Ten, Fayette County High School seniors walked across the stage today as the newest graduates of Project Search.

It's a program that gives students with intellectual and developmental disabilities the chance to build job ready skills through an immersive, nine month internship at UK health care.

More on how this program is preparing them for competitive employment and helping to strengthen Kentucky's workforce pipeline.

And today's education matters.

Kentucky ranks 48th out of 50 in hiring people with disabilities, so we want to improve that across the state.

And so programs like Project Search can help fill that gap.

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities really are an untapped resource in our community.

We have a huge void between those who are employed without disabilities and those who are not.

So we developed this program so that we could create a unique pathway of possibilities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to be competitively employed, whether that's at UK health care or anywhere else in the community.

A program like Project Search really does focus a lot more on what we call soft skills.

So those are those transferable skills communication, time management.

Learning about budgeting and money and all the things that come with having a job.

Those are the ones that you really focus on because there's kind of a misconception that learning job tasks is harder, but it's really not.

The soft skills are what is really difficult, especially in the population of students that I'm working with.

We have some students that will go on to do some, jobs that require certifications.

We have some students that will fill the need, whether it be for, labor markets, jobs that are often routine, that our students can do.

These are individuals that work in our community and want to work.

They become part of our tax base.

They become part of a system that offers them purpose for life.

Like, I want to get a job after, like I want to have, like I want to have money and things like that.

So, yeah, it didn't work out for me.

Oh, yeah.

I'm not an assistant.

Yeah.

Get for nursing assistant.

Yeah.

The core mission is competitive, integrated employment.

And so what that means is, more than 16 hours a week working, making competitive pay, which just means making the same pay as someone who does not have a disability.

Just like anyone that would be working in that job.

And for our program success, we'd like to have 70% of our interns, reaching that goal.

And it built a foundation in Kentucky that everybody does count.

Everybody does matter.

And it's an opportunity for businesses to understand that there's all kinds of individuals out there with all kinds of gifts, and they all come in different and unique ways.

I think it enriches everything our community should be about.

When we look at differences in individuals and in groups of people in our community.

It's very, very encouraging when you look at these individuals, because on day one, when they enter the program a year ago, they would never have envisioned themselves standing up in the front of an auditorium full of people talking about their goals and where they wanted to go, and being that confident.

It wasn't that they didn't have the skill.

It was something that needed to be honed and to build that confidence in these individuals.

So it's incredible to see these young people be, on a track for success.

And I believe that the possibilities are unlimited.

And I believe they believe that.

And that's what's most important.

Lots of possibility here.

This is the third year for Project Search at UK healthcare.

The program began in 1996 at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, and has grown to almost 800 sites in 48 states and ten countries.