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 assists Iowa's community colleges to either establish or expand programs that train individuals in the occupations most needed by Iowa businesses.

Businesses enter into an agreement with a community college to sponsor a portion or all of the positions created by establishing a new or expanding a current educational program
By sponsoring the educational program, a company agrees to consider the student for employment upon completion of the respective training
Businesses must assist with program design and provide a 20% match of the program costs, pro-rated by the percentage of positions sponsored
Businesses that enter into an agreement with a community college offset the costs of the program through tax benefits
- Contingent upon the number of program job credits a company accrues and are awarded based upon the number of seats they sponsor
- Can be up to 10% of the hiring wage (minimum wage being 200% of the federal poverty guideline for a family of two) that a sponsoring business would pay to an individual that 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