“We’re doing a lot more business and industrial training,” said Dan Kinney, the president of the Fort Dodge-based college. “We’re seeing a real increase in our non-credit offerings out there.”

The college has partnered with Jensen Builders Ltd. in Fort Dodge recently to train some of its workers. Each week, those workers spend one day at the college and four days at the construction company.

Another example of such a partnership can be found in Storm Lake, where employees of Tyson Foods spend their mornings at the college’s center there four days a week and spend the rest of those days at work. Kinney said those employees earn $18 an hour even when they’re in class.

That kind of training is part of an ongoing evolution in education, according to Kinney. That evolution began with the realization that not everyone needs a bachelor’s degree to get a good job.

-Messenger file photo by Hans Madsen
Bill Greehey, at right, with a little help from Tri, the Iowa Central Community College mascot and college President Dan Kinney, at left, helps break ground for the Greehey Family Student Success Center.

Now it’s becoming apparent that for some career fields just a certificate or a diploma is enough to get someone into the workforce, he said.

Kinney said Iowa Central will continue to work closely with area high schools, especially on offering their students education in specific careers.

“There are some great career opportunities in our region we need to expose our youth to,” he said.

High school students in Greene County will be able to take those types of classes in a new facility. Last year, voters in the Greene County Community School District approved a bond referendum to pay for a new high school in Jefferson. One wing of the school will be a career academy operated by Iowa Central. Construction is expected to start this spring.

Training for health care careers remains very popular at Iowa Central. The college offers programs in nursing, medical laboratory technology, dental hygiene, radiology and emergency medical services.

Advanced manufacturing classes, including welding, are also popular. And Kinney said the college has seen a lot of growth in its computer network technology programs.

Kinney said the college still has many students who complete an associate’s degree and then transfer to a four-year college or university.

Starting in the 2019-2020 academic year, Iowa Central students will be able to take advantage of a flat-rate tuition program, and at the same time check out a Surface Go tablet device that would enable them to access textbooks and other materials electronically.

Iowa Central is the first community college in the state to offer such a program and one of the first in the nation to do so.

“Our goal behind this is increasing student success by making college more affordable,” Stacy Mentzer, the college’s vice president of instruction, said in December when the school’s Board of Directors approved the plan.

The plan could trim between $1,000 and $2,000 off the cost of earning an associate degree, college leaders say.

Under the plan, students taking 12 to 18 credit hours a semester would pay the same rate.

For Iowa residents, that rate would be $2,850 per semester.

Tuition has traditionally been based on the number of credit hours a student takes each semester. That meant that students paid more for taking more courses.

Students who want to complete an associate degree in two years generally have to take 15 to 18 credit hours each semester.

Kinney said the flat-rate tuition program will hopefully encourage students to take more credit hours. He said research shows that students do better academically when they take more credit hours.