The Harlan County Economic Development Authority (EDA) heard an update concerning Harlan County’s state certification as a Work Ready Community in Progress during a meeting on Monday.

Harlan County Economic Development Director Larry Calhoun mentioned the status during his report to the EDA.

“We did get certified that we are a Work Ready Community in Progress county,” Calhoun said.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley explained some of the process for receiving this designation.

“We had our presentation last Tuesday, we’ve been working on this project for about two years,” Mosley said. “Colby Kirk came in over the summer to help complete the process. He did a very nice job.”

Mosley said a 30-minute presentation was given to the state in order to achieve the Work Ready Community in Progress status.

“At the end of the presentation, they voted and we were unanimously approved for Harlan County to be a Work Ready Community in Progress,” Mosley said.

According to Mosley, the designation can positively impact work force development. The goal is for Harlan County to reach the higher status of a Kentucky Work Ready Community.

“Now we will be working toward being an actual certified work ready community,” Mosley said. “There was a lot of intense criteria we had to meet just to get to this level.”

According to the Kentucky Work Ready Communities website at http://workready.ky.gov/About/Default.aspx, Kentucky has the most rigorous certification program in the nation to allow communities to demonstrate their workforce quality. This is an opportunity to differentiate a county and help Kentucky compete to attract jobs now and in the future. The criteria include high school graduation rates, National Career Readiness Certificate holders, community commitment, educational attainment, soft skills development and Internet availability.

Calhoun also provided the authority with a short update on the EDA’s website.

“We scheduled a meeting to make some revisions,” Calhoun said. “It’s up and running, but it’s missing a couple of things like contact button and a drop-down menu.”

Calhoun said the revisions to the website will hopefully be done within the next two weeks.