In the economic hub of southeast Arkansas, the most important skills on demand are soft skills.
Kris Kline, vice president of Strong Manufacturing; Jeff Vanderpool, manufacturing and operations executive vice president at Graphyte; and Garrett Lee, components plant vice president at Central Moloney, gave Arkansas Delta and southeast Arkansas educators insights into their human capital needs during the Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County’s fourth annual Connecting Educators to Industry seminar at the Main Library on Wednesday. Economics Arkansas, a nonprofit educational organization, hosted the event.
“A diploma or certificate proves there is some dedication to earning something, but the proof is in the pudding — when they show up and have that desire to work and they come to work every day, that’s where they advance,” Vanderpool said. “I’ve seen people with advanced college degrees that never get off a forklift, and I’ve seen people with a high school diploma end up being a shift manager or production manager. Certificates are good, kind of an early-stage indication of what someone is willing to dedicate to achieve something, but it’s not the end-all. A willingness to work, ability to learn and desire to learn (are necessary as well). If they’re always trying to make themselves better, they are going to succeed.”
Companies like Graphyte — the second-year carbon-removal company listed among Fast Company magazine’s “World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2025” — are always looking for skill sets key to its success, Vanderpool assured, while seeking to eliminate the need for automation skill sets.
The acronym CNC, for computer numerical control, was often tossed around during the one-hour panel discussion involving the business leaders. CNC is explained as a computer-controlled device that automates manufacturing. Automation can only be done to a certain point at Graphyte, Vanderpool said, hence the need for human skills.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“For us, we’re not a high-production company,” Kline said of Strong, which manufactures equipment for mixing and pumping concrete and floor underlayment. “A lot of ours will be small runs. For me, it’s going to have to be trained individuals. I can’t automate it. If I had one part that’s the same part time after time, I’d go to automation, but mine is a bunch of runs. For us, it’s all about, can I find somebody who’s willing to learn and able to teach them? It’s all about training.”
That’s where the soft skills come in. Kline said he is open to hiring those who may only have a certificate of completion rather than a diploma but are willing to show up, listen and learn.
Many of the industrial skills taught in high school classrooms are soft skills, but the daylong forum at the Main Library gave educators another opportunity to connect with industry.
Latoya Conway, a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher at Lonoke High School, said she and other teachers are asking local corporate leaders what skills are needed to be taught in the classroom so high school graduates can be ready for a workforce that’s always open to hire.
“Most of it is soft skills,” she said. “So if you need to know CNC, then when they come to us and say, ‘What do you need in your classroom?’ then we know to recommend a 3D printer in the CNC, because we don’t know. It’s so many programs out there.”
Industry representatives go into classrooms at Lonoke, Conway said.
“The state and federal government is not going to buy all that machinery and equipment, but if you buy and say, ‘Hey, teach these kids to use this,’ when they graduate and they’re offered a job that’s going to pay $23 an hour versus $16 an hour, it just makes a difference for the kids,” she explained.
David Tollett is a former school superintendent who teaches in Stuttgart, home to Riceland Foods and Lennox Industries. The biggest challenge in gearing students for potential employment in such businesses, he believes, is identifying the specific labor skills they desire.
“Basically what schools fall back on are soft skills that can be used by any employer, anywhere,” Tollett said. “The challenge to specific labor demands are dependent on that company, but in a general setting, it’s more reliant on soft skills.
“We teach a lot of soft skills. We don’t teach a lot of specific skills. We can help industry greatly in public education if we know what specific things industry needs from us and if industry is willing to work within the public school system. I think that’s kind of our disconnect right now and something that can be improved on. It’s just basically building a bridge between industry and education and providing the space and resources needed to teach high school kids the specifics of local industry coming out.”
A graphic from the Arkansas State Data Center, citing information from the U.S. Census Bureau, showed Jefferson County experienced 0.2% population growth between July 1, 2023, and July 1, 2024. No other southeast Arkansas county saw growth, and only Greene (0.5%) and Craighead (1.4%) counties, which include Paragould and Jonesboro, grew among all Arkansas Delta counties.
Whether industry can be attributed to population growth is yet to be determined in Jefferson County, but Nancy Lee McNew, the Economic Development Alliance’s vice president, said the county has seen more expansion in industry in recent years.
“How we recruit is that we definitely market our available sites,” McNew said. “We market available buildings. That’s one of our complimentary services in Jefferson County, that those who own commercial and industrial buildings, we put those on the Alliance website, as well as an Entergy Arkansas site selection website. We submit them for projects, but we just market our area and we market all the great opportunities and assets we have here.”