Gateway Career Center’s Youth Services Help Morgan Countian Nicholas Goodpaster Land First Long-Term Job

Nicholas Goodpaster has lived in Morgan County his entire life and doesn't plan on leaving, so while looking for a new job in 2022 he turned to the Gateway Kentucky Career Center in West Liberty for assistance in finding work close to home. 

Goodpaster learned about the career services available at Gateway through a friend who enrolled in the agency’s youth program for 18- to 24-year-olds and had success landing a local a full-time position. That’s when he also decided to enroll in the youth program and see what assistance may be available for him. 

Nicholas Goodpaster

It turned out that it wouldn’t be long before he was also on a job site and working toward full-time employment.

“I just had a friend, he told me to go to Gateway if I needed a job,” Goodpaster said. “They ran through all the paperwork and called me two weeks later [with a job placement].” 

A partner in the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, Gateway provides Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) services in Morgan and Menifee counties under contract with Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP). Those services include programs for adults, dislocated workers, and youth who may need assistance honing skills such as résumé building or networking with local employers, or who need assistance being retrained or going to school. 

For Goodpaster, expert Gateway Career Advisor Valrey Easterling worked to find a work experience placement locally that could help him get his foot in the door with an employer and prove what he could do on the job. Gateway’s WIOA funding covered Goodpaster’s wages for a limited time, enabling him to gain valuable experience working with the West Liberty Save A Lot’s meat department, where he worked cutting trim on meat products and other duties and generally learning on the job.  

“It was a great experience,” Goodpaster said, adding that he had never trimmed or butchered meat before and it was an entirely new skill he needed to learn from the ground up. “It pretty much took me through, and I learned how to do everything.” 

Goodpaster received an offer for a full-time position at the store once his work experience enrollment with Gateway ended. He accepted just before the new year and has been working there since.  

Goodpaster credits Gateway with not only helping him land a new job, but landing one in such a short amount of time. It’s the first job he has held for more than a few days, he added, but one that he enjoys and can see himself continuing to work well into the future. 

Gateway made the process easy for him, he added. Easterling was able to assist him with obtaining a new ID card, and the staff even made in-person visits when he wasn’t able to come to the office. 

“Whenever I had trouble getting out here to the office, they came out to the house, right to the driveway, and got some of my paperwork like my Social Security card or some of the stuff that I needed to get started,” Goodpaster said. “It made a world of difference.” 

Goodpaster says he is happy to stay where he is and progress at his job, and he’s happy he signed up with Gateway and that Easterling and her staff were able to quickly get him into employment. He said anyone looking for work in Morgan or Menifee County should at least reach out and see if the services at Gateway are right for them, too.  

“One hundred percent, it’s the first place they need to go,” he said. “It’s a great program.” 

If you’re interested in applying for career and employment services at the Gateway Kentucky Career Center JobSight, or just want to learn more, call 1-800-927-1833 or visit jobsight.org.   

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.