If you happen to visit Mobile, and drive by the Battleship U.S.S. Alabama, you will very likely also see a huge training facility aimed at providing trained workers to shipping manufacturers and facilities throughout the Port of Mobile.

As students complete the training course, they are almost immediately picked up by employers, earning wages well above the averages for that area and well above the rest of Alabama. Simply, it is a feeding ground for shipbuilders throughout the region.

When it comes to Selma, and the Black Belt, where unemployment and dependency on government support programs is almost a generational problem, what is there to help develop and train workers for a particular industry?

The answer to that question might lie with another question. What are we known for?

That is a tough question.

With a wide variety of industries, ranging from automotive suppliers to paper manufacturing, from environmentally friendly plastic production to top-of-the line lawn mowing and land management equipment, there is plenty to choose from.

The problem is finding trained workers for each of these industries and the industries that might be looking at the Black Belt.

Two programs quickly come to mind as those turning out employees ready to work and ready to meet a demand and both are located at Wallace Community College-Selma.

For one, the nursing program at Wallace is a huge success, attracting a large number of applicants each year and providing medical facilities throughout the region, from Montgomery to Demopolis and beyond, with nurses ready on day one.

The second would be the welding program, which is in high demand and is one that has nearly every student employed before they graduate the program.

Both programs have a long waiting list because of the interest and because both jobs are in high-demand, providing earnings well in excess of the household incomes in this region.

And, these are just two programs that come to mind. This does not take into account the amazingly high hire rate for education students leaving Concordia College, or those landing jobs in the business community.

The Black Belt remains home to many of the counties with the worst unemployment and poverty rates in the state. The solutions to both are not a quick fix and no one program will be the ultimate solution.

What our leaders must focus on is the continued development of programs and facilities that go to teach and train the workers that are needed for the industries who need them. And, it is up to our economic recruiters to go after the businesses and industries that could find a home and a workforce ready to go from day one.

For us to improve our status, we must no longer ask what can be done for us, but rather what can we do for ourselves.