MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — Iowa Valley Community College District (IVCCD) will expand opportunities for short-term education and workforce training as part of a $10.8 million federal investment in Iowa’s community colleges — the largest single award made in the latest round of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants program.

The funding will support Iowa STRONG (Systems, Training, and Resources for Opportunity, Navigation, and Growth) a statewide initiative designed to strengthen the connection between employer needs, community college training and emerging Workforce Pell opportunities.

For Iowa Valley, the initiative represents an opportunity to strengthen the education and training pathways available through Marshalltown Community College, Ellsworth Community College, Iowa Valley Grinnell, and Iowa Valley Business and Community Solutions while responding directly to workforce needs across central Iowa.

The initiative will focus on developing and expanding short-term programs in advanced manufacturing, transportation, skilled trades, and healthcare — areas where Iowa employers continue to need qualified workers.

Iowa Valley will focus its part of the work on four areas where employer demand is high and the District already has training underway: welding, certified nurse aide (CNA), commercial driver’s license (CDL), and industrial maintenance. The first year of the four-year grant is a planning year, with programs expected to be ready to launch in year two.

Much of that work involves formalizing the connection between short-term, noncredit training through Iowa Valley Business and Community Solutions (BCS) and credit
programs at the colleges. That will likely happen through articulation agreements, so that skills a student builds in BCS training can count toward a certificate, diploma, or degree.

“Community colleges across Iowa are at different stages with Workforce Pell, and the program requirements are detailed,” said Jacque Goodman, Vice President of Business and Community Solutions. “This grant gives us the building blocks to do it well. We chose the areas of greatest need, where we already have a strong start, so a short-term certificate can lead people into a credit program.”

For students, that could mean short-term training becomes a first step toward a longer credential rather than a stand-alone course.

“This grant will help us address the gap between noncredit and credit training: what a noncredit student needs to demonstrate competency, and what we need to change on the academic side to give them a better on ramp into certificates, diplomas, and degrees,” said Pete Drury, Dean of Career and Technical Education. “This will help accelerate those connections for a better-prepared workforce for local industry.”

The grant comes as changes to federal financial aid are creating new possibilities for students pursuing shorter-term career training. Iowa STRONG aims to develop more than 50 Workforce Pell-eligible training programs statewide by 2030.

Workforce Pell expands the potential for eligible students to use federal Pell Grant assistance for qualifying short-term programs. For working adults and others seeking a faster pathway into a new career, that could make career-focused education more financially accessible without requiring enrollment in a traditional two-year degree program.

Dr. Anne Howsare Boyens, President of Iowa Valley Community College District, said the investment will help Iowa Valley continue connecting education more directly with the needs of employers and communities.

“We’re building practical pathways that help people move into good careers,” Howsare Boyens said. “For working adults especially, shorter-term training can make education more accessible and achievable.”

By connecting those opportunities with financial aid and the needs of central Iowa employers, she said, the District can help more people gain valuable skills while strengthening the workforce local communities depend on.

Iowa STRONG brings together Iowa’s community colleges, the Iowa Department of Education and Iowa Workforce Development. Hawkeye Community College will manage statewide implementation of the initiative.

In addition to developing Workforce Pell-eligible programs, the project will support employer outreach, workforce data and outcomes reporting, and greater coordination between Iowa’s education and workforce systems. Those efforts are intended to help colleges identify workforce needs, evaluate whether training is producing strong employment outcomes and adjust programs as employer demand changes.

For Iowa Valley, that statewide infrastructure supports a distinctly local goal: giving students and working adults clearer, more accessible pathways into employment while helping central Iowa employers develop the skilled workforce they need to grow.