The Creston Future Ready Iowa Summit, held Thursday at Southwestern Community College, was designed to start the conversation between entities with a vested interest in the future of Iowa’s workforce.
The Creston summit was the only FRI summit in which students, the future of Iowa’s workforce, were given a voice.
“The piece that was not thought of prior to [the Creston summit] was bringing students to the table,” said Vonnie Stewart-Kai, spokesperson for Iowa Workforce Development. “I think that is where we were all wowed by the students. It gave us their perspective of Future Ready Iowa. We all were listening. Having the students talk about how valuable work-based learning is and having all of us coming to the table and listening to what their needs are and them hoping that from Future Ready Iowa we continue the conversation of making options available for students.”
Students representing Creston, Afton, Lenox, Mount Ayr and Corning attended the summit. Anna Mikkelsen as well as students from Mount Ayr and one from Lenox sat in on a student panel and answered questions about how and where they get information, how potential employers can connect with students, what information they felt they needed to prepare for the future, as well as the next steps they felt southwest Iowa needed to take to prepare students for future employment within the state.
“They kind of talked a lot about the places that need — like what jobs are open and how they can get more students into finishing high school and finishing college and what that looks like and what their future plan is for it,” said freshman Anna Mikkelsen.
Creating a future workforce for Iowa goes beyond getting a two-year or four-year college education, said Stewart-Kai. Other options may be a registered apprenticeship in which an individual is earning a paycheck as they’re learning the skills needed for a job or vocational training that can be done in high school.
“For a long time, these other options have not been on the table,” said Stewart-Kai. “Educators have only said you either have a four-year college or a two-year college. So now, what we’re saying is, I call it an a la carte menu, there is now an a la carte menu you can choose now, but if you don’t know your options, you can’t make an informed choice.”
Bringing the schools and business together is imperative to changing the conversations students are having at home as well, added Stewart-Kai. The idea that a student’s only choices are a two-year or a four-year degree have been indoctrinated into society, but employers are finding that is no longer serving their needs. Students are not going to school to learn how to be plumbers or electricians, jobs which would be better served by vocational training while in high school or a registered apprenticeship.
“In the next five years, I have heard from union representatives, they are going to be hurting because a lot of their workforce is retiring and there’s no backfill,” said Stewart-Kai.
Creston has already begun to implement some of the suggestions the FRI legislation suggests. Programs like CAST at Creston Community High School partners students with businesses who need help with projects, giving them real world, authentic learning opportunities and exposing them to the different employment options the community might have.
“I’m optimistic in that regard,” said Mindy Stalker at Union County Development Association. “I think that if we just continue to build upon our education and business partnerships and authentic learning opportunities, I think that’s really the key for us as far as our next steps. That’s something that Future Ready Iowa really encourages. ‘Don’t stop here. This is just the intro.’”
The development of communication pathways between students, educators and businesses is something that Paul Fuller, community president at PCSB bank in Creston, fully supports because it lets the schools know what the businesses need and helps the businesses understand the parameters educators have to work with.
“I’ve always invited that conversation,” Fuller said. “I’ve been in the school several times and spoke and tried to improve that communication channel.”
Future Ready Iowa is an initiative put forth by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds designed to find a way to train Iowa’s future work force for current and future jobs within the state. The initiative earned unanimous support in the Iowa legislature.