Stories Related to Iowa College Aid Report: College Trends Hindering Workforce Training

Vanessa Miller, The Gazette (Cedar Rapids)
Sat, 09/22/2018 - 8:23pm

  Three years after then-Gov. Terry Branstad set the goal of getting 70 percent of working Iowans some form of postsecondary education or training by 2025, a state agency reports only minimal progress. A “Condition of Higher Education in Iowa” report, produced every two years by Iowa College Aid — which was created by the Legislature — shows the share of Iowans with some postsecondary education has increased from 58 percent in 2014 to 60 percent in 2016 to 61 percent in the new 2018 iteration — about 9 percentage points behind target.   That means Iowa will need to sharply quicken its pace — getting more people into training or persuading those already with training to stay in the state or move here. “Unfortunately, since the release of our most recent report in 2016, Iowa has made only modest gains across higher education indicators,” Iowa College Aid Executive Director Karen Misjak wrote in a message attached to the new report, released last week. Experts have differing theories about why progress is slow, but the report found declines in both higher education enrollment and in financial aid applications. Those declines in Iowa might mean more high school graduates are jumping directly into jobs — aplenty now in Iowa, which boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. But those high school diploma-only jobs aren’t reliable, said Iowa College Aid Communication Coordinator Elizabeth Keest Sedrel. “The number of jobs that require a high school diploma or less has been dropping in Iowa, even during the recovery,” Sedrel said. As those positions are replaced by ones demanding specific training or college education — often in the areas of science, technology, engineering or math — non-postsecondary-trained workers will stay stuck in lower income brackets while employers scramble to find staff to meet their needs. “Students who choose not to continue education or training beyond high school — even if they can land a job today — will be less employable for the rest of their lives than students who do choose to continue their education,” Sedrel said. Substantiating those assertions are data in the new report showing 2016 unemployment rates compared with educational attainment. Iowans with bachelor’s degrees or higher reported an unemployment rate of 1.7 percent, compared with a 3.1 percent rate for those with some college or an associate degree, and 4.3 percent for those with a high school diploma only. Iowa’s unemployment rate today is at an 18-year low of 2.5 percent, a figure that could be even smaller if the about 44,000 Iowans looking for work could find it amid the 60,000-some statewide job openings, Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend recently said. Townsend earlier this month identified a skills gap as the barrier between job-seekers and jobs.

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