Coalfield Development trains unemployed people in modern workforce skills. Throughout the year, we facilitate dozens of learning opportunities for community members. Our network of employers ensures our training is relevant to their needs. This way, graduates of our training can quickly find gainful employment and our local businesses can have an effective workforce with which to grow. Our most in depth opportunity is for the personal and academic development of our crew members who staff our social enterprises. Crew members work our 33-6-3 model. Each week, crew members complete 33 hours of paid work, 6 credit hours of higher education, and 3 hours of personal development mentorship. At the end of their 2.5 year contract, crew members earn an Associates Degree and gain traction on life goals.
Formerly unemployed (especially laid-off coalminers) and underemployed people are hired on to work-crews that staff Coalfield Development’s social enterprises. These work-crews support a variety of projects that create assets for local residents, communities and businesses. By offering positions in the industries of real estate development, solar energy, sustainable construction, mine-land reclamation, wood working, agriculture, and artisan trades, we are working to promote a diversified economy in counties where, for a considerable time, coal was a singular way to make an honest living.
As a result, the entrepreneurs pioneering them, the crew members working within them, and the region hosting them can develop toward full potential. To learn about upcoming and current employment opportunities check out our Job Board.
The thematic matrix provides a snapshot of Professional and Personal themes and serves as a visual reference crew members can revisit when they want to see how the Professional and Personal themes relate to each other. Crew members participate in and reflect on group activities completed each month with their crew and leadership members. These activities facilitate the individual and team skills that can help you excel in the modern work world.
Opportunity, willpower, and spirit are necessary to ending generational poverty. Real opportunities and lasting change cannot be simply provided; they are patiently cultivated. To achieve this, we simultaneously create new markets and the trained workforce to employ those markets. The main hook of our job training programs is that the work is paid, putting real wages in pockets. We insist on higher education because we value life-long learning. Measured mentorship represents the professional learning environment where we provide accountability and personal growth opportunities. In this way, we learn new skills by doing them on-the-job, as real employees of real businesses. We are not preparing people for the real world; we do business in the real world.
In addition to mentoring crew members, each enterprise hosts professional training and certification opportunities which are often open to the public, enabling hundreds to advance their individual career goals. Learn how Coalfield Development is working to help communities make a more diversified economy and how you can get involved. Visit our Training and Events page to learn more.
Certain information is necessary for your involvement with Coalfield Development and its social enterprises whether you are seeking employment or would like to volunteer. Please consult with a member of Coalfield Development to see what forms are applicable to you.
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Rebuilding the Appalachian economy from the ground up. We believe in developing the potential of Appalachia through the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit.