Here's a tip of the hat to Ephraim McDowell Health and Inter-County Energy executives for doing some serious thinking about the economic future of our area.
Clark Taylor, CEO of the health-care organization, and Jim Jacobus, president of the rural electric co-op, are looking at ways to build on Danville's already substantial reputation as a center for quality health care.
One of the things they are looking at is a way to interest more local young people in health-care careers and providing them with the training locally that they need to pursue those careers. That's a great way to motivate local students and to keep local young people in the community as well as providing a ready supply of workers for a growing health-care industry.
Educators in areas such as eastern Kentucky where the supply of jobs is low often speak of the difficulty of motivating students to work hard in school when they can see no hope of getting a job when they get out of school. That's why it's important in our community to introduce young people, as Taylor has suggested, as early as elementary school and middle school to the possibilities offered by the health-care field.
