RESA Corporation is shuttering its participation with the College in the project
The RESA Corporation and the Community College are parting ways. The training program to supply RESA with college-trained technicians begun with great anticipation in January 2018 will be shuttered when the eight remaining students complete their training this fall.
The College Board approved a three-year lease with RESA of 3,700 square feet at the Career and Technical Education Center at its March 2018 Board meeting.
Recall that College Vice President Ron Liss and Prescott City Manager Michael Lamar explained to the Community College Governing Board at its January 16, 2018 meeting about how the City of Prescott, NACOG, the Community College and the Resa Corporation had joined hands to create a series of courses and internships in less than a month. The courses were intended to train potential employees for the Resa Corporation. The training began January 29.
Resa is a small company located in Prescott. It has been around for about twenty years and is known for providing orthopedic insoles. Insoles prescribed by a podiatrist may cost from $400 to $500 a pair. However, Resa said it had developed and patented a process where the entire procedure for making insoles takes place at a kiosk. The machinery in the kiosk scans and captures every detail of a person’s feet in three dimensions. The insoles are designed specifically for one individual based on activity level, medical need and foot structure. Once the scanning takes place at a kiosk located in a store such as Costco, the custom insoles are then 3D-printed with a high-quality thermoplastic in about an hour. They are then ready to be picked up by the customer.
Resa told the College that it had obtained a number of agreements to locate kiosks in several high volume, high profile stores. But the kiosks, which will be located in stores around the nation, must be maintained by well-trained technicians. Resa told the College it needed at least 25 technicians almost immediately. Resa anticipated training a future workforce in Prescott of from 150 to 300 technicians in an 18 month time frame. (That later seemed to change to a three-year time frame.) The program has trained only a small number of technicians so far.
The City of Prescott needed a quick response when Resa contacted it indicating a need for the trained workforce. The City believed that if it couldn’t produce the labor force for the Company, it would relocate. The City, which was contacted in December 2017, asked for help from the College and at some point, the Northern Arizona Council of Governments (NACOG).
The College responded by creating a 19 credit hour program to be completed in 14 weeks specifically for the Resa technicians. Yavapai Community College CTEC faculty spent the two week holiday designing the curriculum.
Tuition was paid by NACOG. If NACOG did not fully cover the tuition, the Company agreed to do so. In addition, the technician Internships that accompany the training program paid $14 an hour for from 16 to 20 hours a week. Students spend the first three days of the week in training and the second two days as paid interns. A $25 an hour job awaits at the Company for students who successfully complete the intense 15 week training program. Classes begin January 29.
The College held a preview day for the second installment of the program in April 2017. At that time RESA indicated it was seeking 300 trained employees over the next three years.
RESA has not issued a statement explaining its decision to abandon the training at CTEC.