A Hazard-resident workforce-credential broker stitching HCTC Continuing Education and Workforce Solutions sub-contracts to the Challenger Learning Center of Kentucky NASA-STEM partnership and to the Perry County Schools and Hazard Independent School District post-flood career-and-technical-education equipment-installation bench.

HCTC Continuing Education and Workforce Solutions runs a continuous post-flood-rebuild trades and clinical-pipeline credentialing pulse. The roughly 4,000-student five-campus KCTCS two-year college, with $30.0 million across 23 Department of Education awards in the three-year window, runs continuous procurement across HEERF closeout, Pell Title IV pass-through, Strengthening Institutions Program Title III-A, AEFLA WIOA Title II Kentucky River region sub-recipient delivery, Carl Perkins V state-formula grant flow-through, Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration registered-apprenticeship related-instruction, GEAR UP partnership programming, and Appalachian Regional Commission POWER and POWER+ workforce-training delivery. The CEWS sub-budget is roughly $300,000 to $900,000 annually. It is the principal vendor surface for post-flood-rebuild trades credentialing (EPA Renovation, Repair, and Painting under 40 CFR 745 Subpart E for lead-based-paint renovation in pre-1978 housing; Davis-Bacon prevailing-wage compliance; OSHA 10 and 30 General Industry and Construction; NCCER Core and Craft for residential and commercial rebuild crews; AWS SENSE welding for structural-steel and storefront repair). It also delivers clinical-pipeline credentialing (Associate Degree Nursing clinical-rotation coordination at ARH Hazard, EKVC, and KMHA; CNA and LPN testing administration; BLS, ACLS, PALS, and NRP refresh; phlebotomy and EKG technician testing) and EKVC long-term-care pipeline credentialing.

CLCK NASA-STEM partnership and simulator-equipment-maintenance demand. The Challenger Learning Center hosts roughly 8,000 to 15,000 student-mission participants annually on a $200,000 to $600,000 operating budget. It runs continuous procurement across NASA Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) grant administration, partner-institution sub-agreement administration with PCS, HISD, HCTC, and adjacent-district K-12, and simulator-equipment maintenance on standard 7-to-10-year refresh cycles. The September 2020 $800,000 Hal Rogers federal-grant cycle is the most recent refresh anchor; the next refresh window queues to 2027-2030. The center also runs STEM-curriculum development and teacher-professional-development partnership programming with PCS, HISD, and adjacent-district teachers, plus HOSA, Technology Student Association, Future Business Leaders of America, and 4-H chapter coordination, and higher-education-pipeline partnerships with HCTC Computer Information Systems, Industrial Maintenance Technology, and Allied Health, plus the University of Pikeville, Morehead State, the University of Kentucky, and Eastern Kentucky University. The CLCK vendor surface is roughly $80,000 to $250,000 annually.

PCS plus HISD same-address dual-district post-flood facility-recovery sub-trade. Two distinct K-12 procurement entities at 315 Park Avenue with combined enrollment of roughly 4,300 to 4,600 students, plus the Perry County Area Technology Center (PCATC), generate continuous procurement across CTE-pathway equipment refresh under Perkins V, dual-credit articulation with HCTC, Work-Based Learning placements at ARH Hazard, EKVC, the Perry County Fiscal Court, the City of Hazard, and regional employers, and industry-recognized credential testing (NIMS, AWS SENSE, NCCER, OSHA 10 and 30, CompTIA, Microsoft Office Specialist, KDE CTE end-of-program assessments, and HOSA). Buckhorn Elementary and Robinson Elementary, severely damaged in 2022, drive a multi-year facility-rebuild capex window through 2026-2030 with CTE-classroom and laboratory equipment-installation sub-trade as the vendor lane — welding-booth installation, diesel and heavy-equipment-lift installation, industrial-controls-simulator purchase and installation, CNC-machining-lab installation, healthcare-simulation mannequin and VR installation, IT-server-rack and network-lab installation, and CTE-classroom modular furniture and casework.

ARC POWER+ context, not a direct sub-recipient lane. The banker auto-decline on standalone ARC POWER+ sub-recipient status (federal-grant cyclicality and project-cliff risk) is honored. The candidate operates as a broker working with ARC POWER+ context — sub-contracting from HCTC, the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky (FAK), KRADD, and LKLP Community Action Council prime-award holders. It delivers credential throughput inside the post-flood-recovery training window without taking on the federal sub-recipient regulatory burden directly.

Bundle logic and sizing. The broker runs four modes interleaved: HCTC CEWS sub-contracted credential-cohort delivery against the post-flood-rebuild trades, clinical-pipeline, and EKVC long-term-care credential matrix; the CLCK NASA-STEM curriculum and simulator-maintenance partnership; the PCS, HISD, and PCATC dual-K-12 post-flood facility-recovery sub-trade; and ARC POWER+ pass-through cohort delivery. HCTC CEWS post-flood-trades and clinical-pipeline work runs $60,000 to $220,000 founder-share. CLCK NASA-STEM curriculum and simulator-maintenance runs $30,000 to $120,000. PCS, HISD, and PCATC dual-K-12 CTE-installation runs $80,000 to $280,000. ARC POWER+ pass-through cohort delivery runs $40,000 to $160,000. AEFLA contextualized industrial-skills delivery at HCTC and employer sites runs $20,000 to $80,000. Working sizing through 2030: $200,000 to $600,000 annual revenue base at maturity in years 3 to 5.

Per-engagement scope. HCTC CEWS custom-cohort delivery for post-flood-rebuild-trades cohorts (EPA RRP, OSHA 10 and 30, NCCER Core, AWS SENSE) runs $250 to $600 per seat in 8-to-16-seat cohorts at 8-to-16 cohorts per year at maturity, netting $2,000 to $10,000 per cohort to the broker. Clinical-pipeline cohorts (CNA, LPN-bridge, BLS, ACLS, PALS, NRP refresh) run $180 to $450 per seat in 6-to-14-seat cohorts at 6-to-12 cohorts per year. CLCK NASA-STEM partnership engagements run $4,000 to $18,000 per curriculum-development or teacher-professional-development workshop at 4-to-8 engagements per year. Simulator-equipment maintenance and refresh-installation sub-coordination runs $8,000 to $40,000 per refresh-cycle engagement at 1-to-2 engagements per year on the 7-to-10-year cycle, concentrated in the 2027-2030 next refresh window. PCS, HISD, and PCATC post-flood CTE-equipment-installation engagements (welding booth, diesel lift, IT-server-rack and network lab, healthcare-simulation mannequin and VR) run $25,000 to $120,000 per facility-installation at 3-to-6 engagements per year during the 2026-2030 facility-recovery window. CTE-classroom modular furniture and casework runs $8,000 to $45,000 per classroom at 4-to-10 classrooms per year. ARC POWER+ pass-through cohort delivery runs $35,000 to $120,000 per cohort at 2-to-4 cohorts per year. AEFLA contextualized industrial-skills cohort delivery at HCTC and employer sites runs $18,000 to $55,000 per cohort at 1-to-3 cohorts per year. DOL ETA Registered Apprenticeship program-design consulting runs $12,000 to $35,000 per occupation per sponsor at 2-to-5 engagements per year.

Year 1: founder solo or founder plus one part-time instructor. Three to six HCTC CEWS cohorts, one or two CLCK engagements, and one or two PCS or HISD CTE-installation engagements. Revenue base $60,000 to $140,000. Founder take-home $40,000 to $80,000. Founder runs 1,300 to 1,700 billable hours at a $55-to-$95 blended hourly rate.

Year 2: founder plus one or two part-time staff. Eight to fourteen HCTC CEWS cohorts, three to five CLCK engagements, three to five PCS, HISD, or PCATC CTE-installation engagements, one or two ARC POWER+ pass-through cohorts, and one or two AEFLA cohorts. Revenue base $130,000 to $300,000. Founder take-home $70,000 to $120,000.

Year 3 onward: founder plus two or three staff (one or two instructors, one installer, and a part-time bookkeeper). Fourteen to twenty-two HCTC CEWS cohorts, five to eight CLCK engagements, six to twelve PCS, HISD, or PCATC CTE-installation engagements, two to four ARC POWER+ pass-through cohorts, two or three AEFLA cohorts, and three to five DOL ETA Apprenticeship program-design engagements. Revenue base $200,000 to $450,000. Sustained founder take-home $120,000 to $180,000. Above $180,000 requires expansion into the KRADD eight-county catchment or HCTC five-campus cross-campus delivery — a Year-5-plus practice.

Founder-side capital $40,000 to $220,000. The bottom corresponds to a founder-solo HCTC CEWS sub-contracted instructor with classroom-only delivery and no installation arm. The upper end corresponds to founder plus one part-time instructor and one part-time installer with a CTE-equipment-installation truck and rigging gear from Year 1, plus a first PCS or HISD facility-installation engagement. Classroom and installation-workspace lease runs $6,000 to $22,000 Year 1. Proctored-exam-software, secure-exam-administration platform licenses, and Pearson VUE testing-center accreditation run $3,000 to $8,000 Year 1. Industry-organization proctor accreditations (NIMS, AWS SENSE, NCCER, OSHA, EPA RRP, MSHA where applicable) and instructor credentialing run $4,000 to $12,000 Year 1. CTE-equipment-installation tools, vehicle, lift equipment, and rigging gear run $15,000 to $80,000 Year 1. Curriculum development for HCTC CEWS post-flood-rebuild trades, AEFLA contextualized industrial-skills modules, and CLCK NASA-STEM teacher-professional-development modules runs $5,000 to $20,000 Year 1. General-liability, professional-liability, workers' comp, and builders' risk for the CTE-installation crew run $4,000 to $14,000 Year 1. A 6-to-12-month payroll bridge for founder plus one part-time instructor, part-time installer, and bookkeeper runs $20,000 to $65,000. This is not an acquisition-tier purchase, and it does not require a credential-issuing-authority charter.

• Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC)

  KCTCS member two-year college with a five-campus footprint

  Active in market

  Main campus on One Community College Drive, plus the Technical Campus, Lees College in Jackson, Knott County Branch in Hindman, and the Leslie County Center. President Dr. Jennifer Lindon. CEWS division handles custom-cohort sub-contract delivery under KCTCS Master Procurement Procedures, 200 KAR 5, 2 CFR 200, and eMARS registration.
• Challenger Learning Center of Kentucky, Inc. (CLCK)

  HCTC-affiliated STEM-education center; 34th in the network, first in a rural area in the United States, and first in Kentucky

  Active in market

  Opened March 1999. $800,000 federal grant through Representative Hal Rogers in September 2020. 501(c)(3) governance with HCTC-affiliated programmatic and facilities-share arrangements. NASA OSTEM grant-administration flow-down.
• Perry County Schools (PCS)

  Single county-wide K-12 district; roughly 3,593 students across 10 schools

  Active in market

  315 Park Avenue, Hazard. Superintendent Jonathan Jett. Procurement under KRS 45A.345, 702 KAR 3:130, 2 CFR 200, KDE state set-aside, and 44 CFR 206 disaster-recovery rules. Buckhorn Elementary and Robinson Elementary severely damaged July 2022.
• Hazard Independent School District (HISD)

  Municipal K-12 district at the same 315 Park Avenue address, legally separate

  Active in market

  Superintendent Sondra Combs. Roughly 700 to 1,000 students. Same procurement framework as PCS.
• Perry County Area Technology Center (PCATC)

  Secondary-CTE facility (state ATC under 705 KAR or PCS-administered under KRS 45A.345)

  Active in market

  Operates the dual-credit articulation pathway with HCTC postsecondary.
• ARH Hazard Regional Medical Center

  Clinical-rotation coordination touchpoint for ADN and BLS, ACLS, PALS, NRP refresh cohorts

  Active in market

  100 Medical Center Drive. 358 beds, 10-county catchment.
• Paul E. Patton Eastern Kentucky Veterans Center (EKVC)

  Long-term-care pipeline touchpoint for CNA, dietary-aide, and therapy-tech credentialing

  Active in market

  200 Veterans Drive. 120-bed KDVA state veterans nursing home operational since around 2002.
• Kentucky River AHEC

  HRSA Title VII Area Health Education Center clinical-rotation coordination plus HOSA and health-careers-pipeline programming

  Out-of-county

  UK- or U-of-L-administered Kentucky River regional anchor.
• KY Skills U

  Kentucky Adult Education state agency; WIOA Title II AEFLA sub-recipient grants through KCTCS to HCTC

  Out-of-county

  Kentucky River region AEFLA sub-recipient flow.
• Kentucky Department of Education Office of Career and Technical Education

  Perkins V state-formula grant flow-through

  Out-of-county

  Flow-through to PCS, HISD, PCATC, and through KCTCS to HCTC.
• KDE School Facilities Construction Commission (SFCC)

  Post-flood facility-recovery construction capex pass-through coordinator

  Out-of-county

  PCS and HISD recovery-pipeline capex 2026-2030.
• Kentucky State Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)

  FEMA HMGP federal-share pass-through coordinator

  Out-of-county

  DR-4663-KY and DR-4860-KY federal-share allocation.
• Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP)

  12-county Eastern Kentucky Local Workforce Development Board under WIOA Title I

  Out-of-county

  Perry-resident jurisdictional attribution to be verified.
• Kentucky River Area Development District (KRADD)

  Regional planning, WIOA Title I pass-through, and ARC POWER+ pass-through host

  Institution

  941 North Main Street, Hazard. Executive Director Michelle Allen. 8-county catchment.
• LKLP Community Action Council

  4-county Head Start, WIOA, and LIHEAP aggregator; ARC POWER+ pass-through host

  Institution

  Hazard service center. Executive Director Tawny R. Acker since 2024.
• Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky (FAK)

  Donor-advised and post-flood philanthropic-channel coordinator; ARC POWER+ pass-through host

  Institution

  420 Main Street, Hazard. CEO Kristin Walker Collins since December 2023.
• Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet Office of Employer and Apprenticeship Services

  State Apprenticeship Agency under 29 CFR 29 and 29 CFR 30

  Out-of-county

  Registered Apprenticeship sponsor and grant administration.
• DOL ETA Apprenticeship.gov

  Federal Registered Apprenticeship sponsor-lookup and grant-administration channel

  Out-of-county

  ARH Hazard, EKVC, and KRADD-region employer Registered Apprenticeship sponsor status to be verified.
• NASA Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM)

  Federal Challenger Learning Center network grant-administration channel

  Out-of-county

  Partnership channel for CLCK simulator-equipment-maintenance and curriculum-development sub-contracting.
• EPA Region 4

  EPA Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rule under 40 CFR 745 Subpart E

  Out-of-county

  Lead-based-paint renovation-certification demand for post-flood pre-1978 housing rebuild work.
• MSHA District 6 Kentucky

  30 CFR Part 48 new-miner and annual-refresher training

  Out-of-county

  Residual coal-mining training demand at HCTC.
• Credential-issuing authorities

  NIMS, AWS SENSE, NCCER, OSHA, EPA RRP, MSHA, and Pearson VUE GED

  Out-of-county

  The broker operates downstream under proctor and instructor accreditation; the broker does not issue credentials directly.

The founder profile is a mid-career Perry or KRADD-region resident with one of two on-ramps. First, HCTC, PCS, or HISD instructor or CTE-coordinator tenure, with willingness to add the NIMS, AWS, NCCER, OSHA, EPA RRP, and MSHA proctor-and-instructor credentialing stack inside the first 6 to 9 months, and to add CLCK NASA OSTEM partnership-administration literacy by Year 2. Second, post-flood-rebuild trades contractor tenure (residential general-contractor or commercial fit-out), with willingness to add the credential-broker administrative layer at HCTC CEWS and the CTE-installation sub-trade discipline at PCS or HISD. Perry-resident or KRADD-region residence is material. The same-address dual-district fragmentation at 315 Park Avenue rewards vendors with sustained physical presence and personal-relationship density at both the Superintendent Jett and Superintendent Combs offices. Out-of-region credential brokers from Lexington, Pikeville, or Cincinnati cannot replicate that relationship density inside the post-flood-recovery capex window without 18 to 36 months of buildup that the local founder skips entirely.

Relationship portfolio at launch: HCTC President Dr. Jennifer Lindon, the CEWS Director, the Allied Health Director, and the Industrial Maintenance Technology, HVAC, Welding, and Diesel program coordinators; the CLCK Executive Director, board chair, and HCTC CEWS coordination contact; PCS Superintendent Jett, the Director of Facilities, the Director of CTE, the Director of Procurement, and the Buckhorn and Robinson Elementary rebuild-project coordinators; HISD Superintendent Combs, the Director of Facilities, the Director of CTE, and the Director of Procurement; the PCATC Director; KRADD Executive Director Michelle Allen plus the WIOA Title I coordinator and ARC POWER+ coordinator; LKLP CAC Executive Director Tawny R. Acker plus Head Start, WIOA, and LIHEAP coordinators; FAK CEO Kristin Walker Collins plus the ARC POWER+ coordinator; Kentucky River AHEC; the KY Skills U Kentucky River region coordinator; KDE OCTE, KDE SFCC, and Kentucky State HMGP coordinators; the EKCEP Local Workforce Development Board coordinator; the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet State Apprenticeship Agency; the DOL ETA Apprenticeship.gov channel; and the NASA OSTEM partnership channel. Twelve to twenty named contacts by end of Year 1.

Entity and credentialing posture. Kentucky business registration, KOSHA workers' comp, general-liability, professional-liability, and builders'-risk insurance for the CTE-installation crew. Industry-organization proctor accreditations (NIMS, AWS SENSE, NCCER, OSHA 10 and 30, EPA RRP under 40 CFR 745 Subpart E, MSHA 30 CFR Part 48 where applicable, and Pearson VUE testing-center accreditation). Instructor credentialing for the lanes delivered. KCTCS Master Procurement Procedures, 200 KAR 5, 2 CFR 200, and eMARS Kentucky state-procurement registration. PCS and HISD vendor registration under KRS 45A.345, 702 KAR 3:130, 2 CFR 200, and 44 CFR 206 disaster-recovery rules. NASA OSTEM partnership-administration literacy plus a CLCK 501(c)(3) partnership-agreement posture. ARC POWER+ pass-through sub-contracting documentation discipline against the prime-award holder's regulatory-compliance flow-down; the candidate does not take on direct sub-recipient status.

The practice operates as an owner-operator workforce-credential broker plus a CTE-equipment-installation sub-trade. There is no platform-rollup arithmetic and no credential-issuing-authority charter. National workforce-development firms — Penn Foster, Pearson VUE corporate, Stride, Performance Matters, and the national CTE-platform tier — compete at master-vendor scope and run remote-delivery models that do not carry same-address dual-district personal-relationship density. The four-mode sub-flow sits below their floor. The Hazard-resident broker carrying the four-mode bundle, the proctor accreditations, and the same-address dual-district relationship density is what national platforms cannot replicate.

• — HCTC $30.0 million across 23 Department of Education awards channel decomposition — HEERF reconciliation, Pell Title IV pass-through, SEOG, Federal Work-Study, Strengthening Institutions Program Title III-A, TAACCCT residual, AEFLA WIOA Title II sub-recipient, Carl Perkins V state-formula flow-through, DOL ETA registered-apprenticeship grants, GEAR UP partnership, and ARC POWER+ workforce-training sub-recipient itemization.
• — HCTC five-campus enrollment and allocation split by campus, plus Department of Education allocation attribution by campus.
• — HCTC CEWS sub-contract policy — whether it accepts third-party custom-cohort delivery, or runs an in-house instructor-only model.
• — PCS Superintendent Jett 2026 status, HISD Superintendent Combs 2026 status, confirmation that both districts are legally separate at 315 Park Avenue, and any 2026-2027 active consolidation discussion.
• — PCS post-flood facility-damage roster — Buckhorn Elementary and Robinson Elementary 2022 damage scope, February 2025 DR-4860 additional damage scope, KDE SFCC recovery-pipeline capex schedule, and Kentucky State HMGP federal-share allocation.
• — CLCK 2026 operational status, HCTC affiliation partnership structure, annual student-mission throughput, and the next 2027-2030 simulator-equipment refresh cycle.
• — ARC POWER+ Perry-resident sub-recipient roster — HCTC, KRADD, LKLP, FAK, plus city or county sub-recipients, and pass-through addressability for credential-broker sub-contracting.
• — PCATC procurement-code separability from PCS county-wide procurement (state ATC under 705 KAR vs. PCS-administered under KRS 45A.345), the Director identity, and the 2026 program-pathway mix.
• — ARH Hazard clinical-rotation host status under the UPIKE Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine Office of Clinical Education.
• — EKCEP Perry-resident jurisdictional attribution under WIOA Title I for dislocated-worker, adult, and youth funding.
• — Kentucky River AHEC headquarters, 2026 staffing, UK or U-of-L administration, and HRSA Title VII federal funding allocation.
• — HCTC AEFLA WIOA Title II Kentucky River region sub-recipient operating budget and credential-broker sub-contract policy.
• — DOL ETA Apprenticeship.gov sponsor-lookup — ARH Hazard, EKVC, and KRADD-region employer Registered Apprenticeship sponsor status, plus the Perry-resident sponsor count.
• — NASA OSTEM partnership channel governance for CLCK simulator-equipment-maintenance and curriculum-development sub-contracting.
• — EPA RRP Perry-resident lead-based-paint renovation-certification demand.
• — KDE School Facilities Construction Commission post-flood facility-recovery capex schedule for PCS and HISD 2026-2030, plus state-prime contractor procurement-consolidation status.
• — Pearson VUE GED testing-center accreditation availability at HCTC-campus locations.
• — HCTC Continuing Education and Workforce Solutions operating budget, custom-cohort fee structure, and the manufacturer-credential and industry-credential sub-contract roster currently in place.

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