Iowa summit puts spotlight on basic skills.

Iowa Summit Puts Spotlight on Adult Literacy and Workforce Skills Gaps

Iowa state policymakers and members from Iowa’s congressional delegation joined business, education, workforce, and other community leaders in Des Moines, Iowa on November 1st to discuss one of the most pressing issues facing the state’s workforce—the growing basic skills deficit among adult workers. United Way of Central Iowa convened the forum as a way to begin the conversation on how best to improve education outcomes of adults.

Approximately 165,039 of the 1,832,192 Iowans in the workforce have not completed high school or obtained a GED. Those without basic skills have also been hit hard by the Great Recession. The unemployment rate for individuals with less than a high school diploma is three times higher than those with a bachelor’s degree.  The Association of Iowa Workforce Partners laid out these stark numbers in an issue brief that was sent to Governor Branstad shortly after his election last November.

Despite these numbers, state leaders have yet to make funding workforce training and education for low-skilled adults a key funding priority. Iowa has no dedicated source of state funding for adult basic education or GED programs. This has resulted in a piecemeal approach to dealing with its basic skills crisis. A few community colleges, like NSC supporting member Kirkwood Community College, have used a portion of their public funding creatively to support innovative programs. And the state has also received two Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Incentive Grants since 2009 which has been used to support additional basic skills education programs. Yet, there is no statewide vision or framework for increasing education attainment of low-skilled adults.

State advocates sought to change that by advancing the Pathways to Academic, Career, and Employment Act earlier this year, which called for funding to support a new tuition program for non-credit certificate students and bridge programs at community colleges. The Act was passed by the state legislature, but budget appropriations for both items were nixed at the last moment. (Note: A previous NSC update from July 6 had reported that the funds for these programs stayed in the budget.)

At the Summit’s close, participants agreed to several strategies to keep the focus on the challenges facing Iowa’s workforce and solutions for better preparing Iowans for its new economy. These include establishing public private partnerships for leadership and funding, designing skills training to meet labor market needs, as well as aligning K-12 and adult education programs with such training to create career pathways. A report on this issue, authored by the State Public Policy Research Group, will be released soon by the United Way of Central Iowa and will be used to compel state leaders to make funding basic skills education a state priority.