The Kentucky Cabinet for Workforce Development recently presented an award for outstanding achievement to the multiagency partnership that brought a $20 million American Woodmark Corp. manufacturing facility and 260 new jobs to eastern Kentucky. Tom Jones—president of East Kentucky Corporation, the economic development agency that spearheaded the partnership—accepted the award on behalf of EKCEP and the other partners at the 2002 Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Awards Luncheon in Frankfort on November 20.

The award was one of only two presented to similar partnerships statewide for 2002.

EKCEP (Eastern Kentucky C.E.P., Inc.) contributed a WIA employee-training package to the multiagency effort that brought American Woodmark's new dimension mill to eastern Kentucky. After American Woodmark made the decision to locate in eastern Kentucky, the partners in its Perry County JobSight one-stop center organized and conducted a detailed intake and screening process for over 1000 applicants on behalf of the employer.

Landing the new factory was a cooperative effort by the partnership that included:

East Kentucky Corp., a publicly and privately funded economic development agency; Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development; Local city and county governments; Kentucky Community and Technical College System; Kentucky Chamber of Commerce; EKCEP, Inc.

The Perry County JobSight one-stop center in Hazard and its partners.
EKCEP's training package made a substantial commitment of Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Title I funds to support on-the-job training for local employees hired by the new plant, effectively reducing the manufacturer's cost for initial training by half. During the negotiations that preceded the decision to locate in eastern Kentucky, American Woodmark representatives noted several times that the training package was vastly superior to the training components offered by other states that were competing for the facility

The role the JobSight one-stop center played in bringing the manufacturing facility to eastern Kentucky has been recognized nationally. United States Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao mentioned the efforts of the Hazard center by name prominently in her keynote address that opened the national Workforce Innovations 2002 conference in Nashville, TN. She praised the JobSight again in her annual Labor Day address.

American Woodmark Corporation is the nation's third-largest cabinet manufacturer and the primary supplier of cabinets for Home Depot and Lowe's stores. Their new 220,000-square-foot manufacturing facility is one of several structures being built on the company's 30-acre site in the Coal Fields Industrial Park seven miles north of Hazard on KY 15. The plant processes lumber into hardwood components used in kitchen and bathroom cabinets.

The plant's initial workforce of 49 was hired from the pool of applicants assembled and screened by EKCEP and its JobSight partners. The pool was created through a comprehensive intake process in which EKCEP and JobSight staff took applications, administered American Woodmark's employee assessment tests, checked references, screened the applicants, and performed other services on behalf of the employer. The workers who cleared the screening process and were hired began on-the-job training immediately under the WIA Title I plan created by EKCEP.

Of the 260 people which the plant expects to employ within two to three years, approximately 30 will fill salaried positions. Wages for the hourly workers will range from $9 to $14 per hour.