The Muhlenberg Job Corps Center held its first Workforce Council meeting of 2020 on March 5th, meeting with local and distant business representatives to focus on the Business Engagement Initiative, designed to engage businesses in the training programs at Muhlenberg Job Corps and help them become more familiar with the Job Corps program. The goal of the initiative is to help Job Corps become a major employer resource for skilled employees that match businesses’ needs.

Those attending the Workforce Council included representatives from Carhartt, Muhlenberg Chamber of Commerce, Felix E. Martin Jr. Foundation, Paragon of Madisonville, Kroger Pharmacy, Housing Authority of Paducah, the Office of the Governor of Kentucky, Muhlenberg Alliance for Progress, MasTec and others.

Center Director Gavin Gorham welcomed council members, updated them about career technical training opportunities at Muhlenberg Job Corps and gave them an overview of the center’s new Material Handling and Distribution Operations training program that is designed to meet the needs of area businesses and industry.

Business Community Liaison Jacob Groves highlighted a number of student successes, including:

• Katlyn Rex, who was nominated for the Better Opportunities for Occupational Tradeswomen (BOOT) Award and is now working as a welder for Titan Contracting;
• Armand Planter, who is giving back to his country by serving in the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps; and
• Camri Mixon, who now works as a certified medical assistant at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Evansville, IN, and was recognized for her positive, can-do attitude and for earning certifications for CMA, EKG Tech, Phlebotomy Tech, Basic Life Support, Nutrition Education and Electronic Health Records.

Director of Student Training Troy Fitzhugh discussed Muhlenberg Job Corps’ national ranking, compared to other Job Corps centers. The center currently is ranked 59th out of 122 Job Corps centers nationwide. The center’s ranking is based on the percentage of students who complete their career technical training, their credential attainment, job placements, placements that match the training the students receive at Muhlenberg Job Corps, whether these matches are full-time positions, wages and other key indicators of success. “Job Corps’ purpose is to deliver outcomes,” Fitzhugh said. “That is why we are so focused on what our students do after they leave our center.”

Workforce Council members and area business leaders are eager to assist the Muhlenberg Job Corps staff in training, development and the hiring of our graduates because they recognize that the Job Corps program provides quality training to produce the skilled, entry-level employees that businesses need.