By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Programs at the Houlne Center for Convergent Technology on the Missouri Western State University campus might soon offer training for workers within the animal health corridor.
Workforce Development Director, Rebecca Lobina, says the center is working toward offering a bio-manufacturing series.
“That corridor right there has so many animal health products that are related, everything from creating immunizations for animals to producing the food that they eat,” Lobina says during a visit to KFEQmmunity.
St. Joseph is part of the largest animal health corridor in the world, which includes the area from Kansas State to Iowa State to the University of Missouri; three major agricultural research universities. St. Joseph companies such as Nestle Purina, Elanco Animal Health, and Boehringer Ingelheim all produce animal health products.
Lobina says Missouri Western officials have been in discussions with executives from those companies.
“These folks are telling us, hey, we need something for our frontline workers, the production line workers. So that they have a set amount of skills when they first come in the door,” Lobina says. “So, that’s what this bio-manufacturing training is.”
The series would fit with the Houlne Center objective of not just training young people straight out of high school, but training those already in the workforce who need additional training. Lobina says the businesses see the need.
“And they’re willing to pay for it for their people to go through, because they want them to have this training,” Lobina says.
The Houlne Center is operated jointly by Missouri Western and North Central Missouri College of Trenton.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ
