Transcript
Kevin: With many industries facing staffing shortages, some employers have turned to high school students to fill the gaps. Job training programs for high schoolers are on the rise across many industries. These programs offer students hands-on learning, real-world experience, and often guarantee employment after successful completion of the program. What do these training programs look like, and what are the benefits? How can we encourage more students to join these programs? And can these programs better prepare students for the future? This is "What I Want to Know." And today, I'm joined by Chuck Goodrich to find out.
Chuck: You said it early on about this old model of memorize, read, test. You know, all that stuff is now on their phone. You know? I mean, they're literally like, "Hey, Siri, what's the answer to this?" You know? And so this idea of applying what you're learning is actually how you create this pattern of success.
Kevin: With many industries facing staffing shortages, some employers have turned to high school students to fill the gaps. Job training programs for high schoolers are on the rise across many industries. These programs offer students hands-on learning, real-world experience, and often guarantee employment after successful completion of the program. What do these training programs look like, and what are the benefits? How can we encourage more students to join these programs? And can these programs better prepare students for the future? This is "What I Want to Know." And today, I'm joined by Chuck Goodrich to find out.
Chuck Goodrich is the president and CEO of Gaylor Electric, one of the largest merit-shop electrical firms in the country. After graduating from Purdue University with a degree in building construction, Chuck began his career with Gaylor in 1991 as an intern. He then moved up the ranks, ultimately being named president in 2014. During his tenure, Gaylor has created more than 1,000 jobs. Today, Chuck joins us to discuss the benefits of job training programs for high school students. Chuck, welcome to the show.
Chuck: Well, thank you very much. I'm looking forward to today.
Kevin: So I know a little bit about your background. I also know that you're with Gaylor Electric, which has done really some amazing things in the job training space, particularly as it relates to young people. But you have another job. You're a member of the Indiana State Legislature. Talk about how you got into, you know, local public service.
Chuck: I kind of think about this. You know, a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, but an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. And, you know, that quote from Winston Churchill really describes why I got into public service, why I ran for the state representative, why I'm actually running for the Indiana Fifth District for Congress, is because, you know, for me, I describe myself as an unapologetic, passionate optimist. And when you look at what you can do with students and education, how we can prepare our students for the workforce, to me, is the biggest challenge, but yet the biggest opportunity we have as parents and as business folks.
Kevin: And it's interesting you would say that because, you know, I came from the public service world, and many people, once they're in it for a while, sometimes feel burned out by the process, the politics, the legislative sort of comings and goings. But it seems to me, from what I understand, that you seem to be more energized by the process of getting things done.
Chuck: Again, back to this optimist thing, we made huge progress in the state of Indiana not only from a public school education, but also private. And we're letting our parents in Indiana have their choice where they want to send their kids. Now, the reason I say that is because we have really implemented applied learning not only in my local area, but across the state. And I truly believe that application is the key to wisdom.
You know, we talk about knowledge, and we talk about education and educating our students. But once they get to apply it, I've literally seen kids that are on their last . . . they've already used up their last chance, and they get into this applied learning perspective and how they apply what they've learned in a textbook, and it's incredible what happens to these kids. I mean, they literally graduate high school, which a lot of folks never thought they'd do. They become an awesome member of society, and they've got great jobs and a great future ahead of them.
So, yeah, I get really energized and really passionate, because you think about it, education is the key to all of our successes. And so, yeah, it's a really passionate . . . That's why I'm on the Education Committee in the state of Indiana at the State House for the House of Representatives.
Kevin: You know, it's interesting, Chuck, you talk about this notion of applied learning. We are in the middle of a transformation in terms of how we deliver education in this country, who delivers it, what our kids learn, and this idea of just feeding our kids full of knowledge, rote knowledge that they memorize and sort of spit back out on a test, it's becoming passé. It's becoming, you know, part of the old approach.
But this idea of applied learning, how they can develop skills to collaborate with their peers, to understand how to utilize what they've learned in the classroom in a practical way, that is clearly part of the future. And when you talk about it in terms of, you know, helping kids who have had some of the most difficult challenges, not only does it make sense, but it's where we're going. Talk specifically about Gaylor Electric and what you're doing in that space.
Chuck: No, I appreciate that. And that has been what we've been working on at Gaylor for, you know, I would say going on 15 years. But for the last 10 to 12, it's been incredible to watch how everything is kind of compounded. You know, this is the stuff that doesn't happen overnight. And I'll get into how it went and how it worked this year in the State House.
But at Gaylor, we know that we have a tremendous shortage of electricians. You know, look, we've got shortages of firefighters, nurses. But for us, as a company, we do electrical work all over the United States, engineering, you know, manufacturing, production. And we've seen a long time ago that we literally were going to be short on folks to actually prepare the work.
And so here, in Noblesville, is kind of where it got started. We had this thing called Vision Noblesville, and the school and the school system and some businesses got together, and we decided that we have to move our kids into this applied learning environment. And I've watched that happen from a public school internships.
Then on top of that, we built our own high school. So these folks . . . It's called The Crossing at Gaylor. We partnered with the Crossing High School. And we bring those kids in here all day. So they actually learn their STEM. They study in the classroom for half a day, a little over half a day, and then they literally walk out of their classroom, that's on our lab floor, and they build America. They build stuff that is shipped all across the United States in building, manufacturing, distribution. And when you see a student look at that and say, "I built that," you've heard this story, right? I mean, you can actually . . . It's unbelievable.
So I remember as a kid, my dad did nursery work, and every time we'd go by someone's business or house, he'd say, "Hey, we planted those trees." Now, I remember watching my dad and I remember me, because I worked on those projects up, you know, in the rural areas. And so now, fast-forward 40 years, and now I have kids are saying, "I was part of building that."
And, you know, that passion and that kind of self, when they can see that they're important and they have a purpose, it changes their whole life. I mean, when we take a kid out of our high school class, and they literally have been on our lab floor, and they go to our signing day, we have like what we call a signing day, and grandma and mom show up and dad, you know, grandma is crying, and mom and dad are like, "Oh, I never thought he'd graduate high school." Not only graduating high school, graduating with a awesome career ahead of them, apprenticeship. Hopefully, in four years, they take their journeyman's license. But this whole high school education and parent choice is a big deal.
Kevin: I do know the history. Not only do you have a job training program where students are working at your company, they're developing the skills, certifications necessary to have a career in the electric fields, but this idea of, like, building a high school, I mean, look, you're an elected official. We all know what bureaucracy is like. And how did you pull that one off working with the school district, where oftentimes creativity and innovation, though it is something that's desired, it's hard to accomplish?
Chuck: No, and I totally get that because it took us longer than I anticipated. But I would say this. Our public school systems, our private schools have been very energetic about this because, again, there's eight public schools that we partner with where, like I said, in our high school, some of these kids are folks that want to come here and learn this. Other ones have used up their last choice and are like, "Hey, I think I'd be great at this." So we have an entire mixture of students across probably within a 50-mile circle of our office.
But, you know, what I see from a perspective of parents and guardians, they want their student to be successful. That's their biggest thing. They want them to graduate. They want them to graduate with currency. And they want to graduate with something that they have passion to do. And so the answer to that question is that most people are excited when they see a successful student. And so people have been very energetic to help us get this done.
Kevin: And the reason why I asked about that, Chuck, is that, you know, I know there are some superintendents, principals, school leaders around the country who may have an idea similar, but they're concerned about whether or not they can get buy-in from the school leadership, buy-in from the school board, local community. It sounds to me like with that vision, that Noblesville had, that there was already a foundation in place that said, "We want to make sure there's some linkage between the schools, the business community, applied education, the whole ball of wax." When you went through the process, did you have a team set in place, for instance, folks in your company, folks with the school district sort of put together the mechanics of it?
Chuck: Always the devil is in the detail.
Kevin: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Chuck: Right? And time and effort and money and all those things. But I think I would just start with this when it comes to that question is, you know, once you make a decision, the details will work their self out. What really happens is, is the decision actually paralyzes folks. So we made a decision early on that this was going to work. We were going to build a high school that put students in there eight hours a day. We're going to partner, we're going to work with our local private and public schools to send students here as interns.
And I've got to tell you, Kevin, it's just like this. This week, we'll have started like 60 collegiate interns, and at the end of like the first week in June, we'll start another 65 or 70 high school interns.
So that's partnering with the universities. That's partnering with the schools, the private schools, the. . . Hey, home schools. Home schools love this idea, right, because the parents get to send their . . . you know, the kids are interested in this, working with their hands.
And I would just say this. As we continue to remove this . . . Or let's say this. When we continue to put dignity in work and remove this negative kind of connotation of working with your hands, as you know, all these things promote opportunity to our students. And by the way, the pay is awesome. And no, I mean, there's really no debt in this because most of the time, the employer pays for that.
So I would just say that it's difficult. We had to meet with the Department of Labor. We had to meet the Federal Department of Labor. We had to meet with our bonding company, our insurance company. But when I sat in the meeting to talk about how that was all going to happen, I didn't say, "Can it happen?" I said, "This is what we're doing." And that attitude actually takes on a life of its own, because then people start thinking, "Well, we haven't done this in the past, but maybe there is a way."
And I would just say, just like my career, I've had so many awesome people around me to help me to get where I am or actually made me who I am. It's the same thing about our private schools, our school system here, our internship, our associated builders and contractors, Prep Academy, which we have over 100 students in, that encases a lot of people. And I give a huge amount of credit to my education team here at Gaylor because, man, they deal with all that every day. When the school buses are showing up out here at 8:00 in the morning and dropping off students, sometimes I get tears in my eyes because, you know, they're right out my window and I know we're changing kids' lives.
Kevin: You know, speaking of your career, I was struck by the fact that you started at Gaylor Electric as an intern back in 1991 and then became president several years ago. That doesn't happen every day, Chuck. And I'm sure, I'm assuming now, that that enthusiasm that you obviously have, that passion and that commitment to hard work that you talked about when you began this program of job training of students, that that was in your own personal DNA as you sort of worked your way up through the ranks at Gaylor.
Chuck: It's a long story, but I'll make it short. You know, I came from a rural farm community, the great town of Roann, Indiana. Its population of 451 people, by the way today, or 431, I think. But, you know, there, it's where in that Midwestern values of, you know, respect God, treat people with respect and compassion, love one another, build a strong work ethic. But most of all, we live in the greatest nation ever in human history.
You know, that kind of brought me to this issue of be a problem solver, not a complainer. When you come out of that kind of teaching and brought up with my parents teaching me that. So I don't look for problems. I look for solutions. And we have to look at every opportunity to make great change for people and lift people up. And, of course, really never expect for anybody to do anything that you're not willing to do.
Those things really are what makes being here as an intern in 1991, hired, raising money to go to a big national competition, literally worked in almost every position at Gaylor over the years, almost 30 years, and eventually becoming president because I was able to apply success principles of all the things we've been talking about because again, you know, education is the key.
And John Gaylor founded Gaylor Electric. Man, we had a Gaylor University when I showed up here as an intern. And we continued just to build that because we know that's the investment in people. And so a lot of great people around me, you know, my family, my wife. I mean, all those things really kind of makes me who I am. You know, I don't take credit. I take credit, you know, God has been huge in my life and my faith and, you know, a lot of great people around me.
Kevin: You talk about investing in people. I was struck by what you said when you described some of the students who've been through the job training program that many people didn't think they'd amount to anything, as you said, that many people thought they wouldn't graduate. We see a recurrent theme with career readiness programs around the country, where, you know, they're for everybody, you know, high-achieving children, young people are getting into them and have success.
It helps with engagement for kids who are often unengaged, but particularly for kids who the traditional school approach, the schooling approach of, you know, sit still in a classroom, be lectured to, don't move for 40 minutes, and then take a test. I say this repeatedly on this show, that just doesn't work for a lot of today's kids. And for those kids who've been, you know, in the system, they've been through alternative education programs, this idea of being involved in a career training program where they can get certifications, as you said, see the value of their work literally on the streets. Talk about that population of students, because, you know, more and more America's school children look like that population.
Chuck: You said it early on about this old model of memorize, read, test. You know, all that stuff's now on their phone. You know? I mean, they're literally like, "Hey, Siri, what's the answer to this?" You know? And so this idea of applying what you're learning is actually how you create this pattern of success.
And so I answer that question by kind of looking at the student population we have. They're all over the board. We have folks that are straight A students. We have folks that do good there, but they want to have an applied learning. We have folks, like you said, that don't do well at being lectured at. They do better at when they go on and they use their hands, and they learn from using their hands.
But I would just say this for kind of this applied learning experiences. As people across the nation start to embrace this model, I want it to be a education system that lasts for your whole lifetime. You know, I tell kids at high school graduations or at apprenticeship graduation, "This is the first day of the rest day of your life. You know, here you are, you're right here, and you've got to go to here because you have to continue to actually be strong in education."
And so I've watched students here blossom that are high-level traditional students that come and apply that knowledge, and they're like, "Oh, my, this is exact . . ." And they get better. I've watched students that are barely making it, that are credit deficient. They come here and they start to see what they're learning in STEM, and they're applying it with their hands in robotics or welding or CNC machines, whatever they're doing, and all of a sudden, now they become A and B students because they're like, "Oh, my, this is what that meant."
And so we just have this great cross section across the board, and I want it to be and, and, and and, not either and or. You know, we have this constant battle about college, college. I don't want to hear college ain't for everybody anymore. What I want to hear is and, and, and and because that's what it really takes to be successful throughout your entire life. You don't ever get to stop learning. I mean, I watch my dad and he's still learning every day. And he's 83, and so he just continues. But that's the message we have to give our students, is it's not a . . . Every place you're at is where you're going.
Kevin: I wanted to ask you also about the school districts you work with.
Chuck: Sure.
Kevin: You know, even though the program has been successful, you know, you had to jump through some hoops and work together and figure out a way. As you said, once the decision was made, then you had to figure out how to implement it.
Chuck: Right.
Kevin: You've done that. What's the reaction of school administrators about the program, particularly as they view some of the changes taking place in education internally? It seems to me, from what I have been able to determine, that school districts that embrace something innovative like this and they see how it works, it actually fuels other innovation inside their walls.
Chuck: I watch superintendents and administrators get really excited. Matter of fact, we bring teachers and administrators over here to our offices just so they can see what's happening because once they see it, like I said, there are rooms for all kinds of avenues for our students to be successful. And that's why we continue to develop these pathways, these work-based applied learning pathways so that folks have a pathway to graduation and currency.
And so I agree. Schools have picked up some of this. In Indiana, you know, again, this House Bill 1002, which I authored, which is called Career Scholarship Accounts, this is where we have schools, students, and businesses working together to provide some kind of credential. And we just passed that bill. I'm so excited about that bill because I believe that it'll change the entire nation, because once you have the schools, the parents, the students, and businesses all working together, that's how we're going to make students successful, that's how they're going to have lifelong awesome careers and, of course, better America.
Kevin: Yeah, no doubt about it. So I have one last question, Chuck, and this is what I really want to know. What advice would you give to other companies around the country that maybe are interested in creating a job training relationship with their local school district? Maybe they don't have the contacts that you all had with the Noblesville School District. Maybe they don't have any relationship at all. But how do they begin the process of saying, "Look, we have jobs we need to get filled. We have the ability to train young people to get the certifications and skills they need to fill those jobs." How do they start?
Chuck: Yeah. Because it feels like it's a mountain.
Kevin: Yeah.
Chuck: You know? My perspective is that we got started because when I talked to schools, they're like, "Why don't businesses, like, ever, like, volunteer?" And I'm like, "Well, because we're used to being asked." And so there was this disconnect between the school and businesses because one wanted volunteers, the other one wanted to be asked.
And so we just went over there and we said, "Hey, exactly what you said. We've got these things that need to be built." I started as an intern. I mean, I learned from being an intern. These kids are going to have unbelievable careers if they can have interns and jobs, whether they go right into career or go to college. You know, it also gives kids staying power because they have this passion.
And so I would say the first kind of step is you've got to build a relationship with at least a school, whether it's public, private, a charter. You just have to go and meet with the administrators of that and say, "Here's what we've got. Here's what I'd like to do. Here's how we're going to change lives."
Now, I would tell you that one of the things that I think happens to businesses is they're like, "Well, how do you scale it? How do you actually . . . You know, I'm a small company." I hear this. "I'm a small company." And I always tell them the same story. I don't know if . . . You may have heard this story, but do you know the starfish story?
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Chuck: You know, the kids on the beach, and the hurricane comes and there's starfish all over. Older guy walks down and says, "Man." And he's throwing them back, and he says, "You can't possibly make a difference. Look at all these starfish." He throws one back in, says, "I made a difference to that one." And that's exactly what corporate America has to feel like, I made a difference to that one, because that will exponentially grow from an education standpoint and a career.
So I think the vision of putting a student in a career and the ability to go talk to your administrators, I think those are the very first two steps that you have to have. And then you've got to bring buy-in to your organization because it's hard. I would tell you the very first time I started out here, skateboards flying through my parking lot, skateboard goes off the sidewalk damages a car, and I've got to pay for it. And I'm like, "Why are you guys riding skateboards in my parking lot?" And I just laugh now because I'm like, "Because they're kids, right?" And so it's just something you're not used to in business. So you've got to be flexible, you've got to have passion, and you've got to have resiliency.
Kevin: Well, Chuck Goodrich from Gaylor Electric, you're doing great work on behalf of kids. And you're training a lot of kids for future jobs, jobs that we need to have filled. I want to thank you so much for joining us on "What I Want to Know."
Chuck: Well, you guys are awesome. Thanks for having me. Anything you need from me, let me know.
Kevin: Thanks for listening to "What I Want to Know." Be sure to follow and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app so you can explore other episodes and dive into our discussions on the future of education. And write a review of the show. I also encourage you to join the conversation and let me know what you want to know using #WIWTK on social media. That's #WIWTK.
For more information on Stride and online education, visit stridelearning.com. I'm your host, Kevin P. Chavous. Thank you for joining "What I Want to Know."
Meet Chuck
Chuck Goodrich is the president and CEO of Gaylor Electric, one of the largest merit-shop electrical firms in the country.
After graduating from Purdue University with a degree in building construction, Chuck began his career with Gaylor Electric in 1991 as an intern. He then moved up the ranks, ultimately being named president in 2014.
During his tenure, Gaylor Electric has created more than 1,000 jobs.
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What I Want to Know
In this podcast, you will hear from leaders in education as we talk through learning solutions for homeschool, online school, education pathways, and topics tailored specifically to online students and parents.
