No Title 2239

Supplement to “Dreaming the College Dream”

KENTUCKY COAL ACADEMY

One recent program to be added to the Kentucky Community and Technical College System is the Kentucky Coal Academy.

Coal industry sources say there is a need for 3,500 miners statewide as the demand for coal increases and more than half of the current workforce is nearing retirement. The Academy was established to:

• provide short-term training for new miners;

• educate and train the work force of the future;

• create and sustain jobs in the industry;

• create career pathways for miners.

Another aspect of the Academy is to extend coal education through the Kentucky Junior Coal Academy. The extended early educational opportunity provides three career paths for high school students interested in mining. These are:

• employment in the industry immediately following high school graduation;

• pursuit of a two-year degree as a pre-engineering technician or an associate’s degree in mining through KCTCS;

• pre-engineering (toward a 4+year degree in mining engineering).

The Academy is comprised of five of Kentucky’s community and technical colleges located in the eastern and western Kentucky coalfields: Big Sandy Community and Technical College, Hazard Community and Technical College, Henderson Community College, Madisonville Community College, and Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College.

For more information, go online to www.kctcs.edu and search for “Kentucky Coal Academy.”

To read the Kentucky Living February 2010 feature that goes along with this supplement, go to Dreaming the College Dream.