In a digital and global marketplace, companies aren’t just competing with their neighbors anymore, but also organizations far outside of the region. That leaves businesses looking for ways to set themselves apart from the rest of the pack. One thing that can be a differentiator? A well-trained workforce, says Frank Bennett, Executive Director of The Leadership Center in Paducah.
That’s why he says the organization is teaming up with West Kentucky Community and Technical College’s Workforces Solutions to create a ‘one-stop hub’ for leadership and professional development in the region and to train the next generation of area business leaders.
What is The Leadership Center?
A program of the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce, The Leadership Center started as the brainchild of some community leaders who “really decided to show up on the issue of workforce development”, says Bennett, who became the first executive director of the program about a year and a half ago.
The reason, he says, is twofold: “There’s a few things true about our workforce right now – the first one is that if you go to any version of a Chamber breakfast in any of our communities, you’ll see that there’s a whole lot of leaders in our community that are going to be retired in the next 10 to 15 years.”
The second? While some people move to the region for work, Bennett says it’s not as many as businesses and other groups would like. So, he says, “people who currently work in all of our jobs in the community need to be ready to promote and step into leadership roles as we see current leaders retire and move on.”
The Leadership Center has tried to help fill in demand for professional development opportunities, offering two lines of education. One area focuses on community leadership programs in the McCracken County area like Leadership Paducah, Youth Lead, and Leadership West Kentucky.
On the other side, they offer a number of different professional training sessions focusing on topics like leadership, communication and supervisory skills – which Bennett says is one of the most popular workshops. He says most people become supervisors by necessity.
“One day someone comes in your office and they say, ‘now, in addition to you doing your job – you’re going to manage these four folks’…. The problem is that supervisors are one of the most important roles we have in an organization and the least trained.”
The Leadership Center also consults with businesses on education plans. Most organizations know they need workforce development, Bennett says. The Center creates a customized curriculum just for them, “Basically like you just outsourced your entire education training function to The Leadership Center.”
How the new WKCTC partnership affects local business
WKCTC and their training programs help people and employees to upskill, Bennett says. By partnering together, Bennett says they’re aiming to bring more training options together under one umbrella, to build training solutions in West Kentucky based on The Leadership Center’s training materials and WKCTC’s class offerings.
“[The Leadership Center is] here for a mission and a purpose that is important to Western Kentucky. So is WKCTC. Any way we can… help organizations to evolve, help retain employees at organizations and help individuals achieve their goals without leaving West Kentucky – these are all things that are very important in our area,”Bennett says.
More information about The Leadership Center and its programs can be found on the group’s website.
