Lake County Workforce Development Department Review
We are excited to share that Lake County Workforce Development Department shared their review of Closs Tire, whose owner, Sue Dickson, is the founder of Give Me Ten.
Written by: Demar Harris, Director of Programs, Lake County Workforce Development
Female-Owned Family Business is a world-class innovator
Overview
Closs Tire is a superior fleet repair automotive business located in Waukegan Illinois that has serviced local residents in the automotive industry for over 40 years. Closs Tire is committed to delivering quality repairs to its customers, while striving to have an industry impact within its local community. Closs Tire a Workforce Development Ambassador nominee has consulted and partnered with the Lake County Workforce Ecosystem endorsed by the Lake County Workforce Development Department to identify recruitment, apprenticeship, industry exposure, internal training, high school engagement, and paid internship strategies to meet their immediate and long-term talent acquisition and development needs. The Ecosystem is a network of partners in Lake County that ensures businesses have access to a continuous pipeline of talent and deploy retention strategies that promote business growth. This network includes Lake County Partners, the College of Lake County, Lake County Workforce Development, and the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Closs Tire’s focus on talent development, flexibility, youth engagement, job center collaboration, and its deployment of nontraditional strategies and tools have achieved measurable results for Closs Tire.
Innovative Talent Attraction Has Equipped the next generation.
Closs Tire’s investment in young adults and our next supply of workers has transformed the typical mindset of recruitment, development, industry exposure, and talent attraction. Closs Tire has successfully created a set of proactive and repetitive strategies that show creativity comes before capital and that large budget ideas are not required to manage a successful employee engagement, attraction, and development program. Closs Tire’s ability to think outside of the box and provide leadership as it pertains to onsite industry exposure to high school students, transportation resources for job applicants, high school apprentice ship programs, and endowment donations and time to CTE programming initiatives to support automotive classes at the locale Technology Campus has been enriching. Lake County Workforce Development has created an apprenticeship/work base learning model with Closs Tire, which allows current high school students and graduates to learn a variety of automotive task over a six-month period, while working part time or full time and earning an average wage of $16/hr, or more. The Work, Earn, and Learn model has allowed the next workforce generation to be exposed to an in-demand industry, learn essential task associated with automotive repair, and earn a sustainable wage while learning from industry experts.
Superior Automotive Employer has expanded its partnerships Community Wide.
Lake County Workforce Development and Closs Tire have shared and expanded its partnerships collectively to implement initiatives by working with a consortium of Automotive Companies and Employers to create apprenticeship/work base learning programs, while supporting the Lake County Tech Campus which addresses and offers dual credit career and technical education for upper class students. Closs Tire’s community advocacy for the automotive industry has led to three other local automotive employers creating paid internships and apprenticeship programs for the local community and residents. Closs Tire’s advocacy work and partnership with Lake County Workforce Development has led to over 10 students receiving tuition assistance grants through the Workforce Investment Opportunity Act to cover the cost of college as the young adults attained a industry certification, or associates degree.
Automotive Companies Leadership has resulted in significant impacts in the Community.
Closs Tire has received community, municipal, and economic development, and workforce awards due to their community impact as it pertains to retraining residents, deploying training programs to local high schools, involvement in advisory committees, conducting industry seminars to young adults, donation of vehicles to lake county residents and being part of local hiring events to provide employment opportunities to an underserved community and the Lake County community. Closs Tire has been recognized locally by stakeholders and nationally due to their local, regional, and national impact on the next supply of workers and young adult engagement. As a family-owned company, Closs Tire understands the greatest asset the company has is its employee base. Closs Tire has taken a long view approach to developing talent that extends beyond the company’s walls. They have become a thought leader in workforce development, playing an instrumental role in shaping strategies that will benefit Lake County and the Automotive Industry as a whole.