EDDYVILLE, IOWA -- One heartland school received a nice chunk of change to update a program.
Indian Hills Community College received a grant worth more than $300,000 from the National Science Foundation.
The program, entitled “Creating Career Pathways for the Bioprocessing and Biofuels Industry.”
The program helps students outline career paths and options. Students can start the program with dual enrollment their junior year of high school and continue it through college.
“It helps them decided what kind of job do they want where can they exit after two years and what kind of job would they get if they want to go on to four years what kind of courses do they need to take, It’s to develop a system so they understand what their options are in these industries,” said Iowa BioDevelopment director for IHCC Chuck Crabtree.
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The industry isn’t groundbreaking, but it is booming.
“Biofuels is also a Bioprocessing activity, and that is ethanol and biodiesel. Those are industries that are relatively new. They have been around for a long time but the growth in the last 5 years has been phenomenal,” Crabtree said.
Crabtree called the program very ambitious and said without the grant they probably would not be doing it.
He said the funds will help stipend a number of area teachers who will work together to outline new course guidelines and programs.
They also look to create more uniformity in the field and make their programs more widely accepted at four-year universities.
“One of the reasons we did Career Pathways and put this proposal together is because we want to put together a Midwest regional center to help schools and help schools get training for this industry. This Career Pathways will be shared throughout the Midwest when new are done,” Crabtree said.
He said the program will likely take two years to be developed.
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