Ozarka and Emerson officials recently announced the placement of three Ozarka Precision Machining students at Sharp County's largest employer, Emerson.   Scheduled to complete their training program this month, Matthew Jaggars, of Cherokee Village; Randolph Martin, of Ravenden; and Mary Wanley, of Cherokee Village have all already accepted offers of employment to begin working at Emerson.

"Ozarka Technical College has been an excellent partner in providing training and validating the skillsets of key positions in our workforce, " said Kate Stanczyk, Emerson Human Resources Director. "Emerson continues to look to Ozarka graduates as a source of qualified candidates we continue to recruit and grow our team. "

Since 2019, Ozarka has made a deliberate effort to expand and enhance industry partnerships, an effort that has resulted in the addition and expansion of technical education offerings across the College's four-county service area.

"It has been an honor to help set up a trained workforce pipeline between Ozarka college and our local industry partners, " said Marcus Orf, director of Ozarka's Carpenter Technical Center. "We are very proud of these students and our new state of the art training facilities here in Ash Flat and look forward to helping meet the industry needs in the future. "

The recent job placement is not isolated to employment with Emerson in Ash Flat. Ozarka has also developed employment pipeline partnerships with multiple industry partners in the region.

"Completing the pipeline from training to employment is critical for our students' ultimate success, " said Dr. Richard Dawe, Ozarka College president. "We are grateful for the outpouring of community support for these technical programs and are pleased with how engaged our industries are in developing a regional workforce.

If you are interested in supporting these new technical education opportunities, there are multiple giving opportunities available. For more information, contact Dr. Josh Wilson with the Ozarka College Foundation at (870) 368-2060.