On-the-Job Training Program Supports Corbin Native Wesley Steele in New Career with Drake Lighting

Wesley Steele has a job with a view. 

“It’s awesome,” Steele says, his cell signal momentarily going in and out. He’s on the other end of a telephone conversation while on the way to a job in Knott County. “I love it.” 

Wesley Steele on the job as a tower technician for Drake Lighting.

Steele, a native of Corbin, Ky., is a tower technician for Drake Lighting, and it’s a job that is exactly what it sounds like. He scales communications towers and helps maintain the lighting each structure is required to include to ensure visibility for aircraft. It’s a career that is quite different from his previous job as a factory worker, and one that he was able to succeed at with help from an On-the-Job Training (OJT) program administered by Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP). 

Steele says he first heard about his job by word of mouth and did not realize then how much he was going to like what he does now for a living, specifically climbing the towers and the view he is afforded from heights that can reach several stories high. 

“I was looking for a job,” Steels says, noting that he had been previously working in factories for the better part of a decade. “I didn’t know I would find a job like this, which is pretty cool.” 

Once Steele applied and was hired as a tower technician, EKCEP partnered with Drake Lighting to support his position with an OJT contract that for a time covered part of his salary to help compensate for the costs associated with Steele building his skillset while acclimating to the new job. Some of the training during that transition included CPR classes and safety protocols meant to ensure he could work safely on the job site.

Now, in summer of 2022, Steele says he viewed his decision to apply for work with Drake as a progression of his professional life rather than a simple change of employment. He was looking not only for something new, but more long-term. 

“A career choice is what I was thinking,” he says. “I’ve been working factories since I was 18.” 

Steele says his transition to tower maintenance was made easier thanks to good trainers, and his day-to-day provides a lot of variety for him, from the different tasks that can include the use of drones to inspect equipment to physically climbing, and he’s also traveling a bit. That’s all part of the job for him now, and it’s a career he hopes to retire from. 

“For sure, yes,” he says. “I don’t want to do anything else.” 

EKCEP’s OJT program is open to employers in a number of industry sectors, including healthcare, manufacturing, and information technology among others. The program helps provide hands-on training to assist new employees as they get up to speed, and also takes into account feedback from employers.

To learn more about the program, visit ekcep.org/services. Employers can apply directly online at ekcep.org/ojt-form.

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.