Tag Archives: skilled workforce

Dr. Linda Allen Elected to National Council of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships Board

WATERLOO—The National Council of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships announced that Dr. Linda Allen, president of Hawkeye Community College, was recently elected to the Board of Directors. Dr. Allen will fill a 3-year at-large seat on the Executive Committee.

The National Council of Concurrent Enrollment Partnership or NACEP is the sole accrediting body for concurrent enrollment (also referred to as dual credit) partnerships. The NACEP accreditation helps to adhere to the highest standards for concurrent enrollments to provide students a seamless transition to college.

Concurrent enrollment partnerships enable qualified high school students to earn college credit prior to graduation. NACEP-accredited programs use college-approved instructors and are the same high quality courses as those offered on the campus of the college. Students are exposed to the same rigorous academic challenges. According to NACEP, students are better prepared for college by gaining exposure to college expectations and workload. Concurrent enrollment courses have grown in popularity and allow families to save on college tuition.

Currently, there are only 83 two-year and four- year institutions of higher education in the nation that have earned NACEP accreditation. Hawkeye Community College was one of the 15 Iowa community colleges to earn the coveted NACEP accreditation this year.

Hawkeye currently serves all 27 schools in its service area through its concurrent enrollment program known as CollegeNow. During the last year, Hawkeye had 1,804 high school students enrolled in CollegeNow courses with the average student taking two college-level courses. Approximately 25 percent of all of Iowa’s community college students are jointly enrolled in high school, making Iowa a leader in aligning secondary and postsecondary programs in the country.

UNI graduates fare well in today’s economy

The University of Northern Iowa hosted its annual fall Commencement Saturday, Dec. 15. As hundreds of UNI students graduate and begin to look for employment opportunities, the December job outlook is more important than ever.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook for 2012, the overall top B.A. degrees in demand by employers this year are finance, accounting, and computer and information sciences, followed by electrical and mechanical engineering. UNI has a number of majors that align with these needs.

According to Matt Nuese, associate director of UNI’s career services office, UNI graduates seem to be faring well in today’s economy. Nearly 84 percent of last year’s graduates secured jobs or were continuing their education upon graduation, according to the 2011 Career Services Graduate Report.

It appears that many UNI graduates are staying within the state. During the last three years, three-fourths of all UNI graduates were employed in Iowa. The top employers of UNI students include Wells Fargo, John Deere and Waterloo Community Schools.

For more information, contact Bob Frederick, director of career services, at 319-273-6857 or robert.frederick@uni.edu.

Top ED Recommendations to the Obama Administration

As part of their Winning the Race 2012 series of policy briefs, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) offers this policy brief titled: TOP POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO HELP THE UNITED STATES WIN THE RACE FOR GLOBAL ADVANTAGE. The brief addresses five key areas; Trade Sector Competativeness, Taxes, Science and R&D, STEM, and Skills Digital Economy.

ITIF is a non-partisan think tank whose mission is to formulate and promote policies to advance technological innovation and productivity internationally. For more information on ITIF, go to www.itif.org.

Review the policy brief here.

Encouraging Young Professionals to Work the Valley

As part of an overall strategy to develop, recruit, and retain talented people in the Cedar Valley economic area, the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber is launching Work the Valley, a talent retention program targeting college students and young professionals (YPs). Work the Valley encourages YPs to stay in the Cedar Valley by showcasing appealing work places, careers, great company cultures and local life style amenities attractive to their demographic.

Work the Valley engages students and YPs with tours of Cedar Valley employers, business districts and cultural & entertainment venues, discussions & informative presentations, and specialty job fairs.

GCVAC Director of Business Services, Brittany Jungck says that when YPs experience firsthand all that the Cedar Valley offers they will be more likely to stay to build a career. “We want to show them that the Cedar Valley really can provide opportunities in line with their career goals yet with a much lower cost of living than bigger metros they may be attracted to.’’

The initial Work the Valley Bus Tour is November 1st in partnership with the UNI Career Center. Forty UNI students will visit four businesses and cultural venues and have opportunity to speak with 10 companies about current job openings and future employment outlooks.

Cedar Valley Industries to Host Over 1,300 Youth for National Manufacturing Day

Thirteen manufacturers will host Waterloo and Cedar Falls 9^th graders in their facilities on Friday, October 5^th as part of an activity for National Manufacturing Day.

CEDAR VALLEY of IOWA (September 12, 2012) — In response to the growing talent demand in advanced manufacturing in the Cedar Valley, the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance and Chamber (GCVAC) is sponsoring an educational event for all 9^th graders attending Waterloo East and West High Schools, and Cedar Falls Peet and Holmes Junior High Schools; a total of more than 1,300 students.

On October 5^th Students will make a one hour visit to a local manufacturing company, tour its production operations, and discuss the history and future of each company with leaders of the organization. The purpose of this event is to provide students, parents and educators with a greater understanding of modern manufacturing and the local firms that make up the Cedar Valley manufacturing community.

Also recognizing the need for hundreds of machinists, welders, technicians and assemblers across the region, Hawkeye Community College, John Deere, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the Cedar Valley Manufacturers Association have signed on as additional sponsors.

“It was important to include all students in this activity, not just students interested in industrial technology,” said Brittany Jungck, Director of Business Services for the GCVAC, “Many young people have not had exposure to modern manufacturing. Our goal is to open their eyes to fantastic career opportunities.”

Companies participating in National Manufacturing Day vary from locally-owned operations such as Advanced Heat Treat, Kryton Engineered Metals, and Power Engineering and Manufacturing to national or global corporations such as John Deere, MetoKote and Omega Cabinets.

“Today, economic growth is tied to brain power not muscle power. Manufacturing is a key component of our Cedar Valley economy, and smart, talented people are needed in the modern, advanced manufacturing plant. Manufacturing Day is a great way to help students connect what they’re learning now with well-paying career choices in the Cedar Valley,” said GCVAC’s CEO Steve Dust. He continues, “The manufactures, schools, and sponsors are delivering tremendous value to the students with this event, which will be returned with a larger, better-prepared talent pool in the future.”

To learn more about National Manufacturing Day, visit: www.mfgday.com or contact Brittany Jungck of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber at bjunck@cedarvalleyalliance.com or by calling 319-232-1156.

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Legislative Update

Due to myriad scheduling problems brought on by the relatively late date for ending the 2012 Legislative Session, the Alliance & Chamber decided not to hold our planned Post-Session Legislative Forum Breakfast. In lieu of our breakfast, we sent two questions to all the members, eight in total, of our Cedar Valley Legislative delegation. We received two responses and sent follow-up reminders to the other six area Legislators. We believed their answers to each question would be of interest to you. Please take a few moments to review the answers given by Representative Bob Kressig and Senator Jeff Danielson below. If we receive other responses, we will share them with you.

Thank you for your interest and support of our GCVAC Government Relations program.

Steve Firman, Director of Government Relations
Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber

Representative Bob Kressig

1. What observations would you share regarding this year’s Legislative activity and its impact on the business community in Iowa?

When the 2012 session began, our top priority was to work together to find common ground and create jobs to grow Iowa’s economy. While there is simply too much partisanship and focus on divisive issues today, we did make good progress this year when we put politics aside and worked together.

First, we took action to help Iowa businesses expand and find skilled workers. A new high quality jobs initiative will help businesses expand while encouraging new businesses to locate in Iowa. We continued the innovation fund to commercialize research at our universities and continued key initiatives at UNI to help entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Second, we took significant steps to build a skilled workforce for Iowa businesses. We expanded training at our community colleges and kept tuition affordable for middle class families. We created new tuition grants for students to fill job openings in shortage areas where businesses are looking for workers and kept local workforce centers open to help Iowans get training or find a job. We also took action to help under-employed Iowans who want to upgrade their skills get the training they need.

2. What issues do you plan to focus on during the campaign season and into next year’s session?

My top priorities remain growing our economy and a skilled workforce. With a skilled worker shortage on the horizon, the state must do more to help businesses get skilled workers who can compete with workers from around the globe. With most jobs now requiring some education or training beyond high school, we have to improve education from pre-school through high school and keep tuition affordable at Hawkeye Community College and UNI.

I’ll continue to work to find common ground on several bills to help businesses that did not become law this year. Despite months of negotiations and $350 million on the table, the Legislature was unable to reach a final agreement on commercial property tax relief. I also supported other initiatives designed to grow our economy including: giving Iowa businesses first preference on state and local government contracts instead of sending our tax dollars out of state; leveling the playing field for small businesses on Main Street; helping local communities revitalize business districts and industrial parks; and encouraging more wind energy production. I’m hopeful we can find common ground on these initiatives next year.

Senator Jeff Danielson

1. What observations would you share regarding this year’s Legislative activity and its impact on the business community in Iowa?

One year does not an economy make. Iowa’s economy is performing better than most other states because we’ve cut state government costs beginning in 2009 and we’ve enjoyed a healthy agricultural export sector. Both have worked together to ensure a stable and positive business climate as evidenced by Iowa continuing to receive high marks from multiple sources for it’s efforts, including a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce report placing Iowa in the top ten. As a result, Iowa has a balanced budget with a healthy surplus; in fact the largest since the early 1980’s and a lower unemployment rate than the national average. For these reasons, I’m proud of our efforts to encourage job growth and wealth creation during one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. Considering Iowa also suffered its worst natural disaster in 2008, ranked #1 as measured by real dollar damage, the current “State of the State” is even more impressive.

2. What issues do you plan to focus on during the campaign season and into next year’s session?

Economies compete for capital investment, business location and customer base. No state can rest on its laurels and Iowa is no different. I will remain focused on pro-growth, progressive ideas that put Iowa in the best position to keep the businesses it already has, expand them and attract new businesses with responsible, sustainable incentives.

My top five job creation ideas are:

1. Lowering commercial property taxes (without shifting the burden to homeowners).

2. Protecting the ability of cities to use tax increment financing (TIF).

3. Funding Iowa Department of Economic Development initiatives (Debi Durham needs resources to leverage partnerships for business location decisions).

4. Supporting the Innovation Council to implement Battelle study ideas for growing Iowa jobs in advanced manufacturing, information solutions and value-added agriculture.

5. Investing in and improving education at every level, including job training at Community Colleges, increasing rigor, relevance and outcomes in local pre-K-12 schools and keeping tuition affordable at Universities, public and private.

I encourage Alliance Members to contact me directly anytime at 319-231-7192 or jeffdanielson@gmail.com. I work for you!

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Grow Cedar Valley