A Workforce Focused Week

The House passed bills this week to increase economic growth in Iowa and increase profitability for Iowa farmers.

HSB 674: Iowa Skilled Workforce Act

Introduced to the House today, the Iowa Skilled Workforce act bridges gaps between available skilled job positions and the Iowans who have the credentials to fill them. This bill intends to create a partnership between the state, Iowa schools and relevant and important trades that Iowa and the future workforce needs. This legislation intends to do so by focusing on two main areas: Investing in the growth and empowering the experts who already exist here in Iowa.

This investment in growth looks like an increase in the 84E Apprenticeship Act by $1.5 Million (from $3 million to $4.5 million), this money goes directly to financing registered apprenticeship programs across the state. This bill also creates the Career Training Physical Expansion Program which gives financial backing for building facilities at community colleges and within union and non-union private sector programs to accomplish this workforce expansion.

The house is also increasing the flexibility at the local level by removing red tape for teaching by allowing veteran tradespeople with 3,000 hours lead classrooms. This is only a little bit of what this bill does, the house will continue to shift the focus to the future by setting up Iowa to fill positions of these high demand jobs.

As always, thank you for the honor to serve you in the Iowa House. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or issues. I’d love to have visitors, so don’t hesitate to come to the Capitol and say hi.