Editor's Note: This article was paid for and written by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and approved by Area Development.
When Tyson Foods assessed locations to build the industry’s most advanced chicken nugget production plant, company leadership prioritized finding a community that had the workforce infrastructure to support the facility. They found that and more in Southern Virginia. Thanks to a $93 million investment featuring a workforce training partnership with Danville Community College (DCC), the Danville-Pittsylvania County community stood out among the locations under consideration.
The customized support offered by the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program helped seal the deal for Danville. Tyson could not only leverage DCC’s robust mechatronics training infrastructure, but also the Talent Accelerator’s comprehensive recruiting and training support. That service is a major reason why Area Development has ranked the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program as the No. 2 State Workforce Development program in the country for the last three years.
Recognizing the need to scale up the supply of mechatronics talent — among the 400 new hires, Tyson would require more than 60 maintenance technicians at full production — the Talent Accelerator team saw an opportunity to train area residents at DCC for Tyson’s higher-paying maintenance roles while the plant was still being built. The last piece of the puzzle: spreading the news about this unique opportunity.
The Talent Accelerator designed a website and promotional campaign to get the word out — not only about the opportunity to earn more as a maintenance technician, but also to give everyone interested in any Tyson job, from production to professional, a means to register their interest.
But that was just the beginning of the specialized recruiting efforts the Talent Accelerator team organized for Tyson. The team designed and deployed everything from Google ads to radio ads as part of a hyper-focused recruiting campaign to increase the talent pool shortly before hiring began. The Talent Accelerator’s instructional design and video teams created a comprehensive series of eLearning modules fully customized to Tyson’s unique processes, equipment, and procedures, along with leadership training for team leaders, supervisors, and managers.
“There were so many resources offered that just really met all of our needs,” said Nancy Frank, the plant’s manager.
In addition to Tyson, companies as diverse as GSK (now Haleon), Rocket Lab, and the LEGO Group have benefited from the Talent Accelerator’s world-class training and recruitment solutions. DCC and the Virginia Community College System are key partners — every manufacturing project that comes through the program is structured as a partnership with the nearest Virginia community college.
In all, the program has helped secure nearly 13,000 jobs since commencing operations in 2020. Through initiatives like the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, VEDP and Virginia provide companies with assistance throughout the life cycle of a site selection project to help deliver on the full potential of a new or expanded facility.