Lewie Hatton did not spend his life dreaming of becoming a diesel technician. But after a layoff and two years of college, the Jackson County man has proven himself so skilled at that career that three companies offered him jobs at the same time.

“Ten years ago, I would have gotten a headache just thinking about working on my own vehicle,” Lewie chuckles. “But you change as you get older, and that’s the way I make my living now.”

Lewie’s training as a diesel technician—a high-skill, high-demand career—ensures he will never again have to face a dilemma like he did in 2003 when he lost his job as the Richmond factory where he had worked for 10 years moved to Mexico. Assistance from the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Dislocated Worker Program helped ensure that the cost of that training did not derail his pursuit of the bright future that career has opened up for him.

“Training really is the key to the whole thing,” Lewie says. “Without the WIA, there would have been no way I could have pulled it off.”

Today, Lewie has an associate’s degree and is a member of the repair and maintenance staff at National Distributors’ Richmond trucking terminal. Drivers who haul goods across the country in the company’s tractor-trailer trucks entrust their livelihoods and personal safety to Lewie, who works to keep their vehicles roadworthy. He says a typical day includes activities like performing major repairs on the trucks’ diesel engines, doingroutine oil and brake fluid changes, and patching holes in trailers damaged during transit.

“I consider myself almost like a doctor of people, except that I’m a doctor of trucks,” Lewie says. “When you work on a vehicle, you’re responsible for it, and what you do to it can affect lives. You have to be really careful working on this stuff.”

Lewie’s journey toward his new career began shortly after he was laid off from his metal-fabrication factory job. Although he was a high school graduate, he lacked the specialized training necessary to rebound into a skilled career. Lewie resolved to get himself trained for a new career where the demand for employees would always be high, and where the stress of finding a good job would always be low.

Around that time, he took his personal vehicle to a local car dealership for repairs. When he casually mentioned he was considering a new career in the automotive field, the dealership’s service manager was “straight-up” with him, Lewie says.

“He told me if I was thinking about this field, I should go into the diesel side of things,” Lewie says. “It’s a dirty job, but there’s a big demand for it because there are a lot less people out there who work on diesel engines than on gasoline engines.”

Lewie took the manager’s advice and began to look into how he could train to become a diesel technician. That search led him to the Daniel Boone Development Council (DBDC) in McKee to check how the WIA Dislocated Worker Program could help him. The DBDC office is an access point for the JobSight network, a collaborative partnership of workforce and training agencies administered by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP).

Thanks to the inter-agency partnerships in the JobSight network, Lewie was referred to the Kentucky Office for Employment and Training (OET) in Corbin for help obtaining Unemployment Insurance (UI). He also found that a provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would provide him some financial assistance for college.

“Right away, I told them that I wanted to go back to school,” Lewie says. “They approved that I could be paid Unemployment Insurance basically as long as I was in school, so I figured as long as I could get that, I’d try my best to go to school full-time.”

However, NAFTA and the other grant funding he received would not put gas in his truck, and he says plenty was needed for what would be a 140-mile round-trip daily commute from his Jackson County home to Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC).

Before enrolling at HCTC, Lewie met with WIA Career Adviser Susan Patton at DBDC to enroll in the Dislocated Worker Program. WIA supportive services stepped in to cover the daily gas and food expenses associated with his college experience.

Susan says Lewie’s first visit to her office was memorable for more than his obvious drive and determination to pursue a new career.

“He came in here ‘dressed to the nines’ and proceeded to tell me he wanted to be a diesel technician,” she says, recalling that she thought his clean-cut appearance was not indicative of a down-and-dirty diesel technician. “I really thought he was kidding.”

Susan says she soon found out how serious Lewie was. He brought her a newspaper clipping showing where he had been named to HCTC’s Dean’s List for earning a 4.0 grade point average. There were other times where he came to her office covered in the oil and dirt accumulated during hands-on training, “just to prove I didn’t mind getting dirty,” he laughs.

“Later on, after he graduated, I told him I was going to have to have crow for lunch,” Susan says. “He really has done extremely well for himself, and I’m very proud of what he has accomplished.”

Lewie continued to post excellent grades even as his homework increased and the hands-on training became more demanding. His hard work paid off in May when he graduated with an associate’s degree, an additional diploma designating him as a construction equipment technician, and an armload of academic awards to boot. Lewie says he earned the second-highest grade point average in his graduating class.

“It was hard work, but nothing is easy when you set out to do something for yourself. Failure is not an option,” he says.

Lewie was offered a job even before he had graduated. Two other job offers came along shortly thereafter, including the one he accepted at National Distributors. His degree afforded him the luxury of being selective, and it was a welcome change.

“I could leave here and have a job within two or three days, and I could even open a business for myself if I wanted to,” he says. “I have many doors open to me now, whereas I didn’t have any when I first got laid off.”

Lewie figures that as long as tractor-trailer trucks are running on the nation’s highways, truck drivers will need someone to help keep their vehicles running safely. He is grateful for that security, and he says he has the WIA Dislocated Worker Program to thank for it.

“It was a tremendous help,” Lewie says. “Basically, I depended on my UI and the WIA supportive services, and there is no way I could have held a job and went to school full-time at the same time without them.”