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 Kathy Legett and Ben Oldach
The voices may be different, but the mission for Iowa Workforce Development’s Mission: Employable podcast remains the same – educating Iowans about all the valuable resources and innovative ideas out there for connecting employers with skilled Iowa workers.
“We’re definitely having fun with it,” said Kathy Leggett, who joined Ben Oldach as co-host of the podcast in January. “I would like for people every time they listen to take at least one thing away that is useful to them.”
IWD Deputy Director Ryan West launched the Mission: Employable podcast roughly two years ago to give Iowans a broader window into the world of workforce. It quickly became the gold standard for government podcasts involving any aspect of workforce.
Oldach and Leggett took over at the beginning of 2023, more than 150 episodes and 35,000 downloads later, after increased administrative duties pulled West away from the microphone.
“The best thing about this type of podcast is that it is universal in terms of helping Iowans or even enticing folks to move to Iowa,” West said. “There is no shortage of topics to help businesses and job seekers get connected with opportunities and ideas. Ben and Kathy are doing a fantastic job of taking the show to the next level.”
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 The Iowa Legislature celeberated Veterans Day at the Capitol earlier this year. That provided a chance for us to show you all the ways Iowa values our men and women in uniform. Click the image above to watch our video.
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The American Institute of Full Employment (AIFE) recently named Iowa Workforce Development as the winner of its 2022 Full Employment Award.
The award is given each year to one or more states or individuals demonstrating a commitment to excellence in helping job seekers become reemployed.
In issuing the award, AIFE noted that states across the country had experienced historic labor shortages following COVID-19 while labor force participation remained low. Iowa responded to this urgent need for workers by launching its Reemployment Case Management program in January 2022. .
AIFE noted that while 31 percent of U.S. unemployment claims led to the exhaustion of benefits in Q3 2022, Iowa was able to reduce the percentage of its claimants who exhausted their unemployment benefits to 13.7 percent, the second lowest in the nation.
“It’s encouraging to see leading states like Iowa optimize their policies and processes and implement effective approaches to reemploy UI claimants and stabilize the economy,” said AIFE President John Courtney.
For more information, visit the AIFE website.
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Eleven Iowa employers will receive a total of $357,470 to support meaningful programs aimed at reducing language barriers within Iowa’s workforce.
The grants, which were announced by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds earlier this month, are projected to support 465 program participants by helping their companies increase dual language instruction, expand communication with customers, and boost recruitment and retention efforts with new staff.
The new funding will help sponsor language programs in Spanish, English, and Mandarin. Employers were required to provide plans for sustaining each language program beyond the grant. Courses were encouraged to be conducted onsite or include multiple options for flexible transportation off-site.
“Over the last two years, Iowa has put a significant focus on identifying remaining workforce barriers and overcoming them with innovative solutions,” said Gov. Reynolds. “I applaud the leadership of today’s awardees. These state grants are about tackling language barriers so we can help businesses better communicate with employees, serve more of their customers, and expand Iowa’s workforce into new populations.”
The money will go to:
- ALPLA, Inc., Iowa City
- A.Y. McDonald Mfg. Co., Dubuque
- Catalyst Project Management, Iowa City
- Country Maid, West Bend
- Heritage Building Maintenance, Des Moines
- Interstates, Sioux Center
- Ironwood 53 Design and Build, Rock Valley
- Neumann Monson, Iowa City
- New Hope Village, Inc., Carroll
- Shearer's Foods, Burlington
- VGM Group, Waterloo
For more information on the grant, visit this link.
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 More than 35,000 downloads so far by listeners around the world. Hosts Ben Oldach and Kathy Leggett will introduce you to a host of workforce programs and people making a difference.
Click to download.
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Iowa Workforce Development expects to streamline and improve coordination of job services for veterans after the creation of a new office that is bringing most veteran-related programs under the same leadership.
IWD’s new Office of Veteran Workforce Services will be led by Jamie Norton (left), who previously oversaw veteran-related programs at IowaWORKS job centers.
Norton said the new structure for the first time will have 16 Veteran Career Planners at IowaWORKS reporting to the same person instead of individual job center managers. They also will be working more closely with the five Career Planners who had been doing similar work through the Home Base Iowa program. At the same time, the HBI team will be shifting some of its focus to include more outreach duties, such as attending more out-of-state career fairs and spending more time with Iowa communities to educate them about HBI.
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