Workforce-pipeline broker replicating the Paducah Innovation Hub and Baptist Health Clinical Career Development Program captive-pipeline architecture for the next 5–10 named McCracken employers.

The operational proof (model already works in McCracken): Paducah Innovation Hub at 500 S. 25th St., Paducah; $26.4M / 122,794 sf; opened August 2020; architect JRA Architects (Jackson + Ryan); GC Ray Black & Son; Principal Steve Ybarzabal verified at 270-443-6592; co-locates PIS Board of Education offices; KSBA Policy Subscriber distid 103.

Baptist Health Clinical Career Development Program (CCDP) launched February 2025. Single-employer captive-pipeline pattern: high-school health-sciences pathway at Innovation Hub → enroll at WKCTC / Madisonville Community College / Murray State University → Baptist Health Paducah employs during college enrollment → full-time hire post-graduation. Target programs: Nursing, Surgical Technology, Radiography, Sonography, Respiratory Care, Medical Laboratory Science. Partner school list: PIS + St. Mary HS (parochial) + Community Christian Academy + area homeschools — MCPS is NOT in the formal partner list (structurally significant; baptisthealth.com + paducahsun.com + lanereport.com).

WKCTC backbone: Fall 2025 enrollment 5,384 (~20% dual-credit / ~1,077 dual-credit students); ~$46M federal-Ed grant base; $1.5M KY Nuclear Energy Development Authority grant; $1.9M WKEC NEEW allocation.

MCPS gap = open territory: MCHS countywide enrollment is ~2.5× total PIS HS enrollment (MCHS ~1,800-2,000 versus Tilghman ~870). MCHS is pursuing an EDA-grant-conditional ~$24-25M dedicated CTE Center via Purchase Area Development District (PADD) lead applicant; PIS + Ballard + Marshall co-applicants. If awarded, MCHS becomes the second McCracken CTE physical plant — and a second captive-pipeline anchor surface.

Addressable employer set (10-15 large employers each needing 50-500-FTE pipelines through 2030): Mercy Health Lourdes (nursing + allied-health pipeline; not served by Baptist CCDP — the duopoly competitor); six inland-marine HQs (Marquette / Crounse / Western Rivers / James Marine / Excell / Hines Furlong — deck/mariner + welder/fitter + USCG STCW credentials; no formal HS→credential pipeline today); DOE PGDP cleanup primes (FRNP + MCSA + Swift & Staley — radiological-worker + craft + admin pipeline through 2030+); GLE + General Matter (laser-enrichment + commercial enrichment activity ramping construction + ops workforce); industrial manufacturers (Drake Lighting + Shapes Unlimited + Calvert City fabricators).

Calvert City chemical-corridor (Marshall County, ~30-min commute from Paducah; wage-pull on McCracken labor): Arkema $60M Forane refrigerant capex (August 2025); Wacker $60M; ISP/Ashland $70M electrification. These projects wage-pull McCracken labor and force Paducah employers to compete harder.

The brokering gap: GPED's scope is recruitment + retention; curriculum-coordination, apprenticeship sponsorship, and grant administration are the open broker function. WKCTC's Workforce Solutions runs employer-paid training but is a first-party provider, not a multi-employer broker. KCTCS-TRAINS facilitates training-grant disbursement but isn't a curriculum architect. No entity in McCracken currently brokers the HS-curriculum + community-college articulation + employer contract + apprenticeship sponsor + grant administration stack across multiple employers. That gap is the founder lane.

Greenfield startup $100K-$300K — office (sub-1,500 sf Paducah CBD or Innovation Hub-adjacent), 1 founder + 1 program manager Y1, apprenticeship-tracking SaaS (Apprenti / Avilar / RegisteredApprentice.gov tooling), DOL OA sponsor application + bond, KCTCS / KEDFA / BSSC vendor registrations, professional liability + E&O — Errors and Omissions — insurance, $30-60K marketing + travel.

Y3+ steady-state revenue stack (8-12 employer retainers; mature DOL RAP sponsor book; active grant-admin): Employer retainers 8-12 × $60-120K annual curriculum-coordination retainer = $480K-$1.4M. DOL RAP sponsor fees 80-200 active registered apprentices × $1,500-$3,000 annual sponsor fee = $120K-$600K. Grant-administration success fees at typical 8-12% admin cap on $2-5M annual passed-through grant dollars = $160K-$600K. Curriculum-development project contracts 3-6 × $25-60K = $75K-$360K.

Y3+ aggregate revenue: $835K-$2.96M. Y3+ owner take-home (30-45% margin on $1.5M-$2.5M mid-case): $200K-$500K. Competitive with C1 healthcare-finishes Tier-2 at substantially lower capital intensity and substantially lower cyclical risk.

Y1: $250-500K (one anchor client + 1-2 grant-admin retainers). Y2: $750K-$1.5M (3-5 employer retainers + active DOL RAP sponsor fees).

Y1 minimum to pencil 7(a): 3 signed multi-year employer retainers totaling $180K+ ARR before SBA submission. Without the 3-LOI floor, defaults to fee-for-service consultancy outside SBA 7(a) scope.

• Paducah Innovation Hub (PIS-anchored; Principal Steve Ybarzabal verified)

  K-12 CTE plant

  Institution

  $26.4M / 122,794 sf; opened Aug 2020; JRA Architects + Ray Black & Son GC.
• Baptist Health CCDP

  Single-employer captive-pipeline (operational proof)

  Institution

  Launched Feb 2025; PIS + St. Mary HS + Community Christian Academy + homeschools partners; MCPS NOT in formal partner list.
• WKCTC Workforce Solutions + KCTCS-TRAINS

  First-party workforce-training provider

  Institution

  5,384 Fall 2025; $1.5M KNEDA + $1.9M WKEC NEEW; KCTCS-TRAINS FY23 $561,786.
• Mercy Health Lourdes + 6 inland-marine HQs + DOE cleanup primes + GLE + General Matter + Drake Lighting + Shapes Unlimited

  Addressable employer set (50-500-FTE pipelines through 2030)

  Active in market
• Greater Paducah Economic Development (GPED) Workforce Committee

  Recruitment/retention (gap = no curriculum/apprenticeship/grant-admin broker)

  Institution
• Purchase Area Development District (PADD)

  EDA-grant lead applicant

  Institution

  4-district federal grant pursuit ($50M regional ask / $24-25M MCPS portion).
• US DOL Office of Apprenticeship Atlanta Region + KY Apprenticeship Office

  DOL RAP intermediary-sponsor credential

  Out-of-county

Greenfield consultancy or boutique-acquisition (no incumbent broker to acquire; closest adjacent is a workforce-development consultant rolling into McCracken from another KY region). Founder archetypes: (a) workforce-development consultant — former KY Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, KCTCS Workforce Solutions, or Kentucky Career Center staff; (b) former HR director — manufacturing or healthcare (Mercy Lourdes / Baptist Health / Drake Lighting / FRNP-class alumni); (c) former K-12 CTE administrator — PIS or MCPS director-of-CTE alumni route.

Avoids: pure-policy consultant without employer-side credibility; out-of-state national workforce-solutions firm (loses relationship-density with PIS + MCPS + WKCTC + employer base); founder who cannot operate across the PIS-MCPS political divide (3-2 PIS Shively-renewal vote on record; broker must navigate Hunt + Bowland at MCPS AND Shively + Ybarzabal + Will Black + LeBuhn at PIS).

Anchor-client commitment at launch: 3-4 named employer retainers committed at Y1. Lead with NON-Baptist verticals (inland-marine + DOE cleanup + Calvert-City-spillover-affected manufacturers + Mercy Lourdes) where Baptist CCDP cannot expand without competitive friction. Calvert-City-coupling literacy is the pitch: defensive pipeline supply against Marshall County chemical-corridor wage-pull is the McCracken-resident value, not Marshall-County offensive sale.

• — Specific Baptist Clinical Career Development Program coordinator name — reachable through Baptist Health Paducah HR at 270-575-2100 ext. 2727.
• — Specific WKCTC Workforce Solutions director.
• — Specific Bluegrass State Skills Corporation contact for the Paducah trade area.
• — EDA grant award decision date for the four-district $50 million regional ask and the $24–25 million MCPS portion, with PADD as lead applicant.
• — MCPS-student-access policy to Baptist CCDP: whether the program is formally PIS-only or open to MCHS students by application.
• — Specific DOL Office of Apprenticeship Kentucky-resident intermediary-sponsor count today.
• — Specific GLE and General Matter ramp tempo through 2027–2034: construction starts 2026–2027, operations 2028–2034, with per-year FTE growth not in hand.

Tonight, this week, this month — in that order. Each step produces a yes/no or a number, not a deeper understanding.