Inside INdiana Business is reporting that Ivy Tech Community College President Sue Ellspermann says the key driver of the school’s new five-year strategic plan is alignment with the needs of the workforce — both present and future. Currently, Ivy Tech delivers 21,000 degrees and certifications per year. The new goal is 50,000 annually, designed to match the state’s long-term push for 60 percent of Hoosiers to have a post-secondary degree or credential.
In an interview on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, she said thousands of jobs requiring high and middle-skilled training are going unfilled and Ivy Tech is working with the state and its community partners to determine how to connect employers with the workforce they need. “That’s a community college’s mission. It’s to serve that need of up-skilling a workforce, while also providing the transfer opportunity for out students to a four-year institution,” she said. “So, we do both, but we cannot ignore that our high priority is making sure that we’re meeting the needs of employers of each community, which is different across the state.”
If Ivy Tech meets the seven objectives of the “Our Communities. Your College. Pathways for Student Success and a Stronger Indiana” plan, the college says payoffs will include placing workers in high-demand fields for years to come and increasing the average wage of Hoosiers.