DATE: Saturday, April 19, 1997              TAG: 9704190335

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   78 lines

ECSU BEGINS PROGRAM TO TRAIN HIGHWAY WORKERS

Elizabeth City State University has long produced accountants, teachers, social workers and other professionals in northeastern North Carolina.

Now the university - where students usually spend four or five years - is opening a crash-course program in an attempt to create better-educated, more-diversified highway construction crews in the region.

The university has joined forces with the state Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration to create a pre-employment training program for highway construction workers.

The deal was formally sealed in a ceremonial signing Friday at the Kermit E. White Center.

``This is a special day for Elizabeth City State University,'' said Chancellor Mickey L. Burnim while welcoming about 50 officials, faculty, students and community leaders to an earlier luncheon.

The partnership will broaden the area's educational and economic base, Burnim said, ``making life better for the people of the Albemarle.''

Kim Evans, 23, is one of 13 students currently enrolled in the school's first-ever three-week training program. Eight students in the class are women, she said.

``At first, I thought it was kind of crazy - a woman going into construction,'' the mother of a 6-year-old said. Before enrolling in the program, Evans was a hairdresser who worked out of her home.

But Evans and classmates Marie Banks and Victoria Johnson are starting to believe they can fit into the male-dominated field.

``I know every aspect will be a challenge,'' said Banks, a 31-year-old mother of four. ``But I think it'll be an experience that will be great.''

Through the introductory course, Johnson, 28 and a mother of three, has already selected her niche. ``Let everybody know I want to be a truck driver,'' she said.

The three woman are the type of students that university and highway officials want to recruit to the pre-training program. Women and minorities are encouraged to enroll.

Students spend all day learning subjects as diverse as basic math, workplace safety, AIDS prevention, sexual harassment in the workplace, budgeting and handling money and physical conditioning.

Essentially, the course offers employable skills and realistic expectations of workplace conditions, including extreme weather and physical stress.

The curriculum for the pilot program, offered through the university's Continuing Education Department, was created by ECSU's Dr. Ellis Lawrence.

Course topics were based on surveys and an assessment led by project director Ursula Adderton and assisted by several student interns.

``What we found out is there's a high turnover rate in the field of construction workers,'' Michael Marshall, one of the summer interns, told the crowd.

Elizabeth City State is one of three historically black colleges in North Carolina to form a partnership with state and federal highway agencies.

Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte and Fayetteville State University are the other two Carolina schools.

Friday's luncheon was called ``Preparing Leaders to Build the Roads of the Next Millennium.''

``And it's obvious to me that this institution is doing a marvelous job in that endeavor,'' noted Manuel Marbet, deputy secretary for administration within the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Funding for all phases of the pre-employment program included $12,000 for the initial assessment last summer. Another $15,000 was given for curriculum development and $50,000 for training up to 60 people, said Dr. James McLean, the interim vice chancellor for development and planning at ECSU.

Ultimately, the university hopes to place its students in the construction industry, which is expected to grow as road improvements continue in the northeast.

``The industry has a need for entry-level workers with an opportunity to advance,'' McLean said, noting that the area lacks a lot of large corporations.

``It's simply bringing another resource to some real problems, some real needs,'' McLean said.

Commented Elizabeth City Mayor Rick Gardner, a general contractor without a college degree: ``Everyone can't be a professional, and craft traders are badly needed in the construction industry.

``In my opinion, this is a big step forward in education, to put part of the focus on a craft and teaching a trade.''

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