Colonial Claims & EKCEP Partnership Help Elliott Countian Jesse Pennington Step into New Career

Jesse Pennington was a licensed electrician in Elliott County when the COVID-19 pandemic put a hold on most everything, including his job. It was 2020, and with pandemic protocols in place, Pennington wasn’t able to earn a living in the profession he expected to build a career from.

“I did everything that I should have done in order to be successful and stay in Eastern Kentucky,” Pennington says. “But when COVID hit, it just derailed my profession so that a year later I was still jobless.” 

Fortunately, things would change thanks to what then was a new opportunity for free, online training from Colonial Claims and Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP). And now, in 2023, Pennington is enjoying an entirely different kind of career. 

“I am so glad that I took that opportunity,” Pennington says, “and that I took that step of faith to believe in myself and to believe in this company.” 

Rewind to June 2021. Pennington was unemployed for nearly a year when he came across an ad on social media for a new internship opportunity with Colonial Claims, a nationwide insurance adjusting company. In partnership with EKCEP, the company offered training free of charge that would prepare a cohort of eligible Eastern Kentuckians for careers in the insurance industry. During the course of the 16-week training, EKCEP would issue a weekly $400 stipend to help cover living costs.

This was an opportunity to actually get paid to learn a new line of work, and both the training and subsequent job opportunity could all be done from home, which meant Pennington could begin a new career without having to leave Eastern Kentucky.

“I remember seeing it and I thought, you know, I should maybe give this a shot to get to stay at home and to learn a new career as COVID had derailed my previous career,” he says. 

Pennington applied and worked virtually with the workforce staff at the Kentucky Career Center JobSight in Harlan County to determine his eligibility and complete the necessary paperwork. From there, it wasn’t long before he started the new training as part of an inaugural cohort of Eastern Kentuckians preparing for a new career in the insurance industry.  

While there was a lot to learn, Pennington says the trainers with Colonial Claims presented the material in such a way they even someone like himself who at the time knew little about adjusting insurance claims could learn it quickly and be ready to transition to full-time work. 

“They took a guy that was an electrician that knew absolutely nothing about insurance and turned him into a claims examiner,” he says, adding the trainers worked to help everyone understand the material and what would be expected of them on the job.  

“Even if you are struggling, they’re not going to just let you go,” Pennington says. “They are invested as much in you as you are in them. They want you to succeed.” 

In just four months, Pennington was ready to set out on a new career as an insurance examiner. Fast forward two years, and he is enjoying that career while working from the comfort of his own home in Elliott County. It is a job that he says afforded him opportunities that he would not have had in his previous career, and it is with a company that not only values the work he is putting in but encourages him to advance and learn new things, and provides continuous training.  

“If you're willing to work hard to have something better and get to stay in Eastern Kentucky, this is the perfect opportunity for you,” Pennington says. “There's nowhere else that I know of where a company will do everything they can to make that happen for you. In this world, I can’t think of a fairer trade off.” 

Colonial Claims and EKCEP are currently recruiting a new cohort of trainees. If you’re interested in beginning a new career, apply online at ekcep.org/colonial. Applications will remain open through Saturday, March 4.  

EKCEP, a nonprofit workforce development agency headquartered in Hazard, Ky., serves the citizens of 23 Appalachian coalfield counties. The agency provides an array of workforce development services and operates the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, which provide access to more than a dozen state and federal programs that offer employment and training assistance for job seekers and employers all under one roof. Learn more about us at http://www.ekcep.org or http://www.facebook.com/ekcep.