On Saturday, July 15th, the Institute for Workplace Skills & Innovation (IWSI) was thrilled to attend the Construction Job and Apprenticeship Fair, an event organized by Carson's Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes and South Bay Investment Development Board. The fair presented an exceptional opportunity to promote two of our groundbreaking projects: the Career Launchpad (CLP) and the Ready, Willing, and Able (RWA) initiative.

For more than 40 years, teen courts across the 50 states have proven their success at letting high school students — serving as lawyers, jurors, bailiffs and judges — determine the real-life sentences of alleged juvenile offenders who are their peers. Having created several teen courts in Kentucky, I know that such programs doubled as a pre-law apprenticeship for high school students, while also aiming to divert juvenile offenders from incarceration.

Late in 2018, a diverse group of companies, community and educators met to cement a partnership that would bring high-quality career pathways — apprenticeships — to southeastern Kentucky’s Appalachian region. The Kentucky Advanced Technical College High, which was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, combined technical instruction with paid, on-the-job training under a skilled mentor. The goal was to help students in the region move smoothly from high school to postsecondary education and employment.