- It drives it home when you're sittin' across the table
from a 45-year-old man who, with tears in his eyes, sayin',
"You gotta help me get a job, now.
I don't have time."
- Our area has got a great workforce that don't have jobs.
- Growing up, watched my dad come home,
just knowing what he did to provide for us.
I always had coal mining in my head, and in my mind that
that's what I wanted to do.
But, you know, it kinda got took away.
It's just a dying field.
- Over the past 10 years, coal mining jobs
in Eastern Kentucky have all but evaporated.
Since, the region has been forced to get creative
about what comes next for the thousands
who depended for generations on coal.
And they needed to do it fast.
- When the coal economy collapsed,
we've lost 34% of our labor force.
How do we participate in the global economy?
We had to figure out a way to accelerate
how people can get credentials
that launch them in that pathway.
Nobody's coming to save us.
We gotta do something ourselves.
Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program,
mostly known as EKCEP, was created
to prepare, advance, and expand the workforce.
Eastern Kentucky has struggled for many years,
but in 2012, things dropped overnight.
People on staff that have family in coal industry
were coming to me and saying,
"This is different.
This isn't the cycle that we've seen.
These people are leaving."
The people that we serve are hardworking men
and women that have found themselves in transition.
They have mortgages.
They have kids in school.
They can't put their life on hold for two years.
They need to have something happen
in an accelerated way.
They need to get the training that they need.
Get certified.
Get that credential that launches them into a new job.
- The East Kentucky Advanced Manufacturing Institute
is one program supported by EKCEP.
Here, dozens of students, many of them former miners,
are learning to work in advanced manufacturing and robotics.
- Here at eKAMI, we have a machine lab,
a CNC machining lab.
We have a mill lab, and a lathe lab.
Our students start on CNC machining.
And they actually earn a national credentials
from the National Institute of Metalworking Skills.
And then when they complete that program,
they advance over to the robotics labs.
And so, the overarching goal of the eKAMI initiative
is to attract industry to the mountains here
and leverage this incredible, hardworking,
problem-solving workforce that we have here.
- Kevin Yonts entered the coal mines back
when he was a teenager.
And just a few years ago, his son Colton, did the same.
Kevin is a recent graduate from the eKAMI program.
And now, his son is once again following in his footsteps.
- It's pretty tough, because, you know,
after 30 years in the mining industry,
this is a big change.
I had never sent an email.
I have went from kindergarten to college.
If I hadn't of came and did this,
I would've probably had to relocated.
I'm glad that I was able to break the cycle with my kids.
- This gave me the opportunity to not have
to go in huge debt and spend all that time in college
before I could possibly find a job.
When, you know, somebody is telling you,
"Come do this.
You'll have a good-paying job within a year's time."
I'm just gonna take that opportunity.
- Those nontraditional ways of connecting with employers,
the ‘Work-and-Learn’ kind of opportunities,
or the accelerated training for credentials.
That's what we have been working with.
We wanna see a more diverse economy.
Our hope is a place where people with varied skillsets
can find a home here, and find a place to work.
Whether that be in tech,
advanced manufacturing, healthcare,
their own business.
I think along with that environment
comes a healthier Eastern Kentucky
and a more entrepreneurial Eastern Kentucky.
- My family, we ran our own coal company.
You know, who's to say that somewhere down the road,
we can't have our own machine shop,
and me and my boys have our own manufacturing facility
somewhere here in Eastern Kentucky.