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alpha academy continued Alpha, and they deserve nothing less from me." Crutchfield concluded by recognizing two of Alpha's trainers who worked hard to bring the academy to life: Keith Hainer, senior vice president operations performance group; and Cheryl Stapleton, director of learning and development. He thanked the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. "Booth Goodwin and his team showed a deep and sincere interest in the creation of this facility," Crutchfield said. The lights dimmed. Dozens of miners with cap lamps grabbed a lifeline, encircled the audience and approached the podium. Others stretched on a long series of mine belts connected together. "Alpha formally dedicates the academy to the memory of the generations of coal miners who came before us, the coal miners who are with us today, and the coal miners of the future," Crutchfield said. Then he, the First Lady of West Virginia and several other dignitaries broke the chain of miner's belts in a ribbon-cutting like fashion. The Leadership Academy The Running Right Leadership Academy sits on 10 acres of reclaimed mine lands. It consists of four main buildings and a small utility building. To develop trainers, Alpha taps into subject matter experts throughout its operations and production groups. They participate in a program to learn how to be effective trainers. Once they are certified, they serve as adjunct instructors. The academy currently relies on a dozen full-time staffers and 35 to 40 adjunct instructors. As far as the curriculum, the academy has focused on specific roles for the remainder of 2013. Every underground coal miner—whether it's for annual retraining or safety observation training (a program specific to Alpha)—will have to go through some form of training. "We're poised between now and the end of the year to train 3,000 to 4,000 employees," Stapleton said. "Since the beginning of June, we have trained 300 to 400 employees—that was our soft launch." As far as the curriculum development for 2014, Stapleton said they are currently determining their needs. "When we were developing the academy, we wanted to provide a comprehensive training program that would engage everyone from the new miners to the 30-year veterans. The virtual simulators appeal to the Xbox generation. Similarly, the experienced miners recognize the gear in the electricalmechanical labs. Then we have the crown jewel: the 96,000-sq-ft simulated mine. That's where they spend a lot of their days with real equipment before they go underground." Previously, an annual electrical retraining class would spend a lot of classroom time discussing theory, Hainer explained. "Now, instead of looking at photos and diagrams in the classroom, we can take them to the simulated mine and ask them to give an examination on the shuttle car," Hainer said. "Then we can critique how well they performed that exercise and offer constructive feedback. That's a big advantage." Simulators & 3-D Training The academy has five of the best miningindustry simulators in one room. They pur- 30 www.coalage.com July 2013