Governor Vilsack wants to re-focus a new state program designed to help Iowans gain new, high-tech work skills. Vilsack calls his revamped idea “CORE” which stands for Career Opportunities and Resources for Education. Vilsack wants to limit it to skills in just eight industries, and he wants to hand out grants to the students enrolled, although he doesn’t have any idea how much grant money he’ll ask legislators to set aside.The program currently provides money to community colleges to expand their facilities. Beyond “bricks and mortar,” Vilsack wants the available seven-and-a-half million dollars to be used for computers or hardware, too.Lieutenant Governor Sally Pederson says there’s a need to help Iowans gain new skills so they can land higher-paying jobs.Under the program, businesses provide the money to hire the community college instructors. Last spring, Vilsack vetoed the portion of the program which would have provided a state tax credit to participating businesses.
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