Kentucky workshop preps teachers about the aggregate industry

Where will the next generation of your aggregate operation’s employees come from?

It’s a question a number of quarry owners and operators are asking themselves these days, as key veterans move into retirement and create holes in positions vital to the success of their construction materials business.

The answers to that question are probably endless. But a good example of the aggregate industry making preparations for the future workforce is taking place in the state of Kentucky.

There, the Kentucky Crushed Stone Association (KCSA) recently collaborated with the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) to redesign a workshop for teachers that was canceled in 2016 due to a lack of interest after nine years running.

“We reached out to the department of education to really help us market this program and make sure this program matched the Kentucky standards,” says Nick Rodgers, executive director of KCSA, in an article that appears in Kentucky Teacher, a KDE publication. “They analyzed our program and made sure teachers are getting value out of the program.”

The free two-day workshop afforded teachers the chance to tour Harrod Concrete and Stone Co. in Frankfort, Kentucky, an opportunity from which they could design lesson plans to educate students. In addition, a Kentucky Geological Survey representative educated teachers about the state’s geology.

“I got an understanding of how integral all these components are to daily life, and I can use that to teach my students that this is real, everyday life. It’s not just something that’s in a classroom on a standard,” says Retta Wilhite, a sixth-grade teacher at Bourbon County Middle School.

Learn more about the workshop by reading the full article in Kentucky Teacher.