Job Fair Searching For 150 People to Fill Customer Contact Center Jobs

SOUTH BOSTON, VA - The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) One-Stop in South Boston, VA will be sponsoring a Job Fair starting Monday October 31st  at 9:00 AM  and continue until 7:00 PM at Riverstone Centre. This Job Fair is being conducted to support a single employer for a planned new Customer Contact Center that may locate in Halifax County.

The VEC is looking for people with experience in Customer Contact, Customer Service, Customer Care, Call Center Operations, Back Office, Administrative, Clerical or Data Entry.

Those applying should have the following skills:

• High school diploma or equivalent
• Six month prior call center or customer service related experience or certificate
• Knowledge of mainframe and computer (pc) and internet applications
• Microsoft Office applications
• Excellent telephone tact and diplomacy
• Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills
• Proficiency in keyboarding/data entry
• Good oral and written communications skills

Applicants are expected to deliver stellar customer care and create sustainable value for residential/commercial customers/ratepayers via phone, email, chat, and correspondence. Handle service requests, provide billing explanations, offers service and energy conservation advice, provide credit counseling, understand and explain company policies and procedures, as well as State mandated Terms and Conditions. They also respond to customer questions related to corporate external communications with credibility.

Pay starts at $9.50 an hour and a comprehensive benefits package is offered. Those that are Bi-lingual (English/Spanish) start at $10.50.

The Job Fair will continue Tuesday November 1st and Wednesday November 2nd from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM at Riverstone Centre 1100 Confroy Drive, South Boston, VA 24592. The VEC is searching for approximately 150 people to fill these positions.

Those who are unable to make the Job Fair can apply on-line at the Virginia Employment Commission ( www.vawc.Virginia.gov) or in person at the South Boston One-Stop 2506 Houghton Ave, South Boston, VA 24592.

The Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, the Halifax County Chamber of Commerce and the Industrial Development Authority of Halifax County are assisting the VEC in this effort.

Kurz-Kasch Announces Expansion

Kurz-Kasch, formerly Wabash Magnetics, will expand operations in South Boston following a restructuring of the Ohio-based electrical coil maker announced last week.

Plant Manager Dennis Stewart said he was advised early last week that the company is closing its Ohio plant and sending the work to two of its other plants, including the one in South Boston.

Currently the local plant has 20 employees.

“It’s the dedicated hard workers here who have created this opportunity,” Stewart said, noting that the employees have stayed true to their customers by getting the work back to them in a reasonable amount of time.

Despite the sharp cutbacks that the company has faced over the past several years, Stewart said his limited workforce has worked diligently, making electrical coils which they ship directly to their customers. One of the employees has been with the company for 43 years, he said. (Kurz Kasch bought Wabash Magnetics back in 2003.)

Announcement of the closing of the Miamisburg plant, located outside Dayton, Ohio came last Thursday, saying it would lose its doors in mid November. The company had earlier laid off some 56 employees in May of this year after losing two of its largest customers. According to the announcement, the plant’s work will be shifted to other company plants located in Newcomerstown, Ohio and in Virginia.

The company was started in 1916 and is a leading manufacturer of conventional and encapsulated coils, serving the aerospace market, appliance businesses and automotive companies.

from The News & Record

ABB re-invests in South Boston

In 2008, the local Industrial Development Authority of Halifax County, along with state money, funded the expansion of ABB's 90,000 square foot factory in South Boston.

Today, ABB is using this expanded area of the factory to build transformers that will support a new local business in Halifax County.

ABB has won an order from the Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC), and its development partner, NOVI Energy, for two small power transformers. These transformers are a critical component for a unique green application that will supply power to the local market.

NOVI Energy is the project developer for the NOVEC Energy Production, Halifax County Biomass facility, a 49.9 megawatt (gross) woody biomass-fueled, electric generation project to be constructed on a 104-acre site in South Boston.

The project will obtain all its fuel needs from the local forest products industry as waste wood from regional timbering operations and manufacturing at mills. Construction is under way, and the plant is projected to be in operation by mid-2013.

The transformers will be used to step up the voltage to run the NOVEC Energy Production, Halifax County Biomass power plant. These are the largest transformers ever supplied by the ABB South Boston factory to be used in the local community.

"ABB has had a long-term presence in Virginia and has greatly contributed in many ways to the South Boston community," said Fred Mistal, consultant to NOVEC Energy Production. "So it is a privilege to partner with ABB in setting up this unique, green application known as the NOVEC Energy Production, Halifax County Biomass plant. ABB is a world-class provider of transformers, but they are also a local supplier wanting to re-invest in this community."

NOVEC Energy Production, Halifax County Biomass has the capacity to process as much as 600,000 tons of waste wood annually into renewable electric energy. An independent fuel study was completed, with the results indicating an abundance of waste wood available within a 75-mile radius of the facility from both regional logging operations and manufacturing facilities associated with the forest products industry.

Power produced at the NOVEC Energy Production, Halifax County Biomass plant will enter the regional transmission system at the local Dominion Virginia Power substation or nearby transmission to help serve the energy requirements of the customer-owners of NOVEC.

"When I learned about this project, I knew I had to support the community with a high quality ABB transformer, especially since it's going to be installed behind my house," said Brian Raney, ABB EPC market manager.

 from the Gazette-Virginian

Regional Alliance formed in Southern Virginia

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling announced the formation of the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance last Friday at Riverstone Technology Park. The Southern Virginia Regional Alliance is a marketing venture by six localities, including Halifax County, to showcase the region's economic assets.

Bolling joined local and regional economic developers in hailing the potential of the Alliance to bring jobs and growth to Southside Virginia, with localities working together rather than in competition to bring business to the region.

"It is important that we all work together to promote economic development and job creation," said Bolling, who has been dubbed by Gov. Bob McDonnell as the administration's point man on jobs creation. He said the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance would fill a void in region-wide marketing and strategic planning that will yield benefits as businesses look to expand in the future.

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Virginia Named Top Pro-Business State for 2011 by National Study

~Pollina Corporate Real Estate Annual Study Picks Virginia as 'Model' For Pro-Business States; Commonwealth Wins by Largest Margin in History of Study ~

Study: "Virginia is the unquestionable brightest star on the American flag when it comes to being pro-business........Virginia is truly in a class by itself."

RICHMOND – Virginia has been named the most pro-business state in the country by the Pollina Corporate Real Estate study: "Pollina Corporate Top 10 Pro-Business States for 2011: The Rise of the West." Virginia won the 2011 top-ranking by the largest margin in the history of the study. This marks the third straight year that Virginia has held the top spot in the Pollina rankings. In July, CNBC also named Virginia as America's "Best State for Business."

Brent Pollina, Vice President of Park Ridge, Illinois-based Pollina Corporate Real Estate (www.pollina.com) and author of the study, noted, "Virginia can certainly be emulated by other states, which should view Virginia's economic policies as a coloring book. All they need to do is stay between the lines of the coloring book, and they, too, can create a powerful pro-business environment."

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What the Pollina Corporate Top 10 Pro-Business States Study Says about Virginia

• "Virginia is the unquestionable brightest star on the American flag when it comes to being pro-business."
  
• "The political leaders responsible for Virginia's success should move from the capital in Richmond to the capital in Washington."
  
• "Clearly a national leader, Virginia ranked number one in our list of Pro-Business states for 2011. Virginia has held the number one position five of the last eight years (Figure 4). In the three years it did not take first place, it ranked second in 2005 and 2006 and third in 2008. Consistency counts a lot in corporate site selection decision making where companies often live with decisions for years or decades. Just look at Virginia's Report Card (See Appendix B), and you can see why any company would be proud to call Virginia their home.
• "Not only has Virginia maintained control over the top spot, but it did so with a commanding lead over the number two state with an astounding 44 point margin of victory, which is even higher than last year's record of 36 points. This is the highest margin of victory since starting this analysis eight years ago. The difference in points between the #2 ranked Utah and #10 Indiana is only 35 points. Virginia is truly in a class by itself. With their fifth championship as the #1 Pollina Corporate Top 10 Pro-Business State, Virginia is well on its way to becoming the Michael Jordan of economic development.
• "In today's business world with all its uncertainties, a state's reputation as a consistent pro–business winner is very valuable. The key to Virginia's success this year is that not only did they finish #2 under the Stage I, Labor, Taxes, and Other Factors but also they placed #1 under the Stage II, Incentives and Economic Development Agency Factors. This strong showing in taxes, education, and infrastructure combined with excellent incentive programs and an efficient and effective economic development department resulted in Virginia's extraordinary showing"
• "Virginia maintained its rank for Stage II, Incentives and Economic Development Agency Factors through the leadership of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, which is recognized as one of the finest economic development organizations in the nation. A close examination of Virginia's programs reveals a very well-balanced understanding of economic development."

Study: Virginia #1 Pro-Business state, brightest star on American flag

Pollina Top 10 Pro-Business Study Depicts Surge of Influence in Western States with Decrease in South and Free Fall in North

CHICAGO—(August 15, 2011)—"The West is America's new heartland, and it is increasingly a dominant region of population growth and political influence," says economist and corporate relocation expert Dr. Ronald R. Pollina in the just-released Pollina Corporate Top 10 Pro-Business States for 2011: The Rise of the West.

In the annual study of job retention and creation by the 50 states and the federal government, Dr. Pollina, author of the recent book entitled Selling Out a Superpower, emphasizes that the "West is not only a leader in population growth but has also become the pro-business leader, thus showing the greatest potential for job growth."

But Virginia—the brightest star on the American Flag—is the ultimate model for the rest of the country. Brent Pollina, Vice President of Park Ridge, Illinois-based Pollina Corporate Real Estate (www.pollina.com) and author of the study, names Virginia as "America's most pro-business state" for the third consecutive year, winning yet again by the largest margin in the study's history.

"Virginia can certainly be emulated by other states, which should view Virginia's economic policies as a coloring book," says Brent Pollina. "All they need to do is stay between the lines of the coloring book, and they, too, can create a powerful pro-business environment."

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SVHEC Business of Art & Design brings new offerings to the Innovation Center

The Business of Art & Design program at the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center (SVHEC) is gearing up for a full fall semester with new course offerings in Digital Art & Design (DA&D) and Product Design & Development (PD&D). New DA&D courses include Communication Design I, Computer Graphics I, Motion Graphics I, and Visual Arts Foundation. For the first time, all Business of Art & Design courses will be held in the SVHEC’s new 46,000 sq.ft Innovation Center.

Communication Design I studies the principles of visual communication as applied to advertising in newspapers, magazines, direct mail, etc. Computer Graphics instructs students in the creation of images and graphics for our increasingly screen-rich world; Motion Graphics introduces the fundamental concepts of video and typographic effects including film titles and animations. Visual Arts Foundation covers color theory and design concepts and principles. This introductory course provides a solid foundation for any student interested in art and design careers.

“Visual Arts Foundations, along with the Intro to Multimedia course offered this fall –surveying digital photography, video, and audio– help establish a baseline in visual literacy and digital communication that can take people far. Opportunities abound for those who can combine an artistic eye with technology skills,” said Ben Capozzi, Coordinator for the Business of Art & Design program.

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