The Success Xpress, a mobile training facility built into a 53-foot truck trailer, will be stationed in Letcher County over the next two weeks to provide miners from Sapphire Coal in Isom access to high-quality training in key coal mining skills using the industry’s most advanced technology.

The Success Xpress features a state-of-the-art classroom outfitted with a three-dimensional computerized mining simulator and a hands-on lab area featuring electrical training panels exactly like those on actual mining equipment. It is owned and operated by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP), Inc., a nonprofit agency that administers workforce development programs in eastern Kentucky.

The Success Xpress can be driven to remote coal mines, colleges, high schools, or any other location where training is needed. This mobility allows working miners to train for certifications in essential high-skill positions (mine electricians, METs, equipment operators, foremen, etc.) at their work sites, reducing the impact of training on their companies’ productivity.

The Success Xpress makes the best possible training and instruction accessible to working miners at any location in the EKCEP service area, according to Crawford Blakeman, EKCEP Business Solutions manager.

“Wherever there’s a need at a coal mine for more skilled and better trained miners, Success Xpress will be ready to literally drive that training to their front door,” Blakeman said. “Being able to present this training in such a mobile way allows workers to train for advancement more efficiently with much less impact on company productivity.”

Since the Success Xpress mobile training facility began operations in late December 2006, it has successfully brought high-tech mining training to working miners and students in Harlan, Martin, Perry, and Letcher counties. (Click here for comments from others on how the Success Xpress is being received in various locations in eastern Kentucky.)

The simulator in the Success Xpress classroom includes a virtual reality headset and hand-held control panel. A student can wear the headset and experience the sights and sounds of operating a continuous mining machine to cut coal from the walls of an underground mine. Other students in the class can watch the operator’s progress on a 40-inch flat-screen display.

Distance-learning technology aboard the Success Xpress allows mining courses to be taught by specially qualified instructors at remote locations and transmitted to students in the mobile classroom. Remote-controlled cameras in the mobile unit allow the class to interact with the remote instructor in real time.

Any sessions taught by instructors—whether on board the Success Xpress or from a remote location—can be digitally recorded, saved, and replayed on demand. The Success Xpress classroom also includes wireless connectivity that provides internet access at eight computer workstations.

Additionally, should the need arise, the communications equipment in the Success Xpress would allow it to function as a mobile command center in the case of a mine accident or emergency.

Based in Hazard, EKCEP administers government employment and training programs and employer services in 23 rural mountain counties, including the entire eastern Kentucky coalfields. 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.

The Success Xpress fills a major role in EKCEP’s ongoing efforts to help the state’s largest industry replenish its dwindling and aging workforce and capitalize on the rapid increase in the demand for coal in recent years, according to EKCEP Executive Director Mable Duke.

“The coal industry has indicated time and again that it needs more trained, skilled miners to handle today’s increased production demands,” Duke said. “Success Xpress allows EKCEP to help address that need, and its mobility allows us to bring specialized training to the region’s miners in a way that has never been seen before.”

Duke said that the expedited training offered aboard Success Xpress will increase the number of high-paying jobs available to the region’s workforce, allowing both the coal industry and its workers to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the high demand for coal.

“Success Xpress will always be on tour, on time, and on target with needed training for eastern Kentucky’s coal industry,” Duke said. “Thanks to this innovative new tool, we’re going to be training coal miners today for Kentucky’s future.”

The Success Xpress was created with a portion of EKCEP’s share of a $3.1 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The grant was awarded to EKCEP and the West Kentucky Workforce Investment Board (WKWIB) in December 2005 to train new miners and upgrade the skills of experienced miners in the state’s eastern and western coalfields. The grant was awarded under the President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative, as implemented by the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.

In pursuing the grant funds, EKCEP and WKWIB leveraged approximately $7.1 million in other workforce and training funds from a variety of sources, including: EKCEP Workforce Investment Act (WIA) formula funds, WKWIB WIA formula funds, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), and coal operators, including Alliance Coal, Charlais Coal, Peabody Coal, and James River Coal. Among these leveraged funds was a $250,000 allocation from Governor Ernie Fletcher’s Reserve Fund of the federal WIA, presented to EKCEP by Fletcher in March 2005.

The Center for Rural Development is also a participating partner, designing and coordinating the Success Xpress’ distance-learning technology.

For additional information on booking the Success Xpress for a visit to a mining operation, high school, vocational and technical school, or any other location, contact Crawford Blakeman at 606-436-5751.