IowaVoice: Worried About The Skills Gap? Here’s What One State Is Doing

Iowa’s employers, like most around the country, are ringing alarm bells about a skilled worker shortage, and the state’s leaders are responding – by setting a goal for 70 percent of Iowans in the workforce to acquire education or training beyond high school by 2025.

A worker at plastics manufacturer Agri-Industrial Plastics in Fairfield, Iowa. Responding to calls from the state’s manufacturers, the state’s leaders have set a goal for 70 percent of its workforce-age residents to acquire education or training beyond high school by 2025.

“I appreciate the fact that Iowa is fiscally sound,” Lori Schaefer-Weaton, CEO of Agri Industrial Plastics, an Iowa manufacturer, said. “I think that allows us to tackle tough questions; tough issues like workforce.”

Iowa’s top-tier education system is focused on creating workers for the future of manufacturing, which is the state’s largest industry by GDP. Iowa already has the highest public high school graduation rate in the country, and Iowa has made significant strides integrating science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education into its grade school system. Programs like the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council are yielding results. The number of Iowa high school students taking science, technology, engineering or STEM-related Advanced Placement (AP) tests increased 22 percent from 2012 to 2015. Read more…

IowaVoice: Worried About The Skills Gap? Here’s What One State Is Doing