Building the work force

By Judy Stoffel

----

More than 14,000 families in United Way of East Central Iowa's six-county service area - Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Jones, Linn and Washington counties - are not earning enough money to meet their basic expenses. Low-skill, low-income populations represent a significant portion of the region's available labor pool.

So there are a couple of questions we need to get to the heart of:

l What industries in the region have employee needs?

l Which of these industries have career paths that enable employees to earn or grow into a wage that can support their family's basic needs?

l What skills do these industries and other regional employers need?

Workforce training is necessary to address the increasing skills gap in the region, particularly in the fields of advanced manufacturing and information technology. Employers in the Advanced Manufacturing and Information Technology sector are expressing a tightening of the labor market, fewer job applicants who meet current skill needs, and a continued concern for basic and interpersonal skills levels.

The region's Skills 2014 employer skills assessment study projects that 3,211 new and 2,246 replacement positions will be needed through 2014 for the manufacturing and information technology industry sectors respectively.

There are a variety of ways that regional and state workforce skills needs can be met through outreach and training. The state's community colleges have been instrumental in developing innovative approaches to workforce training in both short-term and long-term formats supporting credential, certificate and academic degrees.

To accomplish this, it is becoming more apparent that one-size does not fit all, and the efforts of community-based organizations, economic development and educational institutions working together to blend funding streams are supporting flexible, coordinated and sustainable models in the workforce field.

United Way of East Central Iowa is partnering with Kirkwood Community College, local businesses and community-based organizations to address local skill gaps through a career pathway program. Training and academic and social service supports are provided to low-skill, low-income students in high-demand industries in the region. This community initiative is a workforce training program that:

l Works in partnership with industry to address the specific skill sets and competencies that employers are seeking.

l Addresses the real-life barriers that disadvantaged populations face in finding and maintaining employment.

Kirkwood and United Way have made investments in this strategy and are seeing positive results in students' academic success and connections to employer skill needs.

The Iowa Legislature has the opportunity to join local partners in making an investment in Iowa's workforce. Senate File 2024 (now Senate File 2321) would help low-skill, low-income individuals access tuition grants to obtain training that will address the skills needs of Iowa employers. This bill is needed to address the skill and life-barriers of disadvantaged populations and to address the middle skills jobs gap.

Judy Stoffel is Community Building Manager at United Way of East Central Iowa. Comments: jstoffel@uweci.org