Fort Dodge IowaWORKS Center – Iowa Workforce Development, Pizza Hut, Iowa Central Community College, and POET Biorefining at Gowrie April 22, 2013

One Stop Center – IowaWORKS help people who are unemployed or looking to change jobs by providing: Reemployment services Training Unemployment claims Finding funding for education Job Information Résumémaker Career exploration Internet access Work Keys Testing Free Workshop for: Basic Computer Skills, Interviewing Skills, Mock Interviews, Résumé Building & Cover Letter Writing

Students search for career interests. Job applications and resumes may be completed on site.

Students can access their Career Plan from I Have A Plan Iowa to identify jobs and careers of interest After they have a career interest, they log onto and search for a job & location to find availability of their career interest. Degree requirements, range of pay, and other useful information in their career field is available. An advance search can show trends for job available and demands.

Shania researched the salary of a Traveling Nurse. Heather found information about Registered Nurses.

Key Training measures reading, writing, and mathematic skills for job placement. Key Training has a pretest to determine areas of weakness. Workforce offers tutoring to improve skills before actual testing. Key Training is a self- paced test. Employers are able to rate their employees skills by these scores. Key Training is an options for schools to use as a method of career readiness.

Starting wages for fulltime employees $8.93 hourly/$18,570 annually. Accommodations & Food Services were the top industries in Lunch at Pizza Hut. Skills needed to be successful working with the public: Active ListeningService Oriented Social PerceptivenessSpeaking CoordinationMonitory (count money) Judgment/Decision MakingOrganization/Orders

POET has been in operation north of Gowrie since They produce 200,000 gallons of Ethanol per day. Gowries plant has 45 employees including mechanics, accountants, and office personnel High school diplomas are required for all employees, all office personnel have a four year degree. 100 truckloads of corn are hauled into Gowries plant per day. In 2012, they added Corn Oil Recovery to their plant production. In 2014, they will start making Ethanol out of cornstalks. Gowrie has train cars in/out per week. POET has 27 plants in Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio, and Indiana.

Each student recorded information about their job search at IowaWORKS. Later they discussed what area of service they may want to access from there at some point. Pizza Hut Buffet was a hit! One student is entering the ICCC Foods Service Program through VESS. Pizza Hut could be a future place of employment for her. Iowa Central – Students had an opportunity to explore the campus on their own. Three students will be attending VESS and two independently at ICCC in the fall. POET Biorefining – while the corn smell was a bit much for some, there was an interest in office work, control room operations, and truck driving among the students.