Like many small business owners in eastern Kentucky, the owners of Ideal Print Shop in Middlesboro sometimes find their need to expand with new technology hindered by the cost of training new workers to operate it.

Fortunately, a recent economic stimulus initiative is helping them clear those hurdles with financial aid and expert advice to help them find, hire and train workers.

Shawn and Yvonne Collins, owners of the 30-year-old Middlesboro business mainstay, are excited that Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc.’s (EKCEP) On-the-Job Training service is bringing tax dollars back to the community in a way that helps them keep up with the changing technology in their industry.

“It was a godsend. It was definitely something we weren’t expecting and it allowed us to hire two new full-time employees rather than one part-time or full-time employee,’ Shawn said.

EKCEP’s On-the-Job Training (OJT) service is provided locally under contract by the Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency. The OJT that helped Shawn and Yvonne was funded through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) economic stimulus funds.

The OJT service connects job seekers who come to the JobSight Network of workforce centers with local businesses who need workers and pays part of their salaries during their training period.

Yvonne heard about the OJT service when talking to a state official about the challenges her business faced in hiring employees and training them to work with their newly acquired equipment, which includes a high-tech digital embroidering machine. The state official referred her to EKCEP and its Business Services Manager, Crawford Blakeman.

Blakeman listened to Shawn and Yvonne’s needs and helped them develop a plan to overcome those challenges by using OJT.

In OJT, EKCEP and its partners use tools like online skills assessment and career counseling to match businesses that need new workers with people who have the skills or aptitudes that would most be suited for those jobs. Under normal circumstances, an OJT can pay up to 50 percent of a trainee’s wages during the training period. However, the ARRA allows an OJT to pay a higher percentage of a trainee’s wages—up to 90 percent in Ideal Print Shop’s case.

The first worker OJT connected with Shawn and Yvonne was Sam Browning, who had been laid off after 12 years of working at FYE when that store’s Middlesboro location closed. He’d gotten a part-time job at a local meat company, but the job didn’t provide him with enough work hours to support his family.

Shawn and Yvonne had already been speaking to Browning about working at their print shop, so the opportunity provided by the OJT program was perfect timing.

Sam smiled as he talked about how fortunate he felt to have found his new job.

“I am in a better place than where I started, before the layoff,” Sam said. “This gave me the opportunity to spend more time with my kids, work on a steady schedule, and provide a decent living for my family.”

Ideal Print Shop will add another worker through the OJT program soon. Shawn said the OJT program is going to help the shop be stronger than ever.

“This has given us the opportunity to find workers and move into the future with better products and allowed us to keep up with current technology,” said Shawn. 

Blakeman said it feels good when EKCEP and its partners can help businesses and workers both be successful, as the Ideal Print Shop OJT program has.

“This is EKCEP’s goal: to prepare businesses and the workforce to be better adapted and more prosperous in a changing economy,” Blakeman said. “It’s nice to see it come together so well.”

For more information about EKCEP’s Business Services, contact Blakeman at 606-436-5751 or visit http://www.ekcep.org/businesssolutionscontacts.htm to find a business services representative in your area.