About 10 months ago, Mark McKenzie’s plans didn’t include building a home, but they did include escaping the fast-food industry and the limited opportunities it provided. Mark chose to pursue training for a mining career by enrolling in the Coal Careers Program, and the new yellow ranch house now going up beside Coldwater Road in Martin County stands as proof positive that the program works.

If things go according to plan, Mark and his wife, Vicki, will celebrate Thanksgiving there with family. Discussing the change in their lives, Mark and Vicki exchanged contented smiles inside their nearly completed new home.

Building a house would have been “a lot harder to do” without his new career in the coal industry, said Mark, who began working as an underground miner for Booth Energy upon graduating from the program in early September.

Mark said he believes the Coal Careers Program works because it not only extensively trains prospective coal miners, but also places them into full-time mining jobs with Booth Energy or Excel Mining once they complete the program. The coal companies are partnering in the program because it helps meet their need for qualified miners.

Considering that he was working at McDonald’s when he enrolled, Mark said his life has been profoundly improved.

“When I graduated and got offered a job, I felt like I really had accomplished something,” he said. “I had wanted to get into mining for a long time, but I didn’t have any experience and couldn’t get a job. I don’t have to worry about that anymore.”

Mark’s success is not an isolated case. Program officials said at least two other graduates of the Coal Careers Program are building or buying new homes only months after graduating and beginning full-time work with their sponsoring coal company.

The program has graduated around 30 fully trained and certified miners ready to go straight to work. Among that group is the program’s fourth class of new miners, who gathered recently at the Hager Hill Campus of Big Sandy Community and Technical College to mark the completion of 1,700 hours of classroom and on-the-job training.

The program’s success on both sides of the workforce equation shows it is doing exactly what it was designed to do, said Crawford Blakeman, manager of the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program’s (EKCEP) Business Solutions Team. EKCEP supplements the Coal Careers Program with workforce development funds that help cover the training salaries of the new miners.

"People need training to get into the coal industry, and coal mines need trained miners," Blakeman said. “EKCEP is committed to assisting endeavors like this one, which contributes to our mission of helping the coal industry solve its workforce shortages and help people improve their lives.”

The Coal Careers Program is funded by a partnership of EKCEP, Booth Energy and Excel Mining, Big Sandy Community and Technical College, Big Sandy Area Community Action Program, and the Kentucky Coal Academy, a coal training initiative that offers courses at Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) locations in Hazard, Madisonville, and Harlan.

Based in Hazard, EKCEP is a federally funded non-profit agency that administers the JobSight network of workforce centers in 23 eastern Kentucky counties. At JobSight "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. EKCEP's Business Solutions services help link employers with the right employees through numerous services, activities, and initiatives.

The Coal Careers Program gives prospective miners an extensive 30-week combination of classroom and on-the-job instruction. Participants are paid as they work to complete their training and are considered part-time employees of either Booth Energy or Excel Mining. The program includes training on high-tech virtual mining simulators that vividly mimic the experience of operating the continuous-mining and roof-bolting machines used in underground mining, or the haul trucks, dozers, and loaders used in surface mining.

Instructors deliver classroom training on mining-related topics like safety and first aid, welding, electricity, and hydraulics along with classes on business and personal finance, computer operation, and other practical skills.

The program alternates blocks of classroom work with hands-on work at actual coal mines. Through both types of training, participants become certified miners, as well as Mine Emergency Technicians (METs).

‘They’re not only better miners, but they’re safer miners as well,” Blakeman said.

Dennis Hatfield, president of Booth Energy, said the importance of the program’s hands-on training component cannot be overestimated.

“This is very different than when I became a miner,” Hatfield said. “They basically gave me a hat and a light and sent me in. Coal Careers gives them some training and helps them get into the job, and it takes them farther along before they take the step of actually entering a coal mine.”

Full-time job opportunities with the sponsoring coal companies are available to graduates who successfully complete all facets of the Coal Careers Program.

That opportunity is perhaps the program feature that participants find most attractive, according to Joyce Wilcox, who works closely with leadership of both sponsoring coal companies in her job as Business Services representative for the Big Sandy Area Community Action Program.

Wilcox said she has personally encountered the frustration of many miners who were stuck in the same situation that Mark was prior to getting involved in the program.

“One man came in my office recently and threw down his green card—his work permit as an inexperienced miner—and said, ‘This isn’t worth a quarter,’” Wilcox said. “It’s extremely difficult to get a job in coal without experience, and you can’t get experience without a job.”

Hatfield acknowledged this “Catch-22” situation is too common in the coal industry, but said the Coal Careers Program is helping address that problem, to the benefit of both the prospective miners and the companies.

“Normally, the coal industry is looking for experienced workers, and that’s what the whole world really wants,” Hatfield said. “But the program allows us to do early career training where they basically learn about coal mining before they actually step into an underground mine.

“It also takes away some of the risk and burden of us training people without experience,” he continued. “Underground mining is not for everybody, and Coal Careers helps us identify the people who, in the long haul, really want to be career coal miners.”

Hatfield said Booth Energy anticipates continuing to be involved in the Coal Careers Program as it improves and builds upon the successes it has already achieved.

“We want to train the next generation of coal miners, and this is how we’re doing it,” Hatfield said. “For a new program that’s still being refined, Coal Careers is developing well, and we’ve had some strong candidates come through the program. Those who have come through to full completion have been successes, and successful in helping us staff our coal mines.”

The McKenzies said they are glad to have attained their share of that success through Mark’s participation in the Coal Careers Program.

“It’s been an exciting year for us; we met, got married, Mark got a new job, and we’re building a house,” Vicki said with a smile as dust-covered workers sanded down drywall mud in what will be their new kitchen. “Things are great.”

Mark agreed.

“I like working in coal, and I don’t want to do anything else,” Mark said. “I wouldn’t have believed how much this program would help me, but I can see it now.”

For more information on EKCEP's Business Solutions services or the Coal Careers Program, contact Crawford Blakeman at 606-436-5751.

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