LKLP JobSight Helps Former Coal Miner Chase Moore Get Back to Work in New Career as Lineman

Job prospects in Perry Countian Chase Moore’s hometown were so lacking when he entered the job market right out of high school that he didn’t blink an eye when he took a job that he knew wasn’t likely to last.

“I knew I’d get laid off,” Moore says.

Moore, like many in Eastern Kentucky, took an underground coal mining job in 2017 because he knew the pay would be good—despite the job security being nonexistent. After two years working for the same company, the fateful day came in November 2019 when he received his layoff notice. Luckily, though, he had a plan.

“I knew it was going to happen and I knew I was wanting to go through the lineman school whenever I did get laid off, so I just went to the LKLP office there in Hazard and asked about getting into the program,” he explains.

A partner in the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, LKLP Kentucky Career Center JobSight provides Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) services in Leslie, Knott, Letcher, and Perry 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.

“A bunch of friends I had went to high school with had gone through the program and told me about it,” he says.

Perry County native Chase Moore went into the coal industry knowing it wouldn’t be a life-long career—but with the help of LKLP he was able to find his life-long career after a layoff in 2019.

Since Moore had been laid off from a coal mining position, his expert career advisor Christen Huy told him he qualified for the Hiring Our Miners Everyday (HOME) workforce program, which 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 Moore.

“It was a fairly easy process,” Moore remembers about getting signed up for HOME and the lineman and fiber optic program through the Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC).

Going into the LKLP offices, Moore says he knew that his class tuition could be paid for, but had no idea he would also get assistance with his lineman gear and gas to go to and from class once it started in March 2020.

“I couldn’t have done it without LKLP,” he adds.

The normally 13-week class was drawn out a bit more for Moore due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Though he and his classmates were able to complete some of their training online, this delay still pushed his graduation date to the end of July.

Thankfully, this didn’t delay his entrance into the job market.

“I graduated on a Friday and got a job that next Monday,” Moore says, laughing slightly at the ease of finding a job. 

Moore now works as a lineman for Thacker-Grigsby Communications in his hometown area and says he’s enjoying his time with them immensely. He adds that without an organization like LKLP in the region many families would be hurting even more financially.

“It’s good to have a program like this because there’s still people around here who are working underground who are going to get laid off, too, so it’s a good thing to have,” he says. “I’d tell anyone thinking about it to go to LKLP.”

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.