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Connecting with
Workers: Career Link

Iowa, though, isn't resting on its work-force laurels. It's committed to work-force development and innovative training programs that foster an environment in which education and industry collaborate to develop and maintain Iowa's highly effective work force with the cutting-edge skills and employee expertise that enable Iowa businesses to compete in the global marketplace.

In a unique partnership, Iowa companies are identifying common needs and teaming with the state's community colleges to create customized, industry-driven training programs that bridge the gap between the workplace and the classroom.

Career Link, for instance, is an industry-driven training program that invests in projects to assist Iowa's working poor and underemployed in obtaining the skills necessary to move into available high-wage jobs. Businesses participating in the program help design the curriculum and make commitments to interview and hire Career Link graduates.

The Iowa New Jobs Training Program (NJIP) and Hawkeye Community College, located in Waterloo, were important partners with Hunt-Wesson in worker recruitment and technical training for the company's new facility. According to John Carney, customized training coordinator for Hawkeye Community College, new Hunt-Wesson employees received more than 120 hours of baseline technical training at the school.

Hawkeye combined input from Hunt-Wesson with its own assessment of each new employee's knowledge and skills so that training (including math, blueprint reading, mechanical systems and electronics) would be targeted and job specific. "All employees came in with good, solid education and basic skills," says Rick Tucker, manager of the new Waterloo facility. "The training simply enhanced their technical knowledge to help them become fully productive in their new jobs at Hunt-Wesson."