In south central Kentucky, and across the nation, there’s an increasing demand for truck drivers and medical assistants. A federal program offers paid training in those specialties.
One career advisor has her office wall lined with what she calls "success stories" of people who often arrive in a financial crisis and walk out with a new lease on life.
At her desk in the Kentucky Career Center in Bowling Green, Amy Settles offers a chair to Tim Woodard. He’s about 6'6", neatly dressed, and ready to go to work.
“I just lost my job at Bendix,” Woodard tells Settles.
“I’m sorry,” responds Settles.
Woodard, 59, was laid off from working on the assembly line at the brake manufacturer. He tells Settles he's filed for unemployment, but hasn't gotten his first check yet.
Woodard heard about the training for a commercial driver’s license, or CDL. Settles goes over the requirements for paid training through the federal Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act. She tells Woodard he will probably qualify. She doesn’t waste any time getting the required documents about his layoff. She dials the Bendix number and hands Woodard the phone.
The call begins with the recorded company message, “Thank you for calling Bendix Spicer Foundation Brake.”
Woodard talks with his former supervisor, who speaks with Settles, and the required documents are soon sent by email to the career advisor.
Two weeks later, Woodard is back at the Career Center, with everything ready for him to start the CDL training at South Central Kentucky Community and Technical College.
Woodard says Settles and the rest of the staff made the process go smoothly.
“They’re like family, you know, that’s the main thing,” says Woodard, “Because they care about you and that means a lot.”
Settles says the goal is to help each person get on a career path that’s right for them.
“I do push ‘em a little bit. But sometimes that’s what people need. Someone to just give them push. And to encourage them. Everyone needs their personal cheerleader and that’s what I say, ‘I’m just your personal cheerleader’.”
She says many people who come in have been through hard times.
“I have worked with homeless people. People who need help with recovery from addiction. We help with people on public assistance,” says Settles. “We help with folks who are reentry from prison and jails. But open arms. I don’t judge.”
Stopping by the Career Center one afternoon, Sara Threet, 26, says Settles helped her get into a paid training program at The Medical Institute of Kentucky.
“Amy helped me get all that set up,” says Threet. “And then I also got reimbursed for my mileage and child care.”
Now Threet has a job as a clinical medical assistant at Western Kentucky Heart and Lung.
Amy Settles is part of the Career Team, a workforce services company contracted by the South Central Workforce Development Board that covers 10 counties.
Since July 2018, the Career Team has helped 160 people get into paid training programs. That includes 42 in the clinical medical assistant training at WKU and The Medical Institute of Kentucky. In addition, 10 people were trained in phlebotomy and four as pharmacy technicians through WKU. Also, 104 have been through the CDL training.
One of those is Kellie Sanders, 30, who got a job at Charles DeWeese Construction in Franklin, Kentucky the day after she completed the CDL program.
At 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon, Sanders has parked her truck after a work day that began at 5:30 a.m. Sanders is wearing a yellow neon shirt, with her blond hair in a braid. Before this, she had another career.
“I was working for myself, renting a booth, doing hair. I’m a master cosmetologist,” says Sanders. “It was just too unstable for me. I had to keep two or three jobs just to make ends meet.”
She was $2,000 behind in her rent. A friend told her about the CDL program, so she went to find out about it.
“Amy came out and met me, Amy Settles from the Career Center. So when I talked to Amy I was literally in tears. You could tell she just felt for me. We just sat there and talked,” says Sanders. “I could not have been around a better person. We were meant to meet that day.”
She says Settles made it all happen fast.
“Within a few hours she had me set up and in the class. Everything I needed,” says Sanders. “I got fully funded. I didn’t pay one dollar.”
Soon after she began driving a truck a year ago, Sanders paid the $2,000 she owed for back rent. Then she got a bigger apartment.
Sanders drives a triaxle truck that’s 80,000 pounds when fully loaded.
So how does she like truck driving?
“I love it. I love it. You feel free, you’re just on the road all day. It’s independent."
And on some days, when she’s not behind the wheel of a truck, she sees clients at the hair salon.
