Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

February 1, 2007 issue

Coming Up: Google Academy

Boham Discusses the Future with Google

Story by Kathleen McFadden

“Google! Can you say Google? We’ve been waiting to say that for a long time,” said Dr. Ken Boham, president of Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute.

Boham’s comment reflects the cloak of secrecy that surrounded Google’s negotiations with Caldwell County, a cloak that came off two weeks ago when the search engine giant announced its plans to locate a high-tech facility in Lenoir.

Caldwell Community College will play a large role in those plans, and Boham couldn’t be happier about the prospects, not only for the college and Caldwell County, but also for the entire region.

“It’s an excellent psychological boost for Caldwell County,” Boham said, “and also a huge gain for western North Carolina. It speaks volumes for western North Carolina.”

Two weeks ago, Boham and other members of the Caldwell Community College staff, along with ASU Chancellor Ken Peacock and representatives from the Employment Security Commission, met for two hours to discuss training and recruitment issues with the Google group that has been handling the negotiations.

“I was really glad to hear them talking about our area and placing a high priority on dislocated workers,” Boham said. Caldwell County has been hard hit in recent years by the loss of manufacturing and textile jobs and the resulting high unemployment.

Another meeting is planned for this month when the group will meet with training and development representatives from Google, as well as one of the company’s recruiters.

“At that point, we’ll lay out what we can do to train, prepare and recruit employees,” Boham said.

Google representatives indicated a need for a variety of skilled trade workers, Boham said, including maintenance personnel, security officers, HVAC technicians and electricians. In addition, the high-tech jobs will be accessible as well.

“When we talked about technicians,” Boham said, “we weren’t talking about people with Ph.D.s or even master’s degrees. This facility is intended to bring access to information quicker to users, so the service time and response time are quicker. The technicians will be those who could set up the facility and also reason, think and troubleshoot.”

The technicians have to understand and be comfortable with technology, Boham explained, but they will not require the types of advanced degrees that the think-tank environment of the California headquarters would require.

Boham wants to establish a Google Academy that will not only immerse potential employees in the Google culture, but also provide the skills that they will need to succeed in the company. “Such a development program,” Boham said, “will allow us to provide for [Google’s] needs into the future.”

He is impressed by the company’s attitude toward its employees. “It’s exciting to hear someone say, ‘We want to enable our employees,’” Boham said, and he pointed out that Fortune magazine has just rated Google as the number one company to work for in the nation.

Boham emphasized that the Google boon will not be limited to Caldwell County. “I don’t want people in Watauga County to think that Watauga County is not on the radar screen. We are not discounting Watauga County,” he said.

The Google deal, Boham said, “takes us from fairly low tech to well into the 21st century. It has catapulted us into major global activities which I think is absolutely super.”