EVENT PREVIEW: Feb. 17 Power breakfast
The education of your future workforce
BUSINESS RECORD STAFF Feb 12, 2016 | 12:00 pm
4 min read time
927 wordsBusiness Record Insider, EducationIowa has long had a reputation of leading the nation in public education. Yet in the midst of a hotly contested school funding debate in the Legislature, Iowa was just given a C grade and ranked 19th in overall quality of education by Education Week. A lot of noise, plenty of rhetoric and many questions are coming from many stakeholders, but the heart of this challenge is a common worry for businesses: What if Iowa doesn’t produce enough talented and highly educated future leaders my business will need to be successful? To see how businesses can support to improving the education system in Iowa, I asked each of our panelists to identify a challenge to educating our future workforce. I hope you find their answers enlightening and hope to see you at our event for a deeper look into Iowa’s education system.
– Chris Conetzkey, editor of the Business Record
What is the biggest challenge to educating our future workforce?
“I believe the biggest challenge will be providing real-world experiences for students that are meaningful and provide them with both the soft and hard skills necessary to be successful in the workforce. In my opinion, these MUST occur outside of the traditional classroom setting, as you simply cannot replicate the “world of work” in the classroom. If we don’t confront that challenge in Iowa, we could be faced with significant worker shortages that inhibit the ability of our businesses and economy to grow. Students need to SEE and UNDERSTAND what the workplace looks like. Business and education need to look for continued ways to partner to provide these experiences, partnering that can benefit both business and education.”
Dave Wilkerson – Superintendent, Waukee Community School District
“Successfully educating our future workforce requires three key components: literacy, engagement and alignment. First, a bright future starts with the ability to read. Reading is the gateway skill to college and career readiness. Currently, one in four Iowa students are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade. When students fall behind early, it becomes increasingly difficult to catch up later. Iowa’s early literacy initiative is critical to educating our future workforce. Second, students must be engaged in their learning. Powerful learning occurs when students see and experience the connection between what they learn in school and their future. Iowa’s Career and Technical Education Task Force described a compelling vision for ensuring this happens consistently for all students. Finally, educating our future workforce requires alignment between the knowledge and skills educators are helping students develop and the needs of Iowa’s employers. The Future Ready Iowa initiative will better align our education, workforce and economic development efforts. Confronting these challenges is critical to educating our future workforce. When we proactively address each of these components, Iowa learners are positioned for success. They develop the skills they need and employers want, and they find meaning and purpose in their work.”
Ryan Wise – Director, Iowa Department of Education
“The biggest challenge to educating our future workforce will be to ensure that all students are provided challenging and relevant academic and career-related learning experiences that prepare them to transition to postsecondary education and careers. According to Gallup, the No. 1 indicator for student success is “hope.” Students have hope when they have teachers who care and when they see the relevancy of the content they are learning to future career opportunities. Through personalized and project-based learning that connects content to real-world experiences, students will be better prepared to make decisions about their future, and transition to postsecondary education, if they choose, and their career. This will take commitment on the part of business and industry to partner with our K-12 system. Together, they can ensure that students have a relevant curriculum and opportunities for real-world experiences. Over the next 10 years, 68 percent of the jobs in Iowa will require some postsecondary experience. We can help our youths better plan and set them on a pathway to success by ensuring that they are aware of the varied career opportunities we have in our region and ensuring that they are able to acquire the skills for those careers. We can align our future talent pipeline to workforce opportunities. After all, our human capital is our most valuable asset.”
Mary Bontrager – Executive Vice President, Greater Des Moines Partnership
“The education conversation shouldn’t be limited to educating our future workforce. We need to look at the bigger picture and understand why a leading education system is strategically important to Iowa’s long-term economic growth and how we achieve that result. Historically, Iowa has had two principal assets to drive economic growth: fertile farmland and well-educated, hardworking people. Iowa had one of the best K-12 education systems in the country, but we have lost our leadership position and ceded the education advantage to other states. Given consolidation in the agriculture sector, we will see an overall population decline in Iowa unless we are successful in attracting new “people” businesses to the state. With a changing demographic and a continuing increase in the percentage of children growing up in poverty, we could be headed toward a future Iowa with a declining population and a growing number of people who require social support services. That would translate into a poor business climate and higher taxes. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can apply lessons learned from other states with significantly improved student achievement and put them to work here in Iowa — we just have to be open to new ideas.”
Mark Jacobs – Founder, Reaching Higher Iowa