Governor Reynolds with representatives of Iowa ABI, community colleges
The presidents of Iowa’s community colleges and the Iowa Association of Business and Industry have signed an agreement to “catalogue” the hands-on workplace training that’s available for students.
“Such as job shadowing, apprenticeships, internships, career coaching — just to name a few,” Liang C. Wee, president of Northeast Iowa Community College in Peosta, said this morning during an event in the governor’s formal office.
David Zrostlik, the president of Stellar Industries in Garner, is chairman of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry’s board of directors. He said the partnership aims to highlight the community college training programs that help students land one of the many jobs available in Iowa’s manufacturing sector.
“All of this is very important as we seek to grow Iowa’s workforce,” Zrostlik said.
Rob Denson, the president of Des Moines Area Community College, told reporters the best way for businesses to “prime the pipeline” is hire a student while they’re in college.
“It gives them an opportunity to understand what that career is really like, get to know a particular employer and, when they graduate…I call it a capture rate,” Denson said. “We have a very high rate of students who are going paid internships, staying with those companies.”
Governor Kim Reynolds said there is a “war for talent out there” and she’d like to see every community college student have the opportunity to learn in a workplace.
