A plan to grow a crop of more qualified workers for area manufacturers from Columbia County schools has yet to bear fruit.

But the seeds are being planted, officials said.

Officials from the Industry Education Partnership, which includes the Columbia County school system, the Manufacturer's Council of the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce, the National Science Center and Augusta Technical College, announced in April 2005 that they planned to develop programs in the county's middle and high schools to improve and raise interest in career and technology education.

Implementing some of the initiatives the partnership hopes to sponsor has been slow, but methodical, said Gordon Renshaw, the executive director of the chamber of commerce.

"We're just trying to be careful about how we implement this," he said.

The manufacturer's council plans to participate in a school job fair sometime this school year, he said.

In addition to job fairs, suggested programs have included guest lectures, plant tours and specialized demonstrations for middle school pupils by the National Science Center.

Michael Canady, the school system's director of career and technology education, said he was unaware of any such programs having come to fruition.

However, he said a subcommittee of the manufacturer's council is meeting regularly to plan for such programs and hopes to accomplish at least one program before high school seniors graduate in May.

"What we're proposing is that a team of students out of those technology programs in all four high schools, about two or three students from each, would embark upon videotaping jobs," Mr. Canady said.

Mr. Canady, who hopes to begin with the John Deere plant in Grovetown, said students would create a 10- to 15-minute "vignette" of jobs at the plant, showcasing salary, benefits and opportunities for advancement.

"They would use it as a recruiting tool for their plant, and we would use it as an awareness tool at our schools for job fairs and career days," he said.

The first video would act as a template for future videos of other area manufacturing facilities.

Eventually, Mr. Canady said, he would like to create a library of plant videos that high-school career counselors could use.

National Science Center Director Jim Frye called the video project a "first initiative" of the partnership, and he is working on a program for middle schools called Math To Go.

Math To Go uses auto racing to highlight science and math principles.

Mr. Frye said he is tweaking the program for use during the next school year.

"We tested the program in a couple of summer camps, and they were huge successes. We're building on that," Mr. Frye said, adding that the partnership idea is still alive.

"We're still very excited about it," he said. "We just haven't waved the flag a lot about it recently."

Reach Donnie Fetter at 868-1222, ext. 113, or donnie.fetter@augustachronicle.com.