Iowa school districts and their would-be employees have begun educating themselves about IowaWORKS.gov after a new state law changed the way education jobs must be advertised in Iowa.
Senate File 560, which was recently approved by the Iowa Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds, is an appropriations bill that eliminated the Iowa Department of Education’s Teach Iowa website. The law requires that all Iowa education organizations begin posting their open jobs on IowaWORKS.gov beginning July 1. Teach Iowa will not accept any new postings after that date.
The new requirement applies to any jobs posted by the Department of Education, school districts, charter schools, Area Education Agencies, and/or accredited nonpublic schools.
Iowa Workforce Development will be working closely with impacted organizations to help them spool up their IowaWORKS accounts. IWD’s Business Engagement Consultants already have launched a campaign to contact every impacted organization over the next few weeks to offer assistance with the transition.
IWD also has created a new website where educators can find video training on how to get started with IowaWORKS.gov. The site also provides links to upcoming webinars (scheduled for July) to teach job seekers about the new system.
“We will do whatever’s necessary to get the right information to the right people as quickly as possible,” said Beth Townsend, Director of Iowa Workforce Development. “IWD exists to connect employers with the qualified workers they need, and now we will be bringing that focus to education careers on Iowa’s largest jobs platform. We will be working diligently to help those in education learn about the powerful tools available through IowaWORKS.gov.”
IWD and the Iowa Department of Education are urging everyone connected with education job searches – both organizations and job seekers – to register with IowaWORKS as soon as possible. IWD has plans to automatically transfer any job postings contained on Teach Iowa as of June 30 to the IowaWORKS.gov system. This will not require any action by the job poster.
However, other information stored on Teach Iowa, such as the resumes and credentials of job seeking teachers, will not be maintained on the old site. Educators will need to transfer or upload new copies of their information if they intend to search for jobs after July 1.
For more information about IowaWORKS.gov and the transition away from Teach Iowa, visit IWD’s Iowa Education Jobs website.