Kokomo — When it comes to its work force, Indiana has some work to do.
That’s according to the 2010 Manufacturing and Logistics Report Card, released Thursday by Conexus Indiana.
Indiana received a C- for its human capital, ranking Indiana 31st in its percentage of the work force with a high school diploma or greater and 42nd of 50 states in college-educated workers.
The grade was no surprise to Steve Daily, chancellor of the Ivy Tech Community College Kokomo region.
“Educators, government leaders and economic development professionals have been beating the education/training drum for years,” he said. “We’ve known for a long time that Indiana needed to raise the overall educational attainment levels of its work force.”
He sees hope, however, in the record enrollments Ivy Tech has seen in recent years.
“The incredible growth we have seen in Ivy Tech enrollments and in our graduation numbers is a strong indication that the message is finally reaching the Indiana population,” he said.
Jan Bailey, Ivy Tech’s executive director of work force and economic development, said the college has focused in the last two years on preparing workers for jobs in manufacturing.
Programs available include the certified production technician program, the National Institute for Metalworking Skills certification, the new welding institute on the Logansport campus, and a new pre-engineering program available starting this fall at the Kokomo campus, Bailey said.
“The college recognizes the need and is committed to allocate resources to prepare a pipeline of workers in the manufacturing sector.”
At Indiana University Kokomo, Kathy Parkison, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs and director of the Center for Economic Education, said the C- is probably a fair grade. She cites lack of preparation for higher education, though she added she is not talking specifically about Kokomo-area schools.
She said statewide, “we have a number of school systems that do not do the world’s best job in preparing students for college and the work force. You can look at our local and statewide report cards online and realize many students aren’t meeting state and local standards.”
Parkison added that Indiana does have many great teachers.
“We have pockets of excellence, but we have areas that need improvement,” she said.
She said Ivy Tech offers remedial courses, but ideally, students should graduate from high school not requiring remediation to go to college.
Parkison added that students and parents also can play a role by taking education seriously. She taught in Eastern Europe, where school classrooms had holes in the floor, no heat and few resources, but the kids worked hard because they see education as their way out.
“Those kids are working their tails off. They are so into education. I wish our kids were.”
She said IU Kokomo and Ivy Tech have taken on different roles, with IU doing leadership development and Ivy Tech doing work force development. She noted that a large percentage of IU Kokomo’s graduates stay in the Kokomo region.
“Our goal is to turn out graduates of IU Kokomo who can be active participants in the local economy.”