Big Sandy KCC JobSight Puts Former Miner Aaron Akers Back to Work as Lineman with Hiring Our Miners Everyday (HOME) Program
Aaron Akers worked in the coal mines the majority of his working life—that is until a layoff pushed him to pursue lineman training through the Big Sandy Area Kentucky Career Center JobSight.
Like many Eastern Kentuckians, coal mining had been Pike County native Aaron Akers’ main source of income since he entered the workforce straight out of high school.
“Since high school, I went underground to work, and I’ve been laid off several times, hours cut back, insurance cut, having a hard time getting paydays,” Akers explains.
Akers sits in his own home in Elkhorn City during a socially distanced phone interview. Though he no longer relies on the unpredictable coal industry to support his family, he says he still had to make the hard decision to take a job eight hours away in Maryland earlier this year. Even if the distance is less than ideal, Akers says if he could have, he would have made the same career change that led him to Maryland a whole lot sooner.
The catalyst for that change came from a trip to his local Big Sandy Area Kentucky Career Center JobSight after a layoff in January 2020 was the last straw for Akers.
A partner in the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, Big Sandy Area Kentucky Career Center JobSight provides Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) services in Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin, Martin, and Pike counties under contract with the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP). Those services include programs for adults, dislocated workers, and for in-school and out-of-school 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.
“I got laid off twice in January,” Akers remembers. “That last time, I told the wife something’s got to give, I’ve got to find something different and I’ve got to get out of the coal industry.”
During a chat with a friend that same month, Akers learned that his local JobSight was offering retraining for laid-off coal miners for various industries. The Hiring Our Miners Everyday (HOME) workforce program provides intensive career advising and opportunities for former miners and their spouses to train for new careers or prepare for new job opportunities. HOME is funded by a National Emergency Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, and covers the costs of the retraining and employment services to laid-off miners like Akers.
“I just went in and talked to them (at the JobSight). There were a couple of different programs, CDL, welding, but I was interested in the lineman program,” he says. “It’s something I’ve always been interested in. I like being outside and I like physical labor, I like working with my hands and it’s something I’ve always been interested in but just never really had the opportunity to do it.”
Akers explains he had actually looked into a lineman school in Georgia, however, with a cost of $15,000, not including gear, and no way to keep his job at the time if he went, he decided to put that dream on the back burner.
Speaking with an expert career advisor at his local JobSight, Akers was quickly able to enroll in the March 2020 lineman class at Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC). His advisor did all the legwork for him, with Akers only needing to fill out some paperwork and take a quick assessment at the college.
“It was no stress on me,” he says. “It was an easy, easy process.”
“I completely urge anybody that wants to get out of the coal industry to come and talk to (someone at their JobSight).”
A few short weeks into the class, the current COVID-19 pandemic hit the region hard, causing a temporary shutdown of Akers’ class.
“Someone made the comment, ‘can’t stay at work and now we can’t even go to school,’” he says, now able to laugh at the predicament.
Akers and his classmates had to go home, but were able to complete much of the class online from their homes, so the class was more or less able to be completed on time.
“We actually even got some credit hours credited for that college program that would count in the future if we ever decided to go back for anything else,” Akers adds.
Not only did he receive college credit and had his tuition paid for thanks to HOME, but his expert career advisor was able to help him pay for his climbing boots, climbing gear, hand tools, and anything else he needed for the class—including gas to help him on the hour-long drive to and from HCTC each day.
“I couldn’t thank anybody enough for that, that was really awesome because that stuff is very expensive,” he says. “I wouldn’t have been able to financially do it otherwise.”
By August 2020, Akers had graduated and was waiting to hear back from multiple employers about applications he had sent in. At the time, many companies still had hiring freezes in place, but that didn’t stop him from keeping the faith and waiting for a call to come in.
That call came in September for an apprentice lineman position with Utility Lines Construction Services in Maryland—eight hours away from his home in Elkhorn City.
“The regional manager is the guy who hired me, and he said at least four years (with the company) and then they will hand me a certificate for a certified electrical journeyman lineman, and that means I can work anywhere in the country for anybody I want to,” Akers says. “There’s always, always, always jobs out there for a journeyman lineman.”
Akers says he feels beyond positive for his career future as a lineman compared to the rocky possibilities while he was a coal miner. His paychecks have definitely improved, he adds, explaining that the longer he is with the company the more they will improve, too, with raises and pay increases.
In the meantime, he and his family make their new schedule work as best they can with family trips on some weekends to Maryland, and Akers coming home when he has shorter work weeks.
“I’ve been given a chance to prove myself so I’m going to try to ride it out as long as I can and hopefully. . . I will be able to come back closer to the house and work,” he says.
Since going through the lineman program and working with his local Kentucky Career Center JobSight, Akers has recommended the program to a number of friends who have been laid off this year, saying the staff will do all they can to help.
“If I get to talk to a high school kid that’s not interested in school, I tell them do not get into the coal industry. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t have,” Akers says.
“I completely urge anybody that wants to get out of the coal industry to come and talk to (someone at their JobSight),” he adds.
Akers, pictured left, was able to turn his career future around with the help of his local KCC JobSight and the HOME program.
To learn more about the career and employment services at your local Kentucky Career Center JobSight, 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 jobseekers and employers all under one roof. Learn more about us at http://www.ekcep.org, http://www.jobsight.org and http://www.facebook.com/ekcep.
