A thriving economy is only as good as the workforce development that a community is willing to build. Helping attract new students and work candidates to the city of Marshall, as week as preparing their current student body, are two large initiatives of the Marshall Economic Development Center.

In this episode of Gone to Texas, Dave is joined by Bart Day, Provost for Texas State Technical College, Marshall Campus, and Richele Langley, Ed.D, Superintendent of Marshall ISD.
Richele and Bart discuss the city's initiatives, including things like dual credits in helping kids explore their interests and getting them prepared on an accelerated scale to fill the needs of the Marshall workforce.

They also talk about how programs are being developed at the Texas State Technical College to continually keep up with the local small businesses' demand and get the right people trained so they can have an impact immediately. They also discuss what they're doing to keep costs low and ensure their students will be placed in a job, in addition to how they're making sure they are not leaving out current Marshall residents.

To learn more about the Marshall EDC, visit: https://www.marshalledc.org/

Full episode Breakdown

1:10 - Meeting Richele and Dale and learning more about their roles at Marshal ISD and Texas State Technical College, Marshall Campus.
2:20 Richele discusses their programs and why it's essential for them to educate not just students but also continue to educate current residents to keep them in Marshall.
5:10 - Bart talks about the system and how they're constantly considering helping the small business owner with the education and training of their residents.
6:21 - Richele discusses the program's cost, and how they've considered making this as cost-effective as possible.
9:00 - Bart talks about some of the difficulties with helping so many kids who are first generation college students, and how they're overcoming it.
12:30 - From a future perspective, how does the education system keep up with the needs of business owners? Richele and Dale discuss how they're keeping up with the frequent changes.
15:48 - Richele discusses what they're pushing for in the future and why tradespeople are so important.
16:43 - Richele discusses what small business owners can do to connect with and communicate with educators to help figure out what's needed.
18:45 - Bart talks about what businesses can expect if a small business owner finds themselves with a need that may need to be filled.
21:49 - Bart talks about the money-back guarantee with their programs.