Eastern Iowa partnership now a model for Iowa and the nation, teaching “real-life work knowledge”
When Brad Kurtz was attending Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School about seven years ago, he had some decidedly mature ideas about what he wanted to do with his life.
“I wanted a good job with a chance for a strong career, but I was looking for more than that. I wanted a job where I could be a strong member of the community,” Kurtz recalls.
That general concept soon led him to a most specific—and rare—choice for his first profession. He pursued a job as a funeral director. Thanks to a job-shadowing experience and internship at Cedar Memorial Funeral Home in Cedar Rapids, he was certain that role was for him.
Kurtz is one of more than 70,000 area students who have picked up employment ideas and work insights through the Workplace Learning Connection. This cooperative partnership matches students, employers and educators in a variety of skill-building and career enlightening activities that make promising careers real and relatable to students and encourage job-seeking within our area.
The Workplace Learning Connection is celebrating 10 years of creative work education in east central Iowa this summer. The locally created program finds itself replicated in parts of Iowa and often held up as a model around the nation.
The collaborative effort was conceived in the mid-1990s in discussions between Kirkwood Community College, the Grant Wood Area Education Agency and a group of business leaders interested in making good career options better known in east central Iowa.
Mary Lou Erlacher has been the Workplace Learning Connection’s leader since its inception in 1998. She says the concept since the beginning has been to “make work real and relevant” to area young people.
“The early discussions focused on the need for a coordination point for the requests from schools to employers for career development activities. It has since progressed to include the timely needs of area business and industry to answer the looming need for skilled workers and replacing the rapidly increasing retirement waves,” Erlacher recalls. “I think the concepts have grown to encompass a true business-education partnership and the value of building career awareness for continuing to grow the area economy. The number of cooperating businesses and the level of financial support and participation tell us that the Workplace Learning Connection was and is timely and valuable for our area.”
That workplace relevance was a key factor in focusing Brad Kurtz on his future job in a funeral home. He credits the Workplace Learning Connection with “true on the job insights” during his high school days.
“I appreciated the opportunities to visit Cedar Memorial while I was still in school. That initial visit became an internship, then I was able to take a part-time job with them. All that was while I was still in school,” he said.
Kurtz earned a two-year degree from Kirkwood following high school graduation as he continued work at Cedar Memorial. Following Kirkwood graduation he attended the specialized training at the Worsham College of Mortuary Science in suburban Chicago.
“They pack a lot of training into just a year of classes at Worsham. When I completed there I came back for a one-year apprenticeship at Cedar Memorial. That’s a standard in the industry. I have been a full-time funeral director for about three years now and find it very rewarding,” Kurtz said.
Erlacher points to the widening level of support and participation for Workplace Learning Connection as evidence of her agency’s growth over the past decade.
“We can now honestly say we have a presence in all the counties Kirkwood serves. That includes 33 school districts, both public and private and learning opportunities not only for high school students but site visits and classroom discussions in the primary grades, too. One of the things we are most proud of is the 800-plus businesses that shared their time, staff and hands-on learning with us last year. There is just no substitute for seeing career opportunities up close and in a personal level,” Erlacher observed.
Another key partnership in the Workplace Learning Connection effort is the network of Kirkwood Career Edge Academy programs throughout the area. Students in more than 40 high school programs get opportunities to study career-focused programs, earn dual high-school and college credit, plus have their own blend of workplace-focused experiences before graduation. Many students take the college credit earned straight to Kirkwood or other higher education programs.
Kirkwood Executive Director of Secondary Programs, Dave Bunting was a key architect of the Career Edge programs and calls the Workplace Learning Connection “the vital link and tool to make them work” in the region.
“From the beginning, there has been a strong belief that education, workforce development, and economic develop must work together to inspire students towards their future and its many possibilities. Through the vision and passion of the Workplace Learning Connection team, students and teachers in this region are the beneficiaries of this national model for connecting education and business,” Bunting observed.
Another indicator of the impact of the Workplace Learning Connection is St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids. Erlacher points to a recent figure shared by the hospital’s human resources office to illustrate “the value of working and learning” in this hands-on setting.
“The St. Luke’s people told us that over the past decade, 29 percent of the unpaid high school interns placed through our program were later hired for full-time work there. Those students learned first-hand what health care was about, got higher education and training beyond high school and are now active in the field. That’s a wonderful illustration of how we connect the future employees and their workplace through productive learning,” Erlacher said.
As promising as the numbers and productive relationships are, Erlacher says there is more to be done to build on her agency’s work in the past ten years.
“We are flattered that our partnership model has been used as a blueprint for how other colleges, school districts and business communities can answer these big challenges for their own regions. Several Iowa community colleges have started their own intermediary organizations, but that leaves a lot of opportunity yet to be pursued. And yes, the Workplace Learning Connection has been emulated in other partnerships in other parts of the country. We have won regional and national awards for our model and results. But there are many areas that could still benefit from our model or one similar, customized to their needs,” Erlacher said.
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The Workplace Learning Connection will celebrate its 10 year anniversary with a reception Thursday, June 5 at the Kirkwood Center for Continuing Education on Kirkwood Boulevard SW. The 4 to 6 p.m. reception will feature remarks from Grant Wood AEA President Ron Fielder and Kirkwood President Mick Starcevich. Featured speaker is Karen Merrick of the Iowa Department of Economic Development.
More information on the programs and partnerships of the Workplace Learning Connection is available at its Web site: http://www.kirkwood.edu/site/index.php?d=127
Area businesses interested in participating in workplace experiences for students may contact Erlacher at the Workplace Learning Connection office, (319) 398-1040.