and iHeartRadio Station Guaranteed Human
seven hundred WLW, I Heard Radio.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
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Speaker 9 (33:49):
You have to trust that your truck or your whole
fleet is up to the task.

Speaker 8 (33:53):
Owners and fleet managers have trusted star Fire for ten time.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
Kevin Gordon, this is America's Trucking Network.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Continue our tent with Sam Collier, Deano Manufacturing and Transportation Technology,
Gateway Community and Technical College. When we stepped out, we
were talking about I don't know if you want to
say train corporations, but being an ambassador with those corporations
that to fill the needs that they have. They may
come to you and say that they need, you know,

(34:19):
five different skills, but you can give them somebody with
three and we'll explain the process there. Because this is
kind of unlike what I'm seeing in some of the
corporate rule of other corporations and some of the other jobs,
where if somebody doesn't meet all those criteria, their their
resume gets thrown in the waste basket. In a lot
of instances, I think it's a disservice not only to

(34:41):
the company, but to the employee as well.

Speaker 5 (34:44):
And Kevin, I agree with you one hundred percent.

Speaker 12 (34:46):
And yeah, first of all, finding that unicorn that has
all those five anymore, especially if it's a company that
has something specialized, you know, it's just not going to
happen because again, you used to steal somebody from another company,
But the pay rates are at a point and companies
know they can't go get somebody else, so they're willing

(35:06):
to step up to keep that person they have. So
the days of trading off and rotating through a how
won't say they're gone, but they're definitely.

Speaker 5 (35:14):
Much less than they used to be.

Speaker 12 (35:16):
So so, yeah, we do have these you know, have
to have these conversations with companies and we say, okay,
you know what, I got students here that have you're
asking for these five?

Speaker 5 (35:24):
I got three. But they're a good student.

Speaker 12 (35:27):
They've shown up for class every day, They've put forth
a lot of effort, they show great initiative, they have
people skills. Are you willing to work with them and
train them? And then the training side can be multiple things.
They mentorship where they put them with somebody in the company,
and a lot of companies that we're working with are
seeing that that's unnecessary evil I'm just going to have

(35:48):
to pay somebody to not be quite as profitable because
they're in a training mode. Or do they come back
to Gateway as I was mentioning before the break and
or with a workforce group like ours and design a
very specialized class for those three or five people that
they just hired to give them those skills that they

(36:10):
didn't have.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
So, okay, come work for the company.

Speaker 12 (36:13):
You stay with me for three six months, you show
up for work every day, and then I'm going to
pay for this training that will help you and help
me the company. And you know, now you're you know
you've actually developed from within. The students wins, the company wins.
The student feels like the company's investing in them, so
they're you know, they're more likely to hang around. So

(36:35):
it's a it's a win for everybody.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
And Gawayne and Gateway has gone to bat for these
people to make sure that they get employed. It's not
just hey, exactly, pay your fee, get a grade, and
good luck.

Speaker 12 (36:50):
Well exactly, yeah, my god, I always you know, that's
one of those things that we know when we're looking
at programs and making sure that programs are viable, that
is very important that there is first of all, career
opportunnities that are good career opportunities.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
And we're not going to put you.

Speaker 12 (37:03):
Into a into a job that is fading away or
that AI is taking over. That's not fair to our students.
So are their career opportunities and are there companies that
are willing to help, because again, you're just not going
to find a ten year veteran sitting around looking for
these jobs anymore.

Speaker 5 (37:21):
Well ly, in the.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Economy, we have this no hire, no fire policy because
of you know, people kind of holding back whether they're
going to expand or not, and of course economic issues
out there, which you know, I think are being overplayed
by them.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
We won't go into that.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
But anyway, I think we've got a very strong economy.
It's just that I think that a lot of companies
are kind of waiting on the in the wings to
possibly expand. But which is a good segue here, because
again we talked about the fact that there you've expanded
programs there, and those are more programs than what you

(37:57):
originally well what we what you had the last time
we spoke. So let's talk a little bit about that
as well. Because again, as I've said before, as I
mentioned in the previous segment, being at that tech schools rodeo,
the trades have become cool again, not that they were.
Actually they've always been cool. They were cool before cool

(38:18):
was cool, you know, And so it's always been a necessity,
and people are realizing that, yes, this is a necessity
and it's a cool possibility of a good career path.
So let's talk about some of the expanded programs. And
as you mentioned, this isn't like just sitting there saying hey,
let's start this program here, let's start teaching this today

(38:39):
and then roll the red carpet.

Speaker 12 (38:41):
Out you're exactly right, and I'll be honest. When Gateway
was a little bitty college many many years ago, when
I started, it was kind of like that a company
and say, hey, we think the world needs are our
area needs X, and we'd go out and we'd try
and set up whatever that was, and then we'd find
out that there's two companies that actually need three people,
and we just spent a lot of time and money

(39:02):
on an area that's already now flooded. So you know,
there are companies that actually do this research the nationally
and then narrow it down to areas, and we were Gatway,
like many colleges, works with those groups. We review that information,
we take that information back to our companies and we
have conversations with them and say, you know.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
Hey, statistically it says right.

Speaker 12 (39:25):
Here that we're going to need people doing this and
I'll use So it's actually a crossover. We have a
we've had a computer information technology program since before I started,
but now we have a computer engineering technology program, which
is a crossover between computers, the normal computer classes, and electronics.

Speaker 5 (39:48):
So this person is teaching students.

Speaker 12 (39:51):
You know, computers is kind of that replaced software update.
Things keep up the kind of thing. But this person
is actually looking more in more or in depth into
the electronics side of it, the repair of a board,
you know, getting more into the electronics side of it,
the manufacturing side of it, you know, the actual manufacturing

(40:13):
of components. You know, computers don't just build themselves yet,
so somebody's actually got to design them and engineer them
up and make sure that they're working right and then
repair them. So that's one of the areas that's actually
I'm not fully in charge of it there. It's a
crossover between two divisions, but we looked at a lot
of you know, did a lot of research again, went
and talked to the companies. They're like, yeah, that's what

(40:35):
I've been talking about, that's what I've been asking for.

Speaker 5 (40:37):
I'm like, well, you didn't say that, you know so.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
And which is interesting in that area because of the
technology changing and by the way, we're speaking with Sam
Collier of Manufacturing Transportation Technology at Gateway Community and Technical College,
that technology is changing. It doesn't really do what he could.
And I'm trying to think of a certain technology or
a certain computer from ten to fifteen years ago doesn't

(41:04):
help to know how to repair that when you've got
the new computers that are out there. I mean, you've
got to have exactly the current technology so that they're
trained on what is going to be a profitable or
a useful skill.

Speaker 12 (41:19):
Right and you know, and again we'll go back to
manufacturing world just because that's one of the big ones
in Northern Kentucky. A lot of the machinery now, you know,
you go back fifteen years ago, you had a whole
bunch of mechanical.

Speaker 5 (41:31):
Failures belt drives and things like that. But now it
is computerized.

Speaker 12 (41:35):
It's you know, programmable logic control issues, it is electronic issues,
it's computer software issues, it's that are causing plants headaches.
So yeah, you've still got the maintenance of the line
and all of the machinery, but you've also now got
the maintenance and repair of all of this computerized equipment,

(41:56):
you know, and automation and all of that stuff that
there wasn't there wasn't a problem. You know, even pre
COVID was less of a problem. COVID really accelerated companies
going that route.

Speaker 5 (42:08):
Because they didn't have a choice. They couldn't have people
on the floor. So yes, it really is a big
deal that you continue to do.

Speaker 12 (42:15):
That research and you continue to look at Allied health
is another area where we've added some programs. Again, thank goodness,
not mine. You do not want me dealing with allied health.
But but you know, we've added several different pathways and
there's they're just minor changes in you know, to give
students slightly different training depending.

Speaker 5 (42:37):
On where they're going.

Speaker 12 (42:39):
And and that's part of the job of the college
is to look at that and then talk to your
industry and say does this make sense. If they look
at you like you you've got three heads, then okay,
probably not. But if they say, yeah, that's what I'm
talking about, then that's That's the way We've got to
continue to grow and build. And I think we're going
to continue to see that, you know, even within programs
our Manufacturing Engineering Technology Program, which is a small program

(43:04):
built inside of the manufacturing program more for students that
want to get into middle management or go into the
side of plant redesign or five S lean engineering type
of technologies, you know, that side of it rather than
the plant side. More. I'm going to work with companies
to set up new plants or like the automotive industry

(43:26):
where hey, guess what, Every year, a new car line
comes out, so the plant has to totally be redesigned.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
We've only got about a little over a minute, actually
about thirty seconds here to continue this. Some of these courses,
I'm going down the list here, air conditioning technology, apprenticeship programs,
Associate in Arts, business administration, automotive technology, all kinds of things.
I would suggest people go to this website, which again

(43:53):
is Gateway.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
You want to give the website out.

Speaker 12 (43:57):
Yeah, it's Gateway dot KCT, which is Kentucky Community Technical
College System dot edu.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
Now, a lot of these courses, what is the length
of these? How long does it take to go through
some of these? I guess the shortest of the longest.

Speaker 5 (44:13):
Yeah, so the longest. I'll go backwards.

Speaker 12 (44:15):
Most of our programs are set up for a full time.

Speaker 5 (44:17):
Student to finish a degree in two years.

Speaker 12 (44:21):
But embedded in most at least the technical programs are
short term certificates so I can come in and take
just a very and we try and make those certificates
industry ready so that you are at least getting enough
skill to be employable. And that's that's the goal of
those and some of those are as short as one
semester sixteen weeks, you actually get a job.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
So if anybody is interested, if anybody's working third shift
and says, you know, I got a dead end job here,
I want to try something different, this is the opportunity
for you and an area a career path that you
should pursue. And again, the website is Gateway dot.

Speaker 5 (44:57):
KCTCS dot edu.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
All right, enjoyed the conversation, Sam, Folks. Just a wealth
of knowledge here and I would very much suggest the
trades are cool again. Get on board. I'm Kevin Gordon.
America Struck a network seven hundred WLW.

Speaker 6 (45:16):
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Speaker 7 (45:24):
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