Manufacturing runs Northwest Arkansas, and it's hiring. Eighty hours — online and at your own pace, plus one required in-person forklift day in Rogers — gets you OSHA-grounded, forklift-certified, fluent in lean, and walking through four to six working plants on video before you ever apply anywhere.
Online and self-paced, with one required in-person day of forklift driving and evaluation in Rogers, Arkansas — no fixed classroom, no commute for the rest of it.
Start the day you're approved. Module 1 opens immediately and you work at whatever pace fits your life. Once you finish Lesson 5, the student portal shows the open Fall Quarter dates and you pick your required in-person forklift day in Rogers — 8 AM – 5 PM at Centro Cristiano de Rogers, 2121 S. 1st St.
$0 tuition, plus $500 for qualifying students. The Arkansas Workforce Challenge Grant covers the course itself; the Arkansas Scholarship Foundation adds a $500 grant on top of it for those who qualify.
Pre-operational inspections, the stability triangle, load capacity, pallet handling and stacking learned online — finished with a single in-person hands-on evaluation that earns the Academy Forklift Operator certificate.
Guided video tours of four to six working plants — metals fabrication, food processing, injection molding, automated distribution — watching production, quality and safety happen at full speed.
5S, the seven wastes, kaizen, standard work, cycle time and OEE — the vocabulary and mindset every modern plant expects from day one.
Tapes, squares, calipers and micrometers, plus the hand and power tools production work actually uses — used safely and read accurately.
Each module unlocks when you pass the one before it. Every module ends with a project you build and submit and a quiz you have to clear — no skipping ahead, no finishing without doing the work.
Production systems and manufacturing types, Arkansas industry sectors, Industry 4.0 — automation, sensors and data — and the career ladder from associate to supervisor.
OSHA standards and worker rights, hazard recognition, PPE, lockout/tagout, fire safety, forklift classes I–VII, the stability triangle, load charts and inspection checklists.
Pre-operational inspections, driving and maneuvering, pallet pickup and placement, stacking and staging, spotter teamwork — taught online, then proven in a single scheduled in-person evaluation that earns the Academy Forklift Operator – Entry Level Certificate.
Guided video tours of four to six working facilities — metals fabrication, food processing, injection molding, automated distribution — with structured journals and debriefs, all from wherever you're working.
Tapes, calipers and micrometers; hand and power tool safety; 5S, the seven wastes, kaizen, standard work and productivity metrics, with a hands-on lean simulation.
A manufacturing-focused resume, mock interviews, shift-work expectations, workplace communication, plus the written final and your forklift operator evaluation.
Most entry-level manufacturing hires have never been inside a plant before their first shift. Students in this track watch guided video tours of four to six working Arkansas facilities — metals fabrication, food processing, injection molding, automated distribution — seeing production, quality and safety happen at full speed, with supervisor commentary built in.
The forklift credential matters just as much: OSHA 1910.178 makes the employer legally responsible for a documented operator evaluation, and that evaluation has to happen in person, on real equipment — there's no way around that, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. So the formal instruction and practical training happen online with everything else, and you finish with a single scheduled in-person day for the hands-on evaluation itself — the one part of this program that has to happen off a screen.
You leave with the certificate, a field journal from every plant you toured, and answers to the question every interviewer asks: do you know what this work is actually like?
Five minutes to apply. No cost, no obligation, no catch — grant funded start to finish, plus a $500 grant in your pocket if you qualify.
