Accelerated Career Education Program (260G)

Topics:

Business Engagement

Partnering with Community Colleges to Enhance Iowa's Workforce

The Accelerated Career Education (ACE) program is designed to provide businesses with an enhanced, skilled workforce. ACE helps Iowa's community colleges establish or expand programs that train individuals in the occupations most needed by Iowa businesses.

Your business can enter into an agreement with a community college to sponsor some or all of the positions created by establishing a new or expanding a current educational program.
By sponsoring the educational program, your business agrees to consider the student(s) in it for employment upon completion of the respective training.
Businesses must assist with program design and provide a 20 percent match of the program costs, pro-rated by the percentage of positions sponsored.
Businesses who enter into an agreement with a community college can offset their costs for the program with tax benefits.
- Your specific benefits will depend on the number of program job credits your company accrues and how many seats in training it sponsors.
- Your business can receive a credit for up to 10 percent of the hiring wage (minimum wage being 200 percent of the federal poverty guideline for a family of two) that you would pay to an individual who completes the program requirements.
- Job credits are a diversion of a company's current state of Iowa personal income withholding tax and are paid to the community college over the life of an agreement, which is usually five years.