Caterpillar Expands Workforce Initiative to Arkansas
Caterpillar Inc. alongside Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, today announced the launch of its workforce commitment in Arkansas, marking another step in its five-year, $100 million Building the Future Workforce Initiative. With an allocation of up to $3 million, the funding aims to prepare Arkansas workers for jobs in modern manufacturing and industry technician roles.
“Every community has the talent to build a strong manufacturing workforce. Investments like this can help create more opportunities for that talent to grow and succeed,” said Christy Pambianchi, Caterpillar's chief human resources officer. “Arkansas has exciting momentum within our industry, and this commitment will help build the training pathways and programs needed to prepare workers for the modern manufacturing careers that lie ahead.”
Arkansas as a Strategic Manufacturing State
As Caterpillar places growing emphasis on strengthening U.S. manufacturing capabilities, Arkansas represents an opportunity for growth, and the state's rising potential made it a natural fit for this investment. Caterpillar employs more than 530 people in Arkansas and works with 60 suppliers across the state.
“You can’t build the industries of tomorrow without building the workforce to power them,” said Gov. Sanders. “Caterpillar understands that the future of manufacturing depends on investing in people just as much as technology. By connecting training directly to the needs of employers, this initiative will give more Arkansans the skills to step into good-paying careers and give businesses another reason to invest, expand, and create jobs in our state.”
In North Little Rock, Caterpillar's facility opened in 2010 as a dedicated motor grader plant and later expanded to add medium wheel loader and paving products to the product line. The facility is also embracing modern manufacturing technologies to improve efficiency, quality, velocity and cost and has established itself as a safety leader and an early adopter of technologies to keep team members safe.
Caterpillar's commitment helps strengthen collaboration among Arkansas training institutions, students, employers and other key community-based organizations to ensure individuals have access to affordable, relevant training that supports career advancement. The initiative seeks to expand hands-on manufacturing pathways for students, increase technical training capacity across the region, and deepen employer engagement through collaborations with leading organizations, including the University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College, Little Rock Regional Chamber and Academies of Central Arkansas.
This marks the fifth allocation for this initiative, which includes launches in Indiana, Texas and Illinois, and an innovation challenge.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.