Ivy Tech Partners With Indiana Chamber For Workforce Development

A new partnership between the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and Ivy Tech Community College will make tuition discounts available to some Hoosier employees as part of an existing program at the 2-year college.

Ivy Tech's Achieve Your Degree program connects Hoosiers with education programs - and financial aid options - to build their career credentials. The new partnership between Ivy Tech and the Indiana Chamber expands those efforts and includes a 5 percent discount on tuition costs not already covered by financial aid, for employees at the chamber's member companies.

Ivy Tech's Senior Vice President for Workforce Alignment, Chris Lowery, says, it's a response to the state's growing workforce needs.

"I think the way we're looking at it is, the need is vast. I mean it is enormous, again, I hear from employers every day that they just don't have all the talent they need," he says.

Lowery says the new partnership is a key piece of the college's goals to increase the median wage in Indiana, and the number of degrees and certificates awarded at Ivy Tech each year.

The chamber also sees it as a way to hit its own targets. The Chamber's Vice President of Communication and Operations Tom Schuman says the group's wide-reaching business connections make it easier to spread the word about the program.

"We have 45-50 events a year in which we do training, a lot of it's HR and safety training, well we have the right people in the room to help make them aware of Achieve Your Degree," he says.

Ivy Tech started Achieve Your Degree in 2015. Schuman says growing it will allow employers to do even more to skill up Indiana's workforce, a key goal for the chamber by 2025.