We don’t have a jobs crisis, we have a skills crisis. In fact, a recent study by McKinsey & Company found that 45% of US employers say that lack of skills is the “main reason” for their high numbers of entry-level vacancies.

Recently, some folks right here in Hardin County decided to do something about this problem, and on January 24th, in what Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Jerry Abramson called a one-of-a-kind partnership, Hardin County Schools (HCS), Western Kentucky University (WKU), Central Kentucky Community Foundation (CKCF) and Elizabethtown Community & Technical College (ECTC) announced that, working together, they were going to build an Early College and Career Center for Hardin County Students.

To be constructed on 20 acres adjacent to ECTC and WKU’s Elizabethtown Campus, the center will be convenient for high school students in Hardin County Schools to take courses in several career pathways.  The pathways include, but are not limited to, health science, engineering (the Project Lead the Way curriculum), manufacturing, automotive technology, media arts & communication and culinary arts & hospitality services – The current needs of local business and industry.

The partnership’s “aggressive goal” is to have the new facility open and operating by August of 2014.  That’s going to be a tough deadline to meet, but with way this energized group is collaborating and working together to overcome obstacles, we won’t be surprised at all if they meet it.

And the ‘winners’ will be the students in Hardin County, and a county that will continue to grow and prosper –Thanks to cooperation, innovation and forward thinking!