Manufacturing runs Northwest Arkansas, and it's hiring. Eighty hours — online and at your own pace, plus one in-person day for your forklift evaluation — 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 a single scheduled day in person for your hands-on forklift evaluation — 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. Most students finish the online coursework in six to ten weeks, then schedule their one in-person forklift evaluation day.
$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.
