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Even During COVID, ICC Is Training Students For Living-Wage, Full-Time Jobs

Courtesy Illinois Central College

The statewide Workforce Equity Initiative launched in 2019. Locally, it aims to teach students skills to secure jobs that pay $14.75 per hour or more. That’s 30% above the individual Peoria County living wage of $11.35. But COVID throws some wrenches in learning.

The initiative trains in a variety of disciplines, including truck driving certification, manufacturing, welding and health and technology careers. Paula Nachtrieb is executive director of workforce operations at Illinois Central College, the lead institution among 17 community colleges now participating statewide. She said COVID-19 created new hurdles on top of existing ones.

“We’re really looking at individuals who have multiple barriers,” Nachtrieb said. “Sometimes, not only do they come from poverty, they may be a single parent with children and now with this COVID they all had to maneuver to this online training, which is not really what they had signed up for in the beginning.”

Hands-on learning components are required for many courses, which COVID makes difficult to do. Some students have returned to hands-on learning, but Nachtrieb said COVID mitigations mean smaller-sized classes and waitlists. Truck driving CDL certification is a good example.

“Because of COVID, we had to really reduce the numbers of individuals that can go through the program. We used to put 12 (in the program) every four weeks…But now, it’s down. You can only have a couple in the truck at a time, but it’s just the class size is so limited,” said Nachtrieb.

The Workforce Equity Initiative program intends to eliminate barriers to success. Nachtrieb said community partners help leverage household and childcare needs. Eligible students receive financial aid, supply needs, stipends and certification program fees. Nachtrieb said these efforts keep people in the classroom.

“Instead of saying, 'I can’t go to school because I have to go work,' they might say 'I can stick this out for eight weeks, I can still get paid and get a credential and then I can go work',” said Nachtrieb.

The Workforce Equity Initiative is yielding initial success despite COVID. Sixty percent of the students must be Black under grant guidelines. Nachtrieb said ICC’s Black enrollment tops 75%. Nearly 100 students have completed ICC programs so far, with 56 securing full-time employment.

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Kristin McHugh is an experienced radio journalist and nonprofit manager. Most recently, she served as executive director of the Peoria Area World Affairs Council.