Tommy Harris manages a moving company that specializes in residential and commercial relocation, but his schedule allows for a side job, which could bring more money in to handle the bills.

He was one of several job seekers who converged Thursday on Pritchard Community Center in Elizabethtown for the annual Regional Job and Career Fair hosted by the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce and Elizabethtown Career Center.

Harris spoke with several companies set up at the fair as he weighed his options, focusing on staffing agencies and corporate companies that might be able to afford a temporary position. He heard about the job fair through a friend and said he could use extra part-time work.

Chris Beebe and his wife, Kaita, were assessing the field and met with local factories to inquire about open positions. The couple expressed a special interest in Metalsa, which had a booth at the fair and is undergoing an expansion.

The fair’s title sponsor was KyJobs.net, a product of The News-Enterprise and Landmark Community Newspapers. Roughly 46 booths were set up during the fair, representing a range of industries, including police and fire departments, universities, local manufacturers and health care providers.

Officers from the Fishers, Ind., Police Department drove to Kentucky to participate as it gears up for a new hiring process later this year. While the department travels to job fairs throughout Indiana, Weger said he believes the visit to Elizabethtown was the first out-of-state recruitment effort.

“We’re looking for highly qualified, highly motivated individuals that want to have a career in law enforcement,” he said.

Remington Arms’ booth was attracting its share of visitors as the company tries to fill a handful of jobs, primarily in specialty engineering positions, said Stephanie Hester, human resources specialist. Hester said the company has around eight local positions to fill in areas such as lab technician, computer aided design technician, metallurgical engineer and design engineer.

“We’re growing,” she said. “We’re a growing company, so this felt like a good fit.”

The Kentucky Workforce Investment Board (KWIB) is hosting its first Kentucky Work Ready Communities Best Practices Summit May 16 from 8 a.m. – noon at 300 Fair Oaks Lane in Frankfort. Space for the summit is limited, so advance registration is required.

The free summit is designed to help communities that want to improve their economic development potential by working toward Kentucky Work Ready Communities certification. The certification assures employers that a local workforce has the talent and skills necessary to staff existing jobs and to master the innovative technologies new jobs will require.

“The Kentucky Work Ready Communities program has become so popular that we wanted to give community leaders an opportunity to share their successes and network with each other, and provide an event for communities that are interested in the program to learn more about it,” said Crystal Gibson, chair of the Kentucky Work Ready Communities Review Panel and vice president of Public Affairs at Citigroup. “Community leaders who have gone through the application process will speak at the summit and be available at table discussions to give insight into the program and how it has benefited their areas.”

In the year since Kentucky launched the program, 19 counties have been certified as Work Ready or Work Ready in Progress, and 34 are going through the application process or have shown an interest in the program.

“The Kentucky Work Ready Communities program has strenuous requirements that show that a local area has the skilled workforce and community support necessary to be competitive in a 21st century economy,” said Ed Holmes, chair of KWIB. “The requirements are based on input from business and industry, and economic development leaders in Kentucky and that increases the appeal of the program for businesses that are looking to build or expand.”

To be designated a Kentucky Work Ready Community, business, education, economic and elected leaders must collaborate and apply for the certification. Counties have to meet criteria in six areas including high school graduation rate, National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) holders, demonstrated community commitment, educational attainment, soft-skills development and digital literacy. Boyle, Daviess, Henderson, Warren and Woodford counties have been certified as Kentucky Work Ready Communities.

If a community is close to certification and is committed to reaching the criteria in three years, it is may be designated as a Work Ready Community in Progress.

Summit participants will have an opportunity to network during a continental breakfast sponsored by the Foundation for Kentucky Industry, Kentucky Association of Counties and Kentucky Association for Economic Development. Representatives from Daviess, Hopkins, Madison, Pulaski, Russell and Trigg counties will discuss the six requirement areas of the Kentucky Work Ready Communities program and their best practices. Members of the program’s review panel will field questions from participants about the process and criteria.

The summit is geared toward Kentucky Work Ready Communities committee members, elected officials, economic development organizations, Chambers of Commerce, human resource managers, business owners, school officials, business and industry associations, community college representatives, P-16 Councils, adult education directors and Kentucky Workforce Investment Boards.

For more information, visit the Kentucky Work Ready Communities program website at http://workready.ky.gov

• Accountant Manager
• Design Technician
• Tool Room Floor Team Member
• Press Operator
• Valve Inspector

The complete list of job openings is available online at http://www.marioncountyky.com/Jobs/

Per capita personal income growth for the MSA also finished fifth at 8.8 percent, jumping from $35,484 to $38,597, according to the report, which analyzed a three-year period from 2009 to 2011.

Rick Games, president of the Elizabethtown-Hardin County Industrial Foundation, said the rankings are impressive and noticed by consultants as businesses look to locate in communities. The level of activity and buzz around Elizabethtown cannot be discounted, he said.

“It takes activity to get activity,” he said. “The main thing is, people are working and earning a good wage, and that’s what is important to the community.”

Read the full story by Marty Finley in The News-Enterprise

The Elizabethtown MSA also received the following national rankings in recent years:

# 1 MSA in the U.S. in personal income growth – 2010
# 1 MSA in the U.S. for G

Ranked 5th out of the Top 20 Southern Cities for Economic Development and Job Growth

Ranked 7th out the Top 25 U.S. S

“These new board members have already proven to be valuable additions to our board and I look forward to an exciting and successful year,” said Mo Miller, WIB Chairman.

As required, a majority of the board must be representative of the business sector which includes business owners, chief executives, operating officers, human resource managers and others in positions of authority. Other members are from local education entities, labor organizations, economic development agencies and community-based organizations.

Among their many responsibilities, the board members’ main role includes developing a five-year local plan to submit to the Governor, certifying One-Stop Career System operators, developing and approving a budget, conducting oversight of youth/employment training activities, assisting in the developing of a statewide statistics system, coordinating local workforce investment activities and promoting private sector participation in the statewide workforce investment system.

The WIB has promoted and funded many initiatives in the past few years. Among these include $227,172 in funding given to the Incumbent Worker Training Program, which trained over 1,000 employees, an initiative through WIRED65 that funded a workforce and economic development strategy for a 26-county region, the Entrepreneurial Academy of Excellence in partnership with Western Kentucky University and the Innovation and Commercialization Center.

If you’re interested in becoming a part of the Lincoln Trail Workforce Investment Board, please contact Jim Skees, Lincoln Trail Area Development District Business Liaison at 270-769-2393.

WorkNow Kentucky reimbursed 100 percent of wages and benefits at the same rate as an entry level, full time employee with federal funding. Hourly wages ranged from $7.25 to $32.85. Job seekers who qualified were matched with employers based on their skills, interests, occupational goals and experience, as well as the needs and requirements of the employer.

“WorkNow Kentucky gave job seekers an opportunity to earn a paycheck, gain work experience and make valuable connections with employers,” said Jim Skees, business liaison for the Lincoln Trail Area Development District. “This program provided much needed support at a time when unemployment had risen above 10 percent.”

Nearly 3,000 employers participated statewide, including city governments, state parks, school districts, health care providers and manufacturers like NPR Manufacturing in Bardstown. NPR hired four people through WorkNow Kentucky and offered two permanent positions at the end of the program. Through a Lincoln Trail WIB program called Project RENEW, NPR was able to offset the cost of on-the-job training for the new employees.

“WorkNow gave four job seekers an opportunity to get their foot in the door and interview for a full-time position with benefits,” said NPR’s human resources manager, Colla Luckett. “Our production associates require two to six months of training, so we were able to leverage two great employer assistance programs by participating in Project RENEW.”

More than 85 percent of the nearly $29 million federal dollars for WorkNow Kentucky went to more than 9,000 Kentuckians in the form of wages. This brought $1 million in tax revenue into state and local coffers.

For more information on job seeker and employer services, please visit the Lincoln Trail Career Centers website at www.ltcareercenter.org. Full-service Career Centers are located in Leitchfield, Elizabethtown, Bardstown and Lebanon. Additional job seeker, employer and economic development resources can be found at www.kix.com, www.e3.ky.gov and www.workforcekentucky.ky.gov.

The TIP Report is comprised of eight chapters, organized into four sections:

• Section 1: Introduction
  • Chapter 1: Executive Summary
• Section 2: Regional Economic Positioning Analysis
  • Chapter 2: Current Conditions
  • Chapter 3: Economic Forces
  • Chapter 4: Regional Assets
• Section 3: Human Capital Analysis
  • Chapter 5: Demographics
  • Chapter 6: Education and Training
  • Chapter 7: Entrepreneurship
• Section 4: Recommendations
  • Chapter 8: Strategic Framework
• Appendices
  • General Appendices
  • Attracting & Retaining Talent to the Wired65 Bi-State Region
    Wired65 engaged Next Generation Consulting to study the region with respect to the attraction and retention of young professionals. The Wired65 region has great quality of life attributes that it can build on in its quest to attract, retain and engage the next generation. These assets include affordable cost of living, a growing metro hub, and a college and university system that can import and keep talent in the region. The challenges include the perception of young professionals that one must leave the region to have a prosperous career and the need for public infrastructure to further connect the region. These pages provide inspiration for teaming with young professionals, their families, and the energy and pride they bring to the region.

The Strategic Framework presented in the Regional Competitiveness Strategy describes the following recommendations:

• Fix the pipeline
• Prepare for 21st Century Jobs
• Create a Talent Magnet
• Invest in Priority Sectors
• Focus on Quality of Place

You can download the full Regional Competitiveness Strategy here.

“It wasn’t a 26-county focus when we first started,” says Kim Huston, Wired65 co-chair and president of the Nelson County Economic Development Agency. “But once we got into it, we knew we needed to bring the larger Louisville metro area, which meant including southern Indiana and also moving southward to Green County. Now, we have six area development districts that are involved, covering 26 counties.”

Working in such a large region has its advantages and its challenges, Huston says, but because community leaders understand that economic prosperity and innovation occur when regional assets are linked, working in a larger region offers greater rewards.

Download the full document.

Kix.com helps link job seekers to employment opportunities, employers to the region’s best talent, and prospective students to the training and education they need to fill higher-skilled jobs and contribute to regional prosperity. The site connects our region in an unprecedented way using state-of-the-art social networking tools.

Employers in the Lincoln Trail area have played a pivotal role in helping make this portal a reality, participating in a regional survey that assessed the needs of area employers across a 26-County region. Lincoln Trail Area Development District (LTADD), the Lincoln Trail Workforce Investment Board and several other regional partners co-sponsored the survey, the results of which will serve as the foundation of the portal, one that is a true reflection of the employer needs now and in the future.

“Regional leaders believe that by working together as one, we can accomplish much more than by working separately,” said Wendell Lawrence, LTADD Executive Director.

“Kix.com provides that region-wide tool that can foster the highest level of collaboration. It is quickly becoming the go-to source for the region’s students, workers, employers and entrepreneurs to find new opportunities,” Lawrence added.

The creation of kix.com is funded by the Wired65 initiative. The WIRED program – Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development – is a U.S. Department of Labor program. The “65” moniker given to the regional WIRED initiative is symbolic of the interstate corridor that helps tie the area together.

”By providing a timely dashboard on regional employment needs, workforce development trends and educational needs, it will spark a regionally-focused, comprehensive system of talent development where “just in time” programs of secondary education, training, mentoring, and more will meet the ever changing needs of employers,” said Debbie Wesslund, Wired65 grant coordinator.

To make kix.com work, it needs to be a reflection of all the great things this region offers. The kix.com team wants to highlight successful – and perhaps unsung – programs, people, and businesses in Lincoln Trail and throughout the entire region.

Help the kix.com team tell the story of our region by sharing your ideas and comments on what makes Kentucky special. Send your ideas to kix@wired65.org

Join the kix.com community at http://www.kix.com.

By KELLY R. CANTRALL

Anita Ellison was looking for a job like it was, well, her job.

Ellison came prepared Thursday to the job fair at Pritchard Community Center. She parked across the street, knowing the parking lot would be full, and packed her lunch so she wouldn’t have to leave.

She was one of the 1,000 job seekers who had come within the first couple hours to the event sponsored by the Elizabethtown-Hardin County Chamber of Commerce, Lincoln Trail Career Center and the Lincoln Trail Area Development District.

Tommy Wheatley of the Lincoln Trail Career Center said attendants were lined up around the building by the time the fair began.

Chamber President Rik Hawkins said Thursday afternoon that the fair could be one of the biggest held, which he said has good and bad aspects. It’s good that it can match seekers to jobs, but the attendance also means “that many people are out of jobs,” he said.

Ellison was laid off in December after her company reduced its labor force.

“I’m among the ranks of the dislocated workers,” she said, laughing.

Elison has maintained a sunny disposition despite having had no luck so far in her search. She said she can send out 20 resumes a week and never hear back from anyone, so she knows companies are being inundated by job seekers.

So she’s learning to punch up her resume for each job she seeks, and keep a positive attitude.

“There are jobs out there,” she said. “That’s the good news.”

One employer Ellison made sure to check out was Fort Knox, and the new jobs being created by Human Resources Command.

Dawn Donovan was working with OneKnox at the fair. OneKnox provided training sessions throughout the day on how to apply for federal jobs. Donovan said she had seen about 250 job seekers by late Thursday morning.

She had heard from many attendees who said they came to the fair specifically to learn about jobs coming to the post because of BRAC.

U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie on Monday sponsored an employment fair that included instruction on how to apply for jobs created by the Fort Knox realignment.

The Career Preparedness Fair at the Pritchard Community Center also featured booths set up by prospective employers and educators and offered job-seeking tips.

The Republican congressman from Bowling Green — whose Central Kentucky district has more than an 11 percent unemployment rate — said the parking lot was nearly full when he arrived shortly before the event started at 10 a.m

The fair had drawn around 400 visitors by midday, said Mark Lord, Guthrie’s district director.

Just after noon, participants packed into a side room to hear one of the hourly presentations about future Fort Knox jobs, which will include many human resources and information technology positions. They learned how to apply and what kind of qualifications the Army wants.

And if fair goers learned they need a particular skill, they could visit booths set up by one of the schools — from career centers to major universities.

Because the post soon will become home to the Army’s Human Resources center and other administrative activities, McKendree University in Radcliff has seen a high demand for its Human Resources Management and Computer Information Systems programs and computer certification classes, said Leanna M. Milby, an admissions counselor and academic adviser.

The Army during the next couple of years expects to fill 1,400 positions.

Guthrie said the realignment is the biggest economic event in the area. It also will impact infrastructure services and schools.

A bill that could fund local school construction after a population increase left the U.S. House and is now in the Senate. Guthrie said he is talking to a committee chairman about prioritizing communities affected by Army post changes.

“It’s an issue that needs to be addressed,” he said.

Also at the fair, businesses — such as Cardinal Health and staffing agencies — set up booths to talk with job visitors about employment opportunities.

Michael Shaneyfelt said he participated because he is looking for full-time employment. The event was more helpful than he had anticipated, he said. Shaneyfelt said he had been to other job fairs, and Monday’s wasn’t quite as crowded and offered new possibilities.

For more information about military jobs, visit: www.oneknox.com.

Even though Brown’s job had come to an end and her financial future looked grim, she pursued an opportunity for additional education through the Lincoln Trail Career Centers. She was excited and eager to become a licensed practical nurse (LPN), but was nervous in the beginning. Brown dropped out of high school at age 17, and she did not consider herself college material.

“I knew that no one was handing out jobs like mine. I knew that I had to go to school to obtain a degree and ensure job security,” said Brown. “I am very thankful for the opportunity that the Dislocated Worker and Trade programs have offered me.”

Brown is currently entering her last semester at Madisonville Community and Technical College. She has maintained a high GPA and has a positive attitude about her future.   

Youth — Maurice Moore
Maurice Moore was a participant in a Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funded youth program called “Yes I Can.”  As a participant in this career exploration program, he was involved in the Information Technology track. He passed the program with ease and obtained all possible certifications.

Moore had a criminal record, but after the “Yes I Can” program, he decided to enter college to pursue a degree in accounting. Last semester, he made a 4.0 and his cumulative GPA is 3.636. He works full-time at Arby’s at night and attends school during the day. Recently, Moore was chosen to participate in a National IT Conference in California. Although he did not place, he was grateful for the experience and was honored to attend. 

Youth — Amanda Chesser
Amanda Chesser enrolled with the WIA program in 2005 as a participant at Springfield LYNC, a work readiness and occupational skills contractor. At the time of enrollment, she was a 21-year-old newlywed with a young child. With a sense of determination, she completed Springfield LYNC and became a certified nursing assistant (CNA).

Chesser continued with college training at St. Catharine College, pursuing a radiography degree. She was determined to finish her degree despite her responsibilities at home and accessed WIA funds to assist with tuition. Chesser graduated from St. Catharine College in May with a 3.8 GPA. She was involved in the International Honor Society and American Society of Radiologic Technicians and graduated with honors, magna cum laude.

Incumbent Worker Success Story — Legacy Mold and Tool, Inc.
Four years ago, an employee at Legacy Mold and Tool, Inc. in Bardstown, Ky., started taking classes to become a journeyman toolmaker. This small tool and die and welding operation had a total of five employees and needed assistance in funding tuition for the employee and giving him an incentive to stay on track to complete the lengthy training program.
In May 2009, Jason Ballard completed the program through the Kentucky Machining Association (KMA) in Louisville. KMA is a branch of the National Tooling Machine Association (NTMA).  Ballard is now logging work hours to receiving his journeyman’s cards. He is more marketable in the tool and die industry, and Legacy Mold and Tool can provide more efficient, high-quality service for its customers.