By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Over a dozen Barren County high schoolers received checks from the South Central Workforce Development Board for working and contributing to the overall community workforce.
The $250 checks were presented to the 17 Barren County students on Jan. 6 in the Innovation Zone by Shannon Gottke, youth career coach for Ready, Set, Hire — a youth employment initiative led by the development board. Vice President of Operations and Programs Brian Becker said these 17 were selected because they had met the necessary criteria.
“There were conditions that had to be met,” Becker said. “They had to have been getting paid…in this they were getting both class credit and paycheck money, they were followed, they fulfilled, obviously, all the terms of the school credit and they had to be working so many hours a week. Typically in this program when you work 20 hours or more a week you’re eligible.”
The incentive part of the Ready, Set, Hire program was launched in March 2025, according to Employment Navigator Laura Torres. Becker added that the incentives are given to people “as they’re earned.”
Becker said these incentives were funded by a state allocation.
“We are using the state money to fund positions and to fund this incentive program,” Becker said. “We are a workforce development board — there’s 10 of us in the state. The boards around the state championed for Kentucky General Assembly funds for the first time a couple of years ago…. We’ve never gotten state money before and we said ‘we want to do more to reach youth and increase youth workforce participation.’”
The program is open for anyone ages 16-24 and is designed to provide program members with helpful people and resources during their job search, Torres said. Amounts vary depending on the nature of the job. Additional information is available at the board’s website.
One of the students who received a check was Barren County High School senior Allison Maples. She co-ops with Simply Chic Boutique in Glasgow and plans to go to college for cosmetology. Maples said the program at the district “creates a lot of responsibility.”
“I think [the co-op program] is great and I think it creates a lot of responsibility for kids like me,” she said. “It does feel really good [to get this incentive] and I feel like I’ve put in a lot of work for it, and I’m very thankful. This will most definitely be going towards my schooling.”
Career and Technical Education and Innovation Coordinator for Barren County Schools Justin Browning said the co-op program has roughly 200 students enrolled.
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