The Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship program (WRKS) was first introduced during the 2016 legislative session. House Bill 626 was introduced by a group of Democratic Representatives and introduced WRKS as a broad 2-year free tuition scholarship program that was not tailored to specific fields of study. Throughout the legislative process, the program requirements and attributes were amended several times. At the last minute before passage, the Senate provided a bill substitution which included clarifying eligible institutions and added high school dual credit participation requirements. At the same time that House Bill 626 progressed in the legislature, the state passed its biannual budget. In this budget, financial resources were set aside for the WRKS program.

Shortly after House Bill 626 was passed concurrently in the legislature, Governor Matthew Bevin vetoed it stating that “[t]he Work Ready Scholarship provisions outlined in House Bill 626 do not permit funding to be targeted based on true need and, with limited funding, may leave behind those students with the greatest need” (Commonwealth of Kentucky Office of the Governor, 2016). Governor Bevin wanted a more targeted scholarship program that focused specifically on credentials aligned with workforce need. Because the funding mechanism for this scholarship program was still intact, Governor Bevin issued an Executive Order on December 21, 2016 to establish a modified version of this program that focused primarily on short-term postsecondary credentials. This includes diploma and certificate programs that can be obtained in as little as 12 weeks and only individuals with less than an associate’s degree were able to apply for funding.

The newly established WRKS program only applied to students working towards programs in 5 selected high-demand fields. This includes health care, transportation/logistics, manufacturing, business services/IT, and construction (Commonwealth of Kentucky Office of the Governor, 2016). Although there is the potential for these five fields to change, over the past five years there has been limited program eligibility movement. It is important to note that Governor Bevin initially established this program to only cover diploma and certificate programs. WRKS was then expanded to include associate degrees in 2018 through an additional executive order that added a high school dual credit component (Commonwealth of Kentucky, n.d.). Under this program revision, high school students enrolled in career and technical education courses that lead to an educational pathway in the five demand-fields outlined in the original WRKS program, would now have their tuition covered. This program was called Work Ready Dual Credit (WRDC) and this was in addition to the state’s already robust Dual-Credit Scholarship program. Both programs share the same funding source which has restricted the number of individuals this program can serve.