The Perry County JobSight workforce center recently aided expansion efforts by TECO Coal by hosting a job fair that attracted more than 100 people seeking underground mining jobs with the company.

TECO officials are crediting the successful turnout at the event with helping the company remain on pace to have a new underground mining operation in Perry County up to speed by early spring.

"There's no way we could have handled all of this as quickly as we did by ourselves with amount of work we have to do," according to Rhonda Reid, Human Resources manager for TECO's Perry County operations. "When JobSight sends me an applicant, I know they're qualified to work."

Jack Duff, manager of the Perry County JobSight, said that over the course of one week, more than 100 prospective miners came to the JobSight workforce center operated by the L.K.L.P. Community Action Council at Jeff vying for work with the company.

There, Duff and other JobSight staff processed all job applications, pre-screened those applications to determine the best-qualified candidates, and administered tests that reveal applicants' ability to handle complex technical and mechanical tasks involved in coal mining.

In doing so, JobSight sends TECO only the most qualified applicants for job interviews and helps the company determine the areas of operation in which the applicants are best suited to work, Reid said.

"You can't imagine the amount of time that saves us," Reid said. She noted the company plans to hire at least 10 of the new applicants from the JobSight job fair by early 2008, and an additional 70 by March 1 to help staff its expanding Perry County operations.

"JobSight always does an excellent job for us, and we've used them for every recruiting class we've had over the past three years," Reid said. She attributes a good measure of the company's 85-percent retention rate for newly hired inexperienced miners to the pre-screening work done by JobSight.

"We're the only company out of the five that TECO owns that has that kind of rate," Reid said. "Because of JobSight's screening, almost everyone is on a piece of equipment, and several have become electricians and foremen. We've found some good people through JobSight."

The Perry County JobSight is part of the JobSight network of workforce centers administered in 23 eastern Kentucky counties by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP).

At JobSight's one-stop workforce centers, job seekers and employers can access over a dozen state and federal employment and training programs and employer services in a single location. JobSight links employers with the right employees through EKCEP's Business Solutions services and activities, which are offered at no cost to employers.

Crawford Blakeman, EKCEP's Business Solutions manager, said JobSight prides itself on facilitating successful connections between workforce development and private businesses in a way that produces tangible results like those seen at JobSight job fairs.

"What TECO does is produce coal; what EKCEP does is help recruit a workforce," Blakeman said. "We help business do business." EKCEP's Business Solutions services are open to any area employer, he added.

Employers interested in learning more about JobSight and EKCEP's Business Solutions Services can contact Crawford Blakeman at 606-436-5751, or Jack Duff at 606-436-3161.