Ivy Tech leaning heavy on workforce with strategic plan

Ivy Tech Community College says innovation and connection are two focus areas for its new three-year strategic plan. The institution said when the plan was approved earlier this month it would serve as a road map to address the needs of employers in advanced manufacturing, nursing, and other growing industries.

“It is about expanding those partnerships with industry but most importantly, responding to them at their pace of change,” said Ivy Tech President Sue Ellspermann.

Ellspermann discussed the new strategic plan in an interview on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick.

“[We want to be] able to offer exactly what [employers] need to build the partnerships that work for them and to bring adult learners into that talent pipeline, credit for prior learning, things that help their employees [and] our students to be able to fill those high-wage, high-demand careers that they have,” said Ellspermann.

The plan includes four specific goals: teaching and learning, workforce and careers, student experience, and operational excellence.

Ellsperman said Indiana’s economy is changing and Ivy Tech aims to be at the forefront of that by partnering with businesses.

She cited the school’s involvement with the $2.5 billion investment from Stellantis (NYSE: STLA) and Samsung SDI to build an electric vehicle battery facility in Kokomo. Samsung SDI CEO Yoon Ho Choi said Ivy Tech’s campus in Kokomo and its relationship with the automaker was one of the reasons Kokomo was selected for the project.

Ellspermann said Ivy Tech is also involved in the partnership that brought Minnesota-based SkyWater Technology (Nasdaq: SKYT) to the Purdue University campus to build a $1.8 billion semiconductor R&D and production facility.

But the effort doesn’t stop with industry partnerships. Ellspermann said the college is also continuing to partner with Hoosier high schools to get students more credentials while they’re still in high school.

“We have over 70,000 high school students taking dual credit this year…and of those, thousands are earning their first credential, over 6,000 last year. That could be first year of college or that certificate or associate degree that will get them into the workforce into that great, great job and career.”

Looking ahead, Ellspermann said Ivy Tech is on pace to achieve the goal from its previous strategic plan when it comes to completion of high-quality certifications, certificates, or degrees annually.

“Our big vision was 50,000 completions a year aligned with Indiana’s workforce and communities,” she said. “We’re over 41,000; we have done 80% of that work. That last part is coming in this plan and we will get there we will deliver for Indiana.”