Getting more of those employees in the door was termed a "critical factor" by the company in its decision- making process. /
   "The educational components of the state's participation stem from a typically creative Cummins suggestion, and could provide a good model for future new job transactions," noted Gov. Mitch Daniels at the project announcement in

Get Your Shovels Ready In early October, the first round of the Shovel Ready site program launched by the Indiana Economic Development Corp- oration (IEDC) was completed, bringing the total number of certified sites to 12. The map displays their locations, many in existing industrial parks. To be Shovel Ready certified, a site has undergone an environmental process and qualifies for expedited permitting with state regulatory agencies to allow quick investment and expansion plans.

October. Those components include:
   • Local and state leaders are working with Indiana University, Purdue University, Ivy Tech Community College and the Community Education Coalition (of Columbus) to establish a new education model for the area that would allow them to further align area two- and four- year programs to the needs of the region. /
   • Ivy Tech, state leaders, the Region 9 Workforce Board and companies in this area have also committed to take a new approach to the recruitment and training of people for careers in advanced manufacturing with the assistance of the Manufacturing Institute of the National Association of Manufacturers and its "Dream It. Do It." program. /
   "Our success – and that of other manufacturers in the region – is closely tied to the creation of an educational infrastructure that values and supports the needs of advanced manufacturing," explained Joe Loughrey, Cummins president and COO, at the announcement. /
   That statement is backed by Gerstle.
   "That was the most important part of this for us," he says of the education component of this project decision, which occupied 80 percent of his site selection time on this project. "In the high schools, community colleges and four- year colleges, we have to have a really good and well funded educational system, so we can get employees into our plants who are trained, and we can continue training them. And if they want to go on and get engineering degrees, they have to have the ability to do it locally. Early in our discussions with the governor, this was our emphasis." /
   While many incentive programs might line up pretty even from state to state, it was the education pledge that helped Indiana stand out, says Land. Gerstle calls the effort by the governor and the universities "terrific," and adds, "Indiana made a huge positive move when they made Ivy Tech the state community college." /
   With the nearly simultaneous construction of the new Honda assembly plant elsewhere in the same region, Gerstle says advanced manufacturing is now the focus of the region. And the learning center in Columbus where all the schools already share a set of facilities provides a model for providing the type of education this part of Indiana needs. /
   Helping out will be the "Dream It. Do It." program. Joe Loughrey, Cummins president, sits on the NAM board. Gerstle cites the good statistics from the NAM pilot program in Kansas City. He says the partnership that the Manufacturing Institute's program recommends between universities, high schools and companies is generally already present in Columbus, a fact helped by its small- town nature – "here, we know all the high school principals and the vocational heads." And he notes that Ivy Tech personnel from both Columbus and Lawrenceburg (a community also very involved in backing the Honda project in Greensburg) accompanied Cummins officials on their visit to NAM's offices in Washington. /
   "I think we'll be very successful" with the Dream It. Do It. campaign, he says, "because the fact is the amount of money people can make in high- tech manufacturing, even entry level, is substantially better than the alternatives. It will take some time, because you need to get in with the parents and with the 17- and 18- year- olds. But once we get 50 to 75 students into our plants [via internships], word of mouth is very quick around here." /