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Guest column: Illinois Needs More Skilled Workers. Our Community College Can Help · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Guest column, Illinois needs more skilled workers. Our community college
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  can help. Written by Tracy Morris. This article is being
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  read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
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  Across our region, industries are struggling to find the qualified
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  workers they need. The roles they are trying to fill
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  require bachelor's degrees. Because of the complexity in manufacturing, technology, healthcare, engineering,
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  or skilled technical fields. Employers are watching people with potential
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  stop short of the finish line because there is no affordable,
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  accessible path to a four year degree in their own
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  backyard that fits within the realities of their work schedules,
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  their families, and their lives. For more than one hundred years,
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  Illinois Valley Community College has been a leader in the
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  education and training of our workforce. No place so close
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  can take you so far is more than a slogan.
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  It is our promise to our communities. A baccalaureate degree
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  program would be life changing for many community college district students,
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  especially for those unable to commute or relocate to a
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  university an hour or more away. We are in a
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  unique position to fill workforce gaps by providing select degrees
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  based on labor data that will benefit our communities directly.
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  We already have a strong relationship with local industries such
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  as Ecoscorp and Marquee Energy, who have been at the
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  forefront of supporting the Community college Baccalaureate degree program for
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  our community. Both companies have hired our graduates, participated in
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  advisory councils, and helped shape curriculum, and are now stepping
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  forward in this initiative with letters of support. When IVCC
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  can offer a bachelor's degree, we know that our industries
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  can do something they have not been able to do before.
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  Hire people trained specifically for the work they do in
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  the community where they operate. People who are trained here,
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  who have roots here, stay, they grow with us. That
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  continuity is worth more than any recruiting pipeline. Research consistently
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  shows that regional economies are stronger when people earn degrees
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  and build careers close to home. Wages stay local, tax
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  revenue stays local. The professional class every community needs puts
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  down roots. The Illinois Valley is a place worth investing in,
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  but we need the tools to do it. The Community
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  College Baccalaureate Act is not a radical idea. More than
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  twenty states already allow community colleges to offer bachelor's degrees,
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  and it is working. Illinois has been watching this model
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  succeed elsewhere for years. It is time we gave our institutions,
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  our employers, and our students the same opportunity. Illinois Valley
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  Community College is ready, our industries are ready. The students
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  who want this path are ready. I urge members of
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  the Illinois General Assembly to pass HB five thousand than
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  three hundred and nineteen this session and give our communities
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  the workforce infrastructure we need to grow. Please join me
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  in contacting our local legislators to continue to encourage them
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  to pass this bill this session. Thank you for your
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  support and action.