Ten Jackson County residents were honored for completing 120 hours of basic computer training that will prepare them to succeed in today’s high-tech workplace.

Rick Hundley, Barbara A. Gipson, Judy G. Hubbard, Harold Marcum, Nettie Mullins, Anna Muncy, Bertha Neeley, Glenna Sanders, Teresa Walton, and Howard D. Wilson received certificates in recognition of their efforts from instructors Norma Thomas and Lisa Brewer of the Jackson County Board of Education.

The participants learned basic keyboarding skills and built a working knowledge of widely used e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet, and audio/visual presentation software. All classes were held in the computer lab at Jackson County High School in McKee.

“This was a major undertaking for most of these individuals, and they are extremely proud of themselves,” said Lee Jones, manager of the Clay County JobSight workforce center operated by the Daniel Boone Community Action Agency in Manchester.

“Even housekeeping employees at hospitals now use computers to keep record of the work they’ve done,” Jones said. “Since everything is ‘high-tech’ now, everybody has to learn how to use a computer and several key programs to do almost any job.”

Jones helped lead efforts by the partner agencies at the Clay County JobSight to create the computer training classes for former employees of Mid-South Electronics, a manufacturing plant formerly in operation in the Jackson County Industrial Park in Annville. Funding for the training came through the federal Trade Act, which provides assistance for workers whose jobs move to foreign countries.

The Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP)—a Hazard-based nonprofit agency—administers Trade Act services and other workforce development programs in 23 eastern Kentucky counties. EKCEP also administers the JobSight network of workforce centers, which provide access to a dozen government workforce programs for job seekers and employers through a single location.

Jones said two additional basic computer classes have been held for displaced employees in neighboring Clay County.

“At JobSight, we pride ourselves with finding jobs for people, and people for jobs,” Jones said. “By acquiring computer skills, these people are in a much better position to move forward and succeed in any number of job settings.”