
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 9, 1991                   TAG: 9103100005
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A/10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SKILLS SURVEY TO INCLUDE WESTERN VA. COMPANIES

Five Western Virginia companies will be among 100 Southern manufacturers included in a study of the kinds of skills and knowledge required for future factory workers.

The study by the Southern Technology Council will survey companies in Wythe, Bland and Grayson counties. Participants are Williams Manufacturing Co., Wytheville; Wythe Precision Machine Co., Max Meadows; American Mine Research, Rocky Gap; Darco Southern Inc., Independence, and Elk Creek Raycarl, Camcar Division of Textron.

After the initial survey, the council will go back in a year for another look, said Harry Groot of Wytheville Community College, Virginia liaison for the Advanced Manufacturing Skills Panel.

The council, based at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, said the study aims to help both educators and employers keep up with the changing occupational skills demanded by the growing influence of technology.

Stuart Rosenfeld, council director, said the most sophisticated companies already require workers with the skills that most firms will be seeking in the future. To learn what these skills are, he said, educators need to ask people who work there what the technician of the future will need to know.

The council will survey 100 factories in its 13-state region. At least five employees and a supervisor will complete questionnaires; interviews on the work environment will be conducted at some of the plants. - Staff report

by CNB