The Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship (WRKS) provides financial support for Kentuckians with a high school degree or GED to enroll in postsecondary programs with a focus on high-demand workforce sectors. For those WRKS recipients who earned a postsecondary degree in 2021, over 50% received an Associate degree. More people earned credentials in the Trades (34%) than any other group followed closely by Health (32%), while the top three industries of post-completion employment were Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Retail Trade.

The Work Ready Dual Credit Scholarship Program (WKDC), a portion of WRKS, provides aid to high school students to pursue dual credit in a similarly eligible postsecondary course. For those 2021 high school graduates who were recipients of the WKDC scholarship, over 93% were either enrolled in postsecondary or employed within one year after graduating. In fact, 70% were enrolled in postsecondary compared to 48% of 2020 high school graduates overall (2021 data not yet available). Among those not enrolled in postsecondary, these recipients had a median wage of $18,154 in 2022 as compared to a median wage of $14,948 for all non-enrolled high school graduates.

More information is available in the links above.