FCCC breakfast held

FLEMINGSBURG — Workforce development solutions and guidance were recently presented to the Fleming County Chamber of Commerce.

On Thursday, June 13 a FCCC breakfast was held at Fleming-Mason Energy where chamber members received breakfast courtesy of Jill Price Grier of Jill’s Spare Thyme Treats and listened to guest speaker Denise Dials.

Dials, a graduate of Fleming County High School, is the workforce development director at TENCO and presented members with information about what the company strives to do and how they do it.

“The U.S. Department of Labor gives us the big over-view the big picture of what sort of our restrictions our guidelines are and then it goes down to our state workforce development board,” Dials stated.

She said the governor takes federal dollars, makes a big picture for the state and looks at what would help workforce issues.

There are statewide projects that then get narrowed down to local workforce development board Dials said.

“The local workforce development board is what I’m going to recognize we have 20 members. We have members from all 10 counties that is represented by the TENCO workforce board and what our goals are or what we do, is we sit down and we take what the state’s plan is and we narrow it down even more,” Dials stated.

She said having the community be a part of the strategic goals and plans is important including what businesses need what individuals in the community need.

“We sit down and develop a strategic plan that identifies certain goals that we really work toward,” Dials stated.

There are about $4 to 6 million given per year to upgrade work services that are spread throughout 10 counties according to Dials. She further stated the work is through the Kentucky Career Centers and there are four of them in the 10 counties.

“The Kentucky Career Center is you know really where the rubber hits the road I mean it’s where our staff work, it’s where they take those strategic goals that our board has developed and they implement those,” Dials stated.

She said there is a business board representative that represents each of the areas like the Buffalo Trace area.

Scholarship funds are given out through individual services and Dials stated, “We provide some scholarship assistance to help make sure that people are able to get into the labor force and stay in the labor force in high-demand jobs.”

She said they also provide workshops and information where they can help with applications and do mock interviews.

They do work with recovery and re-entry and expungement clinics to help people get back into the workforce according to Dials.

“Kentucky and especially in our eastern side of Kentucky, the eastern part of Kentucky our labor force participation rate is, is way below 50 percent in a lot of our counties specifically and then as a whole,” Dials stated.

She said around 90 to 95 per cent of services that are provided are free and is the largest free workplace resource for job seekers and employers as well.

“So when a job seeker comes in and needs a workshop there’s no charge for them to come in and do the work shop, if a business comes in and they need help with some recruitment or retention there’s no charge for any businesses to come in using the services that we have,” Dials stated.

Some of the resources that are provided include help with recruitment, placement assistance and workforce data for economic development.

Dials said the workforce website is for the community to use with recruitment for interviews, hiring events and business highlights.

“One of our goals is to have doing a one stop shop type thing where you have a contact uh through our business services coordinator and you participate in a job fair or hiring event you know we, we facilitate we can facilitate the whole thing for you,” Dials stated.

She said there is space in their career centers that can be used for interviews if the space is needed.

Placement assistance is offered where pre-screening, assessment tools are offered including highlighting people that meet requirements Dials explained.

“One of the things that we, that we have in our career centers is we have case managers, this case manager will work with those individuals that are coming into the career center um to make sure that they are job ready,” Dials stated.

Work based learning and on the job training is also offered to help work skills for high demand jobs before the individual starts working for a company.

“We have a work experience program for our youth ages 16 through 24 and we have one going on right now with our summer, for the summer it’s to get some kids interested,” Dials stated.

Economic development for businesses coming to the area and who might need information on labor is offered as well according to Dials.

Dials explained a free federal bond program and stated, “The federal bond is basically a limited liability insurance doesn’t cost you anything goes through the state.”

She said it is a liability insurance for up to $25,000 that protects employers against different topics including theft and forgery. Veteran services are also offered for the veteran population and people at the career center can assist with disabilities too.

Mentoring programs are offered for the youth with work-based learning and Dials stated, “We do a lot of workshops with them getting them prepared for the role of work um and then we also help them with things such as um the um linking them directly to jobs at the end.”

According to Dials the mission for the TENCO workforce development boards is to assist the community and industry leaders along with the economic developers.

“To facilitate positive solutions for workplace issues and to improve that economic well being of the region,” Dials presented.