The economic landscape of eastern Kentucky is changing more rapidly now than ever before, and more than 60 leaders in workforce development, private business, education and government got the chance on Aug. 6 to help the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP) decide how the delivery of workforce-related services in the region should change along with it.

The leaders expressed those views at a day-long strategic planning session hosted by EKCEP and the Kentucky Workforce Investment Board (KWIB) at the Black Box Theatre on the campus of Southeast Community College (SECC) in Cumberland, and later at the historic School House Inn in nearby Benham.

The morning session at SECC, entitled “Creating a Competitive Economic and Workforce Advantage,” began with a community meeting in which participants examined numerous education, employment and economic trends, and how those trends could affect the direction workforce development takes in eastern Kentucky. Leading that session were "futurist" Ed Barlow, president of Creating the Future, Inc., and Robert Knight, president of the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB), a Washington D.C.-based association that supports and promotes the work of state and local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) like the one that oversees the JobSight network in eastern Kentucky.

At that event’s conclusion, participants submitted their “strategic directions” for ways to create the most competitive economic and workforce advantages for the region. Members of EKCEP’s Workforce Investment Board (WIB) later reviewed those findings during the board’s meeting at the School House Inn. Board members also began work toward drafting a detailed strategic plan that defines EKCEP’s future vision for delivering workforce-related services in its 23-county Workforce Investment Area.

Items and issues of attention that surfaced during that process included: the importance of continued education leading to more skilled professions; the need for increased eastern Kentucky representation on the KWIB; generating awareness and a sense of urgency for the workforce services offered by EKCEP through its JobSight Network of one-stop workforce centers, and the importance of incumbent worker training.

EKCEP management will next compile those items with others highlighted during the WIB meeting to create the agency’s comprehensive strategic plan, EKCEP Executive Director Mable Duke said.

“We’re trying to get on the table the various issues facing our region, address opportunities for growth, and then take all of that and come up with a plan that will have a lasting impact on our communities,” Duke said. “We want to make a difference in our area with limited resources. Given the shape our state budget is in, it’s vitally important we focus our dollars so that we get the most return on our investments.”

Similar strategic plans created by the boards of Kentucky’s nine other local Workforce Investment Areas will be combined with EKCEP’s plan to create a statewide strategy that will help determine workforce policy across the Commonwealth.