KCTCS president travels to Hazard, holds listening tour

HAZARD, Ky. (WYMT) - The Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) president is on a 16-campus tour across the state to visit various schools.

On Tuesday, Dr. Paul Czarapata stopped in Hazard on his “I’m All EARS” listening tour, which stands for equitable, agile, responsive and streamlined.

President and CEO of Hazard Community and Technical College, Dr. Jennifer Lindon said system leaders are working on planning strategic visions for 2022-2026. She said Dr. Czarapata wanted to listen to faculty, staff and the community for ideas and opinions about the future direction of Kentucky schools.

“We always want to make sure that we are serving our local community, that we are offering the programs that they want to see,” said Lindon. “And that we are offering programs that will help our local business and industry leaders and help grow our workforce.”

Dr. Czarapata added he is working on workforce education and training along with diversity and inclusion.

“People can’t find workers, they’re not finding people who will show up,” said Czarapata. “The people who do show up, you know, are not showing up again the next day, so there’s a lot of frustration there.”

One concern he is hearing at many of his stops is the lack of nurses and people who can teach nursing classes.

“We’ve got a huge pipeline to fill, so that means we got to start working on that pipeline, and part of that is just attracting the facility to teach it,” he said. “You know, we got limits on how many students can go to each facility member.”

You can learn more about HCTC here.

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