More than 50 leaders in workforce development, private business, and state and local government from across the region gathered June 23-24 in Berea to help the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP) shape the future of workforce-related services for nearly one-half million eastern Kentuckians.

EKCEP organized the “Workforce Challenge Summit,” held at the historic Boone Tavern Hotel, to compile ideas the best ways to match the job training, placement, and employer services provided through its JobSight network of workforce centers to the challenges of a changing economy. Getting that information directly from the members of EKCEP’s boards, the JobSight partner agencies, and the community and business leaders was the most effective way to accomplish that goal, explained Mable Duke, executive director of the Hazard-based agency.

“We’re all partners, and this meeting is an important first step in helping EKCEP define its role in preparing eastern Kentucky’s workforce to take advantage of the opportunities we have before us,” Duke said. “This is an excellent way to identify what our workforce will need to meet the future in ways that will benefit this region.”

Johnson County Judge-Executive Roger T. Daniel, who serves as chair of EKCEP’s Board of Directors, echoed those sentiments as he welcomed those in attendance to the two-day event.

“As America’s business community rushes to try to respond to the changes that they see upon their own industry, so too must we rush to tryto change to meet the trends we see that impact our local communities,” Daniel said. “We need to know the kinds of skills that our workforce is going to need and we need to try to design our pro-grams to meet some of those kinds of problems.

“That’s the reason we’re here today—it is a challenge,” he added.

On hand to lead the discussion was 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 EKCEP area.

The event used wireless keypads to register the responses of the attendees to a lengthy series of questions that covered a broad range of workforce-related issues. The technology allowed the responses to be compiled in “real time” and instantly organized into bar graphs that were projected to illustrate the disbribution of majority and minority opinions on each issue.

The information gathered at the summit will serve as the foundation for another large-scale planning meeting on Aug. 6 at the Benham School House Inn in Harlan County. At that meeting, EKCEP management the regional leaders will craft a detailed strategic plan the defines the agency’s vision for delivering workforce services throughout its 23-county Workforce Investment Area. The EKCEP plan will then be incorporated into a larger statewide plan that will help determine workforce policy at the state level.

Among the recommendations that emerged from the summit were: that EKCEP’s workforce development efforts should place a priority on training individuals in targeted industry clusters and professions; that EKCEP’s JobSight network of one-stop workforce centers should continue to emphasize assisting area employers, expanding to include “soft skills” training; and that workforce development should work together with economic develoment to bring new jobs into the area.

The summit was capped by meetings of both the EKCEP WIB and the EKCEP Board of Directors. Ron Crouch, director of the Kentucky State Data Center at the University of Louisville, delivered a presentation to the WIB on national, state and regional population trends.

In addition to Daniel, local elected officials present at the summit included Harlan County Judge-Executive Joe Grieshop and 89th District state Rep. Marie Rader. Private business representatives included Dan Fitzpatrick of Appalachian Regional Healthcare, Keila Miller of American Woodmark, and Frank Elkins of Mid-South Electronics.