After working for eight years as a loader operator for a coal trucking company and as a driver for a petroleum company, John Maynard Jr. helplessly watched his career swiftly fall victim to a downturn in eastern Kentucky's coal economy in early 2000. But with the help of the retraining he received through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), John has been able to turn the disappointing end of one career into the excitement of starting a new career.

Today, John is thriving in his new career as an electronics instructor at the Pikeville Campus of Mayo Technical College, teaching the same classes that he took to begin his retraining just two years ago. The Kentucky Cabinet for Workforce Development honored John for his success by naming him an Outstanding WIA Alumni for 2002, one of only nine statewide.

John was nominated for the award by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP), a Hazard-based agency which administers a wide array of workforce programs for adults, dislocated workers, and economically disadvantaged young people in 23 eastern Kentucky counties.

Soon after he was laid off, John, 36, went to sign up for unemployment insurance and ran into WIA case manager Craig Hamilton, who works at the Pike County JobSight. Craig was explaining the services that WIA offers to the dislocated workers present at the U.I. office. The portion of Craig's presentation that dealt with the opportunity to retrain for a new career seemed to really click in John's mind.

"He became very excited when he heard of the program, and he immediately came to our office to apply," Craig said.

With the encouragement of his wife, John enrolled in the WIA Dislocated Worker program. As a course of study, John chose to revive the electronics skills that he had put aside years ago when he began driving a truck, and enrolled in Mayo Tech as an electronics student.

Five semesters later, John graduated from Mayo with a degree in industrial electronics. Shortly before graduation, one of his instructors encouraged him to apply for a teaching position at the college. Though initially skeptical, John applied.

Several weeks went by and John took a job working in a hospital maintenance department. Shortly after he began that job, he got a call from the technical college to come for an interview. A week and a half

later the phone rang and the voice on the other end asked him if he could start working at the college the next day. John didn't hesitate.

"That was on a Wednesday, and school started the following Monday," John chuckled. "I pretty much had to hit the ground running."

John now teaches courses in electricity, mechanics, philosophy, and even utility-pole climbing for the college's telecommunications program. He credits the support and advice of his wife, also a teacher, with helping him shake off the nervousness that came with standing up in front of a classroom full of students each day. For knowledge of his subject matter, he relies most heavily on the education he received from those very courses in those very classrooms--an education that wouldn't have been possible without the crucial support of WIA.

"There's no way our family could have made it on just one income while I went to school," John said. "The WIA was what made the difference."