TRAIN TRACKS.

Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

It's familiar ground for Ray Sellers. The nagging feeling that he could be doing more, that he could be more satisfied. The sense that fulfillment and self-improvement might be found along a common path.

"I started out building furniture, basically," says Sellers, now 46. "I worked for Whittier Wood Products for 23 years. They're a great place to work for, but I just couldn't do it anymore."

He simply had done the same thing for so long that it no longer held challenges. The job had lost its appeal.

That first time, Sellers made the leap on his own, and he cleared quite a chasm - a yearlong training program transformed him from woodworker to certified nurse's assistant.

He has worked in that position for two years at Eugene's Sacred Heart Medical Center, where he transports patients to and from the hospital's radiology department.

Now he has an eye on another job - radiology technician - and has jumped to the front of the line for a slot in a new training opportunity at Sacred Heart that is the result of federal money filtered through the state and awarded by the local Lane Workforce Partnership.

PeaceHealth, the hospital's nonprofit corporate parent, is one of five successful applicants for first-year money in the partnership's new Workforce Training Program.

It's aimed at retraining current employees to give them opportunities and to improve efficiency at local businesses or at private nonprofit corporations.

The stream of money isn't new. The federal government, under the Workforce Investment Act, has doled out money to states for years.

But this year, $3.9 million of Oregon's $6 million share is going to the local level, to be disbursed by the state's 15 regional workforce organizations.

Previously, the federal money has been spent largely at the state level.

"This will be more in line with the economic development focus of the community," says Chuck Forster, director of the Lane Workforce Partnership. "I really do think it's a great strategy."

The idea is to help local employees vault fences into greener pastures, and to allow the businesses that employ them to reap the benefits of motivated workers.

"A skilled work force will give people that competitive advantage," Forster says. "We will all gain from this.

"It's not a big chunk of money, but it is a sizeable investment."

In all, $287,180 was awarded this year to PeaceHealth, Burley Design Cooperative, Weyerhaeuser Co., the Willamette Valley Co. and Marathon Coach. Each had to commit matching funds at least equal to the amount of its grant.

Most of the companies are in what in economics jargon is called the traded sector - manufacturers and related firms that bring wealth into a community rather than simply recycle it locally, Forster said.

Three of the companies will use the money to retrain employees in the concept of "lean manufacturing," a model that seeks to make U.S. manufacturers more competitive with those in other countries.

More jobs, higher pay

In their grant applications, all five businesses laid out their projections of increased wages for employees who take part in training as well as estimates of how many new employees may be hired as the training leads to company growth.

"We expect that jobs at a minimum will be retained, and we also have a strong expectation that jobs will be created," Forster says.

Marathon Coach, for instance, projects that it will increase wages to $14 an hour, up from $13, for the retrained workers, and enough increased capacity to hire another 20 workers. Burley Design, a maker of bicycles and bicycle accessories, expects to increase its work force to 100 from the current 87, and its wages to $12.50 an hour from the current $11.35 for the retrained workers.

At PeaceHealth, those for whom the training is targeted - largely clerical, housekeeping and food service workers - now earn wages ranging from $18,000 to $29,000 a year. After retraining, they will fill jobs that pay an average of $30,000 to $50,000 a year, the hospital estimated.

And new employees will be hired to fill the lower-echelon positions left vacant by those who move up the ladder, PeaceHealth said.

"When you help your own people, you have a much more loyal work force, because you've changed their lives," says Kim Holland-Turley of PeaceHealth's human resources department.

A history of retraining

The concept isn't new at Sacred Heart, where 90 nonmedical employees were retrained in 1982 to become certified nurse's assistants. From there, many took additional steps and some wound up as registered nurses.

Several other programs at the hospital have taken a similar tack over the years, including an offer of nursing scholarships in recent years.

Holland-Turley says the Workforce Training Program will allow PeaceHealth to dig deep within its ranks once again, and begin cultivating a new crop of upwardly mobile health care workers to help address current and projected shortages in qualified employees.

"It's really fun to be able to help people, and help your own employees - and ultimately to help the patients," she says. "And I'd rather be training them than trying to recruit them, in a lot of these jobs."

Sellers says he sees the move to radiology technician as an interim step in a career path that he hopes eventually will see him become a registered nurse and then a nursing administrator.

The 18-month radiology technician program at Linn-Benton Community College will require three months of full-time classroom work and then an internship combined with additional classes until the training requirements are completed.

Somewhere down the road, he hopes to take a two-year registered nurse certification program at Lane Community College, then a bachelor's degree completion program, and perhaps a master's degree in health care administration.

Even in his current, entry-level medical position, Sellers is earning about what he did as a furniture maker, but with a better package of health and retirement benefits.

"Once I become a radiology tech, that will take a big jump," he says.

But the biggest boost for Sellers has been an emotional one. He no longer dreads the humdrum of work, and his positive attitude and yearning to learn have been noticed at home.

"My wife really likes it," he says. "She's actually the one pushing me to get into nursing, because I actually like my job again.

"And my daughter thinks it's funny, because she'll be going to college at the same time I am."

WORKFORCE TRAINING PROGRAM

Grants recently awarded to local businesses for retraining current employees. The program is funded with federal money distributed to the states. It is run locally by the Lane Workforce Partnership.

Burley Design Cooperative: $66,500 to retrain 87 workers in "lean manufacturing" to improve efficiency at the bicycle manufacturer.

PeaceHealth: $81,680 to retrain 15 to 18 lower-level employees for higher-paying jobs in medical fields.

Weyerhaeuser: $65,000 to train 12 employees at its Springfield paper plant as evaporator operators, and to implement a self-study computer system that can be used by the plant's 290 employees.

Willamette Valley Co.: $26,000 to train 20 employees in "lean manufacturing" for increased efficiency at the glue maker.

Marathon Coach: $48,000 to train 50 employees in "lean manufacturing" for increased efficiency at the RV maker.

CAPTION(S):

CNA Ray Sellers transports patient Royal Anderson at Sacred Heart Medical Center. Sellers soon will begin training to become a radiologist.