A program designed to create a pipeline of skilled manufacturing workers straight out of community college is expanding to Louisville, Elizabethtown, and northern Kentucky.
The Kentucky Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education, or KY FAME, aims to funnel the students into on-the-job training programs while they’re still earning college credit.
"We've got a significant gap. The jobs are there. We've got folks that are talented that can take those jobs, but they've got to develop those skills," Gov. Steve Beshear says. "So this apprenticeship-type approach is really the wave of the future and it's going to help us tremendously."
Participants attend two days worth of classes at their community colleges and then put in 24 hours of work every week for a sponsoring employer.
Taylor Johnson stands in front of a robotic arm in the computer-lined classroom space at Toyota. He heard about the program through his father, who works at the company. Johnson says knowing there’s a great chance that a good-paying job awaits at the end of the tunnel makes the program more than worth it.
"It really helps me out because I'm not stressed out," he says, taking a break from the demonstration.
Four years in, KY FAME has graduated 40 students with help of sixteen companies. To guide the expansion, Beshear has appointed a new board of directors, which includes representatives from 3M, Premium Allied, Tool, Kellogg, 3M, and others.
