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Indian Hills Community College receives $1 million for trucker training • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]

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Date: 2024-07-01  

Another Iowa community college will expand its commercial driving training program using federal funding secured this spring.

U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn visited Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa Monday to announce the community college will receive a $1 million investment to build a new driving pad for its truck driver education program. The grant was awarded through the Community Project Funding process and included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, signed in March.

“This key investment boosts the workforce across Iowa and supports our economy, and it’s exactly the type of investment I feel very strongly taxpayers want to see happening directly in their community,” Nunn said. “Ones that complement what’s already happening in the public and private sector.”

Indian Hills Community College President Matthew Thompson said ever since he came to the community college in 2013, college leaders have talked about wanting to construct a driving skills training pad for students to practice on. That dream is coming true thanks to these federal funds, he said.

The college will spend the next six to nine months working to plan and bid out the pad construction, Thompson said, then break ground as soon as next spring and open the pad up for students by the end of next summer.

As the commercial driver’s license (CDL) program can take as little time as six weeks, Thompson said enrolling in the college’s training is a tremendous way to quickly go from being unemployed or having a low-paying job to making anywhere from $70,000 to $100,000 a year.

“This is just one more step in helping us grow a program that is heightening,” Thompson said.

David Hynick, a commercial truck driving instructor at the community college, said the best moments in the program come when he can see the students putting together all of the instruction and training they’ve had and using them in practice.

“You can see the smile on their face, and they’re just glowing,” Hynick said.

Des Moines Area Community College also received a $1 million federal grant to expand access to CDL training through its transportation institute, which is currently under construction for rehabilitation and modernization.

Nunn reiterated previous remarks Monday about the need for truck drivers in the U.S. — there is currently a shortage of around 80,000 drivers, a number that could double over the next five years if the lack of drivers isn’t addressed. Effects if the shortage can be felt all across Iowa, Nunn said, from hometown businesses to family farms to the grocery store.

“Drivers are critical for many of our small businesses. They include everything from helping deliver crops for a harvest season, to making sure that we’ve got food and gas … anything that you might be buying online, probably got to you because of a truck and a truck driver,” Nunn said. “Apprenticeships and hands-on training are one of the key elements that Indian Hills Community College offers to address this critical job, so that’s why I want to support these educational opportunities.”

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[1] Url: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/07/01/indian-hills-community-college-receives-1-million-for-trucker-training/

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