Adams County Opens West Union Training Center for Adult Workforce Development

The Adams County Board of Commissioners has converted the former Prather’s IGA into the Adams County Training and Business Center, a 15,000-square-foot facility in West Union dedicated to adult workforce training and career education. County officials say the center will bring literacy, GED preparation, college-refresher courses and workforce-skills classes into the community to reduce barriers for adult learners and connect residents to employment opportunities.

Southern State Community College (SSCC) is a primary partner in delivering programs, and higher-education collaborators include Shawnee State University and Maysville Community & Technical College. The center also hosts the Aspire program, offering free adult education classes intended to help adults improve literacy and complete secondary credentials. Funding and start-up support came from Dayton Power & Light (DP&L), the G.R.I.T. Project and a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).

Placing training close to home alters two practical constraints that have shaped workforce supply in Adams County: travel time and administrative friction. For adults balancing jobs, care responsibilities and financial limits, distance to campus and the need to coordinate multiple providers can be decisive barriers to enrollment. By converting an existing downtown building, the county not only preserved a local landmark but also reduced capital costs and shortened the time from planning to operation.

From an economic perspective, the center targets the supply side of the local labor market. Adult literacy and GED programs raise the baseline qualifications for hiring; college-refresher and workforce-skills courses can shorten employer training cycles and increase wage-earning potential for participants. These effects matter for employers in the region who face competition for skilled workers and for county efforts to attract or retain small- to medium-sized firms that need a reliable local labor supply.

The involvement of DP&L, the G.R.I.T. Project and ARC signals alignment with broader regional development strategies that emphasize workforce readiness in Appalachian communities. ARC grants typically focus on long-term economic resiliency, and local collaboration with two-year and four-year institutions aims to create upward mobility pathways rather than one-off training events. The partnership model also spreads program costs and links classroom offerings to credentialing that colleges can recognize.

Operational plans call for ongoing classes and community outreach to expand training capacity and match courses to employer needs across the region. For residents, the immediate implications are practical: access to free Aspire classes, opportunities to prepare for the GED, and local college-refresher options that can smooth transitions to postsecondary programs or into higher-paying jobs.

The Adams County Training and Business Center is a tangible local investment in human capital. For Adams County residents, the next steps are enrollment and employer engagement; for county leaders, success will be measured by enrollment figures, credential completions and whether local businesses report a stronger pipeline of qualified applicants.