John Churchill - The Impact of Industrial Readiness Training

John Churchill started his career in 1964 training Navy cadets on basic flight instruments. After 20 years of military service and 24 years of working with Fortune 500 companies such as Kimberly Clark and Nabisco, he finished his corporate career in major industries serving as a Training Manager for Gerdau Ameristeel. As the Training Manager, Churchill was responsible for both training and Industrial Training Systems for Gerdau Ameristeel’s North American steel mills. 

 

Most recently, he was the Director of Corporate Training and Continuing Education for Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis. He currently serves as the College's Executive Director for Workforce Development. 

 

John speaks to Journey to Success Radio on the training program that is having a tremendous impact in the Memphis, TN business community. The Industrial Readiness Training (IRT) course is a centerpiece of the Made in Memphis Initiative. The goal of Made in Memphis is for local manufacturers, educational institutions, and Workforce Investment Network (WIN) and its partners to work together to create a pipeline of skilled workers to meet the hiring needs of manufacturing employers, and to prepare local job seekers with the skills they need to get good jobs in manufacturing. 

 

IRT is a four week program at Southwest Tennessee Community College designed to prepare individuals for jobs in local manufacturing and industry. The training teaches and measures foundational technical, academic, and interpersonal knowledge and skills that have been identified by local industry leaders as critical to long-term employee success.