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The Success Xpress is a mobile training facility built into a 53-foot
truck trailer that provides working coal miners access to high-quality
training in key coal mining skills using the industry’s most advanced
technology. The Success Xpress is owned and operated by EKCEP.
The Success Xpress' mobile classroom includes wireless connectivity technology
that provides internet access at eight onboard computer workstations.
The Success Xpress' hands-on lab area contains a Joy, Inc. electrical
training panel that features circuits and other equipment exactly like
those used by mine electricians at actual coal mines.
Ruby Maggard (in foreground), an instructor with Southeast Kentucky Community
and Technical College, shows miners at Sapphire Coal in Letcher County
how to operate the Success Xpress' continuous mining machine simulator.
David Ruth (right), EKCEP's Coal Mining Services coordinator, checks the
hand-held Joy, Inc. control panel that operates the Success Xpress' computerized
continuous mining machine simulator. Ruby Maggard, an instructor with
Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, looks on.
Governor Ernie Fletcher (second from left) joined EKCEP Executive Director
Mable Duke (far left), Kentucky Education Secretary Laura E. Owens (third
from left) and Beth Smith, commissioner of the Department for Workforce
Investment (far right), for a photo immediately after touring EKCEP's
new Success Xpress mobile training unit on Dec. 14 in Hazard.
Governor Ernie Fletcher watched himself on the LCD Smart Board screen
at the front of the Success Xpress' classroom. Shannon Carter, systems
architect for the Center for Rural Development (in foreground), demonstrated
the equipment.
EKCEP Executive Director Mable Duke (center) gestures toward the Success
Xpress' electrical training panel as Governor Ernie Fletcher (far right)
and Education Secretary Laura E. Owens (second from right) look on. Paul
Pratt, dean of Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College's Office
of Community Workforce and Economic Development, (far left) explained
the equipment to Fletcher and Owens.
Dennis Mayo (in background) and Shannon Carter prepare to demonstrate
the virtual-reality headset and hand-held control panel miners use to
train to operate a continuous mining machine with the Success Xpress'
state-of-the-art 5DT mining simulation software. Mayo is interim director
fo the Coal Careers Program at the Hager Hill Campus of Big Sandy Community
and Technical College, and Carter is systems architect at the Center for
Rural Development.
Click
here to open a schedule of the Success Xpress mobile training
unit's upcoming appearances.
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To read comments from people who have used the Success
Xpress, click here.
To see past engagements of the Success Xpress, click
here.
To read about Success Xpress' role in EKCEP's national award-winning
Coal Services Program, click
here. To download and view the U.S. Department of Labor's QuickTime
video on EKCEP's Coal Services Program—featuring the Success
Xpress—right click this
link, and select "Save Target As." To download a free
version of QuickTime in order to view the video, click here.
•••
Check back often for updates to the Success Xpress' schedule as
it remains on tour, on time, and on target with needed training for
eastern Kentucky's coal industry.
For additional information on booking the Success Xpress for a visit to a mining operation, high school, vocational and technical school, or any other location, contact Crawford Blakeman at 606-436-5751.