 Welcome to Higher Education Matters. We're so glad you could tune in. This is a program that's presented by the Vermont State Colleges System. I'm Jeb Spaulding. I'm the Chancellor. And we use this as an opportunity to talk to viewers about all kinds of matters, a lot relating to the Vermont State Colleges System, but also higher education issues in general. Issues like, how can I pay for college, or how should I think about getting into college, and what are the advantages of going to a two-year or four-year program? So I hope you'll find the issues that we cover of interest. I want to remind you that within the Vermont State Colleges System, we have a diversity of institutions that cover a lot of ground. So for example, we have Community College of Vermont, which has 12 locations around the state, and about a third of the courses that are delivered by Community College of Vermont are actually delivered online. So they're accessible in-person and online, if that's better for you. They have individual courses and a number of associate's degree programs. On the other end of the alphabet, we have Vermont Technical College, and they have two locations and a lot of locations around the state and online delivery, too. So the main campus that people think of with Vermont Technical College is in Randolph Center, but there's also a campus in Williston, and also, as I mentioned, programs that are delivered statewide, either shared space with Community College of Vermont or sometimes online. And then we have Northern Vermont University, which is coming up in July 1. It's a transition year. It's a unification of Johnson State College and Linden State College. Very exciting that unification. It's going to offer more opportunities for students, and they have a range of primarily bachelor's and master's degree program, but a range of associate's degrees as well. And finally, Castleton University, just outside of Rutland, just a fantastic campus, a really a place that has 27 NCAA sports and great faculty, and that's the makeup of the Vermont State College's system. And if you want to find out more about any one of the institutions within the system, or how they work together, just go to www.vsc.edu. Now, with today's program, I want to welcome Dale Miller. Dale, thank you for coming on. Dale is a 1982, I think, graduate of Vermont Technical College. Is that right? That's right. So we're going to talk a little bit about, you know, about yourself and why you ended up going to Vermont Technical College and where, how you went on from there. But Dale is the senior location executive for Global Foundries, which used to be called IBM to the average layman. I'm sure it's a little more complicated than that, but has a major facility in Essex. And I assume that senior location executive means that you're sort of the top dog here in Vermont for Global Foundries? Well, yeah, a lot of people ask me about that. And first of all, thank you for having me join you today. Really, what it means is I have the, I'm a senior leader for the campus externally in the state of Vermont. We have actually other senior leaders in the company that reside on our campus in different roles. But that's what the senior location executive role really means. And then I also have, I'm an executive role for manufacturing operations for the Semiconductor FAB that's on our facility. Okay, that's great. So listen, I also should mention that Dale not only is an alum of Vermont Technical College, but he is going to be inducted into the Vermont State College's Hall of Fame on Thursday, March 15th. And that's a very exciting event. It'll be your first time going, but it's a full house. It's held at the Capitol Plaza. And we have former Governor Jim Douglas is returning for the third year in a row as our master of ceremonies. Governor Phil Scott will be there. Students will be there. Bank executives will be there. All kinds of the union representatives will be there. So it's a wonderful overflowing evening and very inspirational when we find out, you know, some of the interesting people that come out of the Vermont State College. So, you know, Dale, I will talk more about you in this program. But also this year, we're inducting a fellow by the name of Mark Valade, who happens to be the CEO of Carhart. And he went to Lyndon State College. You know, we've inducted a Jim Cantori from the Weather Channel, who was also an alum of Lyndon. We've done John Casella. Last year, we had from Vermont Tech a fellow by the name of Jay Fayette, who is now I think his Chief Operating Officer for PC Construction, the largest construction company in the state. And it's just in this year, again, we're doing we have community activists and all kinds of people that come out of our colleges. And the Hall of Fame event is a way to kind of celebrate that and help people understand what we mean to the state of Vermont as essentially the extension of the K-12, pre-K-12 system into the post-secondary years. You know, I mentioned, I won't go back and re-mention the state colleges, and I know this is not meant to be just a sales pitch for the state colleges, but we confer more bachelor's and associate's degrees every year than all of the other colleges and universities combined. So if you added up, you know, whatever, Champlain, St. Michael's, UVM, Middlebury, Norwich, Goddard, Green Mountain College, all of them, more degrees, bachelor's and associate's degrees are conferred by the Vermont State College's system. So we'd like to, you know, brag about the people that come out of our system and you're one of them, Dale. So tell us your story. You're a Vermonter, right? I am. So I wasn't born in Vermont, but I came here at the age of two. And what brought us to Vermont was my dad got hired by IBM. Oh, really? Okay. Campus that I now work on. So that's kind of cool. Okay. You know, clearly, it's an honor to be selected and inducted into the Hall of Fame and joining the others that came before me. So I really looking forward to next week. So thank you for that. And I should have said on that one, Dale, like, like, if there are viewers that are interested in buying a ticket in coming, the best thing you can do is call Harriet at 802-224-3001. We may have a waiting list now. So I can't guarantee that you can get in. But if you're interested, call Harriet and there's at least a 50-50 chance you'll get on the waiting list and get in. So it's a great event. If you can come, that would be wonderful. Dale, back to you. No problem. One thing I'd like to share with the audience, you mentioned the degrees that the Vermont State Colleges put out on an annual basis. If I just look at our work and workforce at Global Foundries at the Essex Junction Facility, we have over 400 graduates from Vermont State Colleges. That's amazing. Of which 300 of those are from Vermont Technical College. You know, we are a technical business by nature. So a natural fit there. But just to show that we've taken advantage of the students across the state over the years. And you were mentioning that recently there was a job fair where you had a good turnout. Just this week, a good job fair with VTC. And my understanding is we have 25 applicants. We have openings in many disciplines. We are a large facility. We have different disciplines. Most of it tends to be engineering and technician based. We have production operators that we train internally. So some people come to us with degrees that may not fit our technical degrees, but then come in and get started in manufacturing and then grow from there. So there's that opportunity. We have supply chain disciplines, facilities and equipment engineering. So I notice when I when I drive by the main entrance in Essex Junction, it usually there's a sign that says we are hiring or something like that. Are you do you have a hard time filling the positions you'd like to fill or? It's clearly been a challenge for us. You know, we we've been predominantly hiring production operators for the semiconductor fab and our test facility and the mass cows. Those are our three manufacturing legs on the site campus. It's been a challenge. You know, unemployment in Vermont is low and and people have choices. So you got to make it worth their while and that they can see that they can have a career. So why we work with Vermont State colleges, you know, on the professional side, we are hiring there as well. We hire engineering disciplines predominantly supply chain, some finance. So yeah, we have openings across the board that we're currently trying to fill. Okay, you know, it's an interesting thing with the when I talked to employers, like for example, PC construction, they say I wish we could hire more of the students from Vermont Tech. It's one of the interesting things. Mainly, even with just an associate's degree at Vermont Tech, it's pretty, pretty likely you're going to end up with a good paying job. So and actually, that's my journey. So if I kind of characterize my journey with VTC to where I sit today, you know, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in high school. I thought I wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to be maybe a athletic trainer. And, you know, my dad worked for IBM. So I knew the jobs that they were typically looking for there and technician positions were something that they were always looking to fill. I knew that they typically hired from VTC in those days. So I decided to give that a shot and say, you know, almost a guaranteed job. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that VTC's placement rate still remains high to this day. I had like 98%. So they continue to place many of their students, most of their students. They actually hit 100% a year or so ago. 97 to 100%. It's pretty amazing. So It's impressive. And so just out of curiosity, did you, where did you go to high school? So I went to high school at Mount Mansfield. So I grew up in Richmond, Vermont. And was your father in engineering or technology at IBM or some other? He had multiple roles, mostly in management, production, quality positions. My mom actually worked there as well. She worked in manufacturing for years. And were they were they still working there when you started working? They were as a matter of fact. So that was kind of fun to work in the same business as your as your mom and dad. Although it's probably pretty big. You might not have run a new man on a daily basis. Yeah, you're right. No, it was, you know, back in those days, we had multiple offsite campuses too. So when I started, I was actually off the main site campus. So yeah, it was fun times. Okay, so, you know, Vermont Technical College is one of your feeders for your students. And, you know, what are the kind of, you know, Vermont Tech or otherwise, and you mentioned you have so many a variety of different jobs, but what are the kind of educational skills and attributes that you're looking for when when you're hiring new employees? So, you know, in that in the technician positions, you know, we love the two year student, we think that's the perfect fit because they can come in and start working on equipment with some training. We train all our techs as well. They get personalized training. But then what's nice is a lot of the techs continue their education after the two year degree and global foundries in this case and IBM previously also provided assistance, education assistance to continue your education. That's what I did as a student and many of my VTC fellow fellow peers that I work with today did the same. But even if you didn't continue education, there's still different career paths. And that's one of the nice things that the two year degree can do for you as you can try it out, see if it's something you like, adjust. So we really promote the two year degree for our technician positions. And then, you know, the engineering positions that they require bachelor of science equivalency for that. And we have very variety of different engineering disciplines that we we go after, you know, industrial engineering, equipment, process, chemical, a few. So this is a good time to take a little deviation to talk about affordability of a college degree for a second. And I want to focus on something you mentioned, which is you hire a lot of people with a two year degree, which they have it community college at Vermont Technical College and all of our colleges have that two year degree. But people worry about can I afford for my children to go get a college education. So at Vermont Technical College, they also have something called the Vermont Academy of Science and Technology. And what that is, it's a kind of it's what you do in your senior year of high school. So you combine your senior year of high school and your first year of college. And the there is no tuition charge for that. Basically, the state reimburses Vermont Tech at a sort of a discounted level. But so a student can in their, you know, finish their senior year of high school and have finished their first year of a degree program at Vermont Tech. So there's 50% reduction in the tuition costs for that associate degree program. So if they get their associate's degree, in one more year after high school, and they start at global foundries, and then they want to go and pursue a bachelor's degree. And maybe even further than that, there is some assistance from the employer, global foundries or anybody else. So I guess my message is to the to the viewers, look, I know college is expensive, but if you think ahead and plan ahead and get creative, there are ways where you could cut the costs substantially. And I really hope not too many families are making a decision in advance to say, gee, my children or I can't go to college because I can't afford it without looking at the opportunities that you could actually lower the cost. Yeah, that's a great point. And I think, you know, people should consider that option because it's a way to get yourself in the door, have a good paying job, and then explore further education and getting assistance to do it. And many companies do that today. You know, I'm sure, you know, obviously we can't do that for every employee comes in the door. So we have a prioritization process. And but people most times than not, if people are interested in continuing their education, we work with them to facilitate that. So it is an opportunity to balance the cost out of pocket and let your employer help you. Because that's a win win situation. Not only do you get to continue to learn and grow your education, but you get to utilize that in the place that you work, which benefits the company. Right, that's great. So I had a question about if it's okay to ask a question about global foundries. It's about global foundries, but also, you know, big employers everywhere today. And, you know, there's a perception and I think there's probably some truth to it. Whereas in the old days, and I'm just trying to get your read on this in the old days, when you went to work for IBM, you know, you could kind of think or or General Motors, whoever it was, that it was like, you know, this is a career, a long time thing. And now there's a perception that, Hey, you know, you shouldn't be planning on longevity at any of these bigger, bigger employers, because they lay people off or this, there's just no loyalty like the way they're used to be. And maybe loyalty might not even be the right word deal. But you know what I'm saying? And what's your take on that as an executive at global foundries? I mean, is it a good place for people to think of as a career opportunity, like, you know, over a long period of time or or or not? Yeah. So my personal opinion, you've been there for a long time. Yeah, 35 years. So it goes quick. Clearly, you know, what we see in our industry and other industries is that the the new generation coming into the workforce tends to want to bounce around and try different things. That's the way it is. So as an employee, you have to recognize that and plan for that in your hiring practices and in your training practices, etc. But I personally think, you know, some of the larger companies have a benefit to offer in that there's multiple careers within those businesses. If I use myself as an example, I've had over 10 different positions in my career at IBM and global foundries. And the beauty of that is in each one of those, I've learned different things and expanded my knowledge base to allow myself to grow to where I am today. So within the large that's one of the benefits of a larger company is you can do different roles all within that company and and grow your career that way. But it is clearly not the norm. Right. But we would like to think that people will take advantage of that opportunity when they work for us. So that's a good point because you know you hear these things these sort of statistics that the average person is going to have like, you know, I don't know what it is, you know, eight different careers in their lifetime or eight different jobs in their lifetime. But you know, at a larger employer, you can actually have eight different careers within the same employer. Exactly. And one of the important things is knowing that is you want the experience for the employee to be a positive one. So if they choose to leave, then they might come back. And we've seen that in multiple cases where people have left to go explore something else. And then they've chosen to come back. And it was a good relationship when they left. And we love to bring them back if we if we have the openings. And that's happened multiple times for us. So that's a win-win as well. Right. And a question, Dale. Do you ever hire new employees that don't have any kind of degree associates or bachelors? Yes. So in our production roles, high school, you have to be a high school graduate or GED. And then we train you from there. So yeah, we fire quite a few of those. Okay. And what kind of skills are you looking for there? So the primary skill is, you know, basic math is helpful. Being able to read and speak English is important for us. English as a second language can sometimes be a challenge. So we have to work through that. But basically it's being able to be on your feet. It's a 12 hour shift position, our entry level positions. And you the schedule is different than the traditional five to Monday through Friday role. So you work a Monday, Tuesday, you have Wednesday, Thursday off, and then you have Friday, Saturday, Sunday as your next workday. So it's a three, two, two, three rotation. And then we also are a 24 by seven business. So we're always operating. So we have night teams as well. And it's the same 12 hour schedule. But the schedule is on four days off three days, four, three days off work. So it rotates 3443. So it's a little different than the day shift. But basically, if you if you graduate high school with a diploma, and you have a good work ethic, we would love to give you an opportunity and see if it's a match. Okay. And where I'm sort of leading with that is to say that, okay, you know, people think of colleges as offering diplomas, either associates, bachelor's, master's, PhDs, you know, and, and, and we do that. But increasingly, the state college system and, you know, UVM and others too, and, in particular, Vermont Tech and Community College of Vermont are looking for ways to provide meaningful certificates or credentials that indicate that, you know, you have some, some set of skills. And so we're looking say, okay, well, when we look at the future of higher education, you know, there's no question about the value of a college degree economically and health wise and, you know, all the things it does to provide value. But not everybody needs a college degree. So what kind of skills and training certifications do they need? And, you know, we're very active in trying to say, okay, for example, Community College of Vermont has a new certified bookkeeper program. It's a national certification. And, you know, if you were going to work for the state or, you know, GE or something like that, having that certification can really help. And my understanding is that that Global Foundries, you know, starting with IBM and then Global Foundries has had a relationship with Community College of Vermont. And I was wondering whether you could tell me a little bit about that. I thought it was some kind of a certified production technician or something like that, where they actually get some kind of certification. And I wanted to. Yeah, you're absolutely right, Jeb. So so we did work with CCV. They were a great partner in this. We had the classes held on our campus, so we provided the space because many of our current employees took advantage of it, in this case. And we when they graduate, so basically it's focused on production topics, quality topics and safety topics in those manufacturing production space. And they graduate with a certificate that says that they've been through this program. They acquire 12 college credits that they can put towards a future degree if they should so choose to do so. And and and back to our earlier discussion, you know, if they're a current employee, they would be able to take advantage of our Education Assistance Program to facilitate that further education. So it's a good way for them to start trying to see if the college coursework is something that they're interested in. The topic is interesting to them. And then Taylor, their next steps beyond that. So it's a great program that CCV has with regards to offering this to people that may not be sure about college. And then CCV, you know, does a, for example, they have a tailored program with some hospitals out there where they actually take people and work with them for, you know, a relatively short period of time and they end up with a certificate and a job at hospitals that are lower than an associate's degree. Vermont Tech does the registered apprenticeship program for plumbing and electrical and a lot of those trades are pretty good paying jobs. So, you know, I guess I'm just sort of advertising a little bit that yes, we do degrees, but we also look for ways that where we can add value to Vermonters in ways that might be not a degree at the time, but getting credit so that when they do want to go into an associate's or bachelor's degree program, they've earned something that helps them to get there. And if people are interested, you know, it's really easy. You could go to the Vermont State College's system website, which is just vsc.edu and you'll see the pictures of, you know, Castleton Community College. You can go there and find out what they offer in degree programs, certificate programs and, you know, come for a visit sometime. So, just wanted to sort of get out there that, you know, yep, degrees, but also increasingly we're looking for ways to just help Vermonters add value so that they can get a good meaningful and hopefully well-paying job. Yeah, and Jeb, I would add to that, that I find that the Vermont State Colleges in general have been very willing to work with industry on these kinds of things. Another example is, you know, years ago we worked with VTC to do a similar thing centered around creating a bigger population of technicians. There was a shortage and not only were, was VTC having their normal program, but we had a program that was created so that we could train our own employees in that discipline and skill set such that we could increase our base of that skill. We're actually looking at doing something like that again with VTC and they are always open to that dialogue and approach to help business and also help the community have an opportunity there. Right, well, great. So listen, we don't have too much more time. So I was hoping we could just spend a couple of minutes talking about global foundries in Vermont and, you know, without getting into trade secrets and I get some pretty, you can't do that, I understand. But, you know, what's the difference for you working for global foundries instead of IBM? I mean, is there, is there any difference at all? Is it just a change in name? You know, for the most part, I mean, our mission is the same as it was when we were IBM as it is now. But one of the benefits we have as being part of global foundries is we're part of a semiconductor company. So global foundries has five major, soon to be six major locations around the world. So it's a global company. All of those locations are semiconductor fabs. So ours is one in here in Vermont. We have two in New York, one in East Fishgill, New York and one in Malta. Dresden, Germany is another location for us and then in Singapore. And then our newest fab is being built in China. So we are a global business. And, you know, the history of our site, so we just celebrated actually last year, our 60th year in the state of Vermont. And, you know, the years with IBM were very good. There was transitions of different things over those 60 years. But one of the key benefits for us is that we are now a part of a family that focuses on what we do. And that's been very helpful to us. Right, OK. Yeah, that's great. And it's interesting what you said because IBM great company, but, you know, you think of it back in the old days, those of us that don't pay attention to, you know, every little transition think of computers. But IBM became a and still is a very diverse company consulting and all kinds of things that it does. Whereas global foundries, you're in the semiconductor business, so. And hopefully you'll have a long stay here in Vermont as global. That's our goal, absolutely. Yeah. And the Vermont State Colleges wants to do everything we can to make sure that you have the workforce that you need. We hope we're turning them out at the at the at the college level, but also when they're working with global founders, we want to help there, too. So we're with you all the way. And I want to thank you for coming in, Dale. You're a good. You're a good example of what we turn out at the Vermont State Colleges. I mentioned that we've got the diverse institutions within the system. And I think people can often times find that they can get more by going to one of our Vermont State Colleges than going out of state. And it's amazing to me that roughly half of the students that are graduating from high school and going to college are going out of state. And many of them don't realize what we have to offer in the diversity. So just as an example, if you went to Northern Vermont University in Johnson, you can go spend a year at any one of hundreds of colleges and universities across the country or world at the same in-state tuition you pay at Johnson. So you don't have to go out of state to college to get a worldly experience. And we're trying to encourage people, hey, give us a first look. And that's part of what our Hall of Fame event is. One more time, if you want to come, I just call 802-224-3001. Ask Harriet if you can get a ticket. And it comes to you, Dale, there. So, Dale, I want to thank you again. Keep up the good work. We're proud that you're an alumna from Mount Technical College. And we'll talk again. All right. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.