Madisonville Community College wins workforce development award

Madisonville Community College was awarded with a 2025 Bellwether Award in the Workforce Development category at the Community College Futures Assembly in San Antonio, Texas at the end of February 2025. As the school is now a Bellwether recipient, it has gained membership to the Bellwether College Consortium.

According to an article on Madisonville Community College’s website, Cindy Kelley, the college’s president, was quoted as saying of the award win, "This national recognition affirms the transformative impact of the Lisman Workforce Complex and our commitment to creating meaningful career pathways for our students. By repurposing a former coal site into a hub for workforce development, we are not just honoring our region’s heritage but also preparing our community for a strong and innovative future. This award is a testament to the dedication of our faculty, staff, and community partners who have worked tirelessly to make this vision a reality."

The initiative that won the college its Workforce Development award is its "From Coal to Careers – The Lisman Workforce Complex” initiative, which offers workforce training programs in the Lisman Workforce Complex. The Lisman Workforce Complex is the former Dotiki Mine Portal, which has been repurposed to become an education center. The types of workforce education programs students can participate in at the Lisman Workforce Complex include CDL courses, diesel mechanics, and utility line technology.

The Bellwether Awards are, according to its website, “given annually in three categories to community colleges with outstanding and innovative programs or practices,” with categories including Workforce Development, Planning, Governance and Finance, and Instructional Programs and Services. The awards were established in 1995 and seek to recognize community colleges that feature “cutting-edge, trendsetting programs worthy of replication.”

In addition to Madisonville Community College’s Workforce Development award win, the college also submitted a project in the Instructional Programs and Services category called “Bridging Gaps in Skilled Trades: MCC’s Credential Lattice and Workforce Initiative.” This project did not win, but was a finalist in the category.

For more information about Madisonville Community and Technical College, visit the school’s website.