The Delta Regional Authority has awarded $509,000 to the West Kentucky Workforce Board to expand “high-demand workforce training opportunities,” DRA recently announced.
Based in Hopkinsville at the Pennyrile Area Development District headquarters on Hammond Drive, the West Kentucky Workforce Board serves 17 counties in the Pennyrile and Purchase regions and acts “as a liaison between employers in the business, industry and public sector and individuals.” It also governs the local Kentucky Career Centers that serve the 17 counties.
DRA, a federal-state partnership created by Congress in 2000 to promote economic development in the Mississippi Delta region, works with public agencies by investing in projects that support “transportation infrastructure, basic public infrastructure, workforce training, and business development.” It also helps promote development in economically distressed communities.
Earlier this year, the authority awarded more than $250,000 to Hopkinsville Community College to expand training through the college’s electrical, construction and air conditioning technology programs.
The purpose of the new grant to the West Kentucky Workforce Board is to offer “credentialing, work-based learning, on-the-job training, pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship opportunities that connect untapped talent to sustainable careers, strengthening the workforce talent pipeline, meeting employer demand, reducing outmigration and creating inclusive growth.”
