Kentucky Power Awards $100,000 Grant to eKAMI in Paintsville

KENTUCKY POWER EXTERNAL Affairs Manager, Amanda Clark presented the check to eKAMI Founder and CEO, Kathy Walker at eKAMI in Paintsville.

By Lilly Adkins

BSN Associate Editor

PAINTSVILLE —Kentucky Power issued a release announcing that they recently awarded a $100,000 grant to the Haas eKentucky Advanced Manufacturing Institute (eKAMI) in Paintsville, which they said will enable the purchase of stat-of-the-art computer software required to conduct training for eKAMI students.

The school is a high-tech manufacturing school that provides programming to train students in HAAS computer numerical control (CNC) machines and robotics in just a few months, the release said and graduating students earn national certifications from the National Institute of Metalworking Skills, Haas and READY Robotics.

Ekami’s founder and CEO, Kathy Walker said in the release that eKAMI’s mission is to reskill a targeted existing workforce in Appalachia, mostly skilled but unemployed and those previously employed in the coal industry. She also said they also hope to attract new industry to eastern Kentucky.

“It’s a dynamic industry that changes daily,” Walker said in the release. “Kentucky Power is a valuable partner because the company’s leadership understands this and the fact that the entire nation is experiencing a shortage of highly skilled workers. To compete and advance, we need to have a workforce trained to meet the demands of 21st-century high-tech skills.”

The computer software needed to teach such skills is not your basic laptop; the manufacturing industry’s choice Mastercam software requires hard drive components that far exceed the capabilities of most personal computers. The K-PEGG grant will allow for the purchase of 40 new computers which will provide years of training for future classes of eKAMI students.

External Affairs Manager, Amanda Clark said in the release that any investment made in eKAMI provides a long-term benefit for Kentucky.