KCTCS celebrates Manufacturing Month with more grads, TRAINS funding to directly support industry sector

Published on Oct 22, 2024

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System is celebrating Manufacturing Month during October in recognition of students, alumni, faculty, and the many business partners contributing to the state’s manufacturing growth.

As one of Kentucky’s five targeted industry sectors, advanced manufacturing is growing in popularity at KCTCS whose graduates are helping provide the skilled talent vital to the workforce that powers the rapidly growing sector.

Across the system last year, the colleges graduated more than twice as many advanced manufacturing graduates than they did in 2016-2017. Since that time, nearly 16,000 students have earned advanced manufacturing credentials and degrees.

“As one of our state’s key industry sectors, advanced manufacturing is a rapidly growing employer in Kentucky,” said KCTCS President Ryan Quarles.

“Providing an educated workforce to our state’s key industries is a priority for KCTCS, and we regularly review our academic programs to ensure we’re preparing our students in alignment with the industry’s needs,” he added.

Last year, the top three programs in the sector were welding technology with 1,942 graduates, followed by industrial maintenance technology with 937 graduates, and engineering and electronics technology with 350 graduates.

Students graduating from the 10 programs aligned to this sector are predominately male, but females are making up a larger proportion of these graduates each year.

In addition to educating the future manufacturing workforce, KCTCS’ Workforce Solutions prioritizes state needs by investing in manufacturing companies through the state-funded TRAINS program. Last year, the system invested $3.7 million in 156 manufacturing companies and provided customized solutions to 247 companies.

TRAINS has been shown to offset the cost of training for companies by up to 75%.

According to a news release issued by Gov. Andy Beshear’s office, the average incentivized hourly wage the past two years topped $26 in consecutive years for the first time.

KCTCS is the largest provider of workforce education and training in the state. To learn more about advanced manufacturing and other programs, visit the KCTCS program finder.