(MARSHALL) – Norbord employees in Jefferson are taking advantage of a component of Texas State Technical College: workforce development.

Twelve employees attended two trainings in late January and early February to learn basic Excel at the company’s training center. Future trainings are planned for the computer spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft.

“We wanted to use Excel more efficiently to give us better understanding of data to support the business,” said David Golden, human resources manager at the Norbord Jefferson plant.

The course was taught by Carolyn O’Neill, an instructor in the Professional Office Technology program at TSTC. She taught company employees how to create spreadsheets, enter text and numbers, format cells, spell check, print and create charts.

“Excel is used in every business I have ever had contact with, from large to small,” O’Neill said. “It is a software application that many people do not know, so having knowledge of how to use it can be a big plus when applying for a job. Excel has the ability to do many mathematical functions. With the ability to add charts, it is also a very good visual aid when trying to show complex data.”

This is the first time the company and the technical college have partnered on training. The training came about after company leaders did a skills assessment of workers.

Norbord is based in Toronto, Canada, and is a global manufacturer of wood-based panels, particleboard, oriented strand board and medium-density fiberboard. The company has 2,600 employees at 17 plants in Canada, Europe and the United States. The Jefferson plant has 110 employees, some of whom are TSTC graduates working as millwrights and electricians.