A bill that has been working through both chambers of the Iowa legislature is looking at restructuring how apprenticeships are ran.

District 47 State Representative Chip Baltimore says trade businesses in the state are in high demand for skilled workers which shouldn’t be happening since the beginning of the recession five-years ago.

Currently, training for skilled positions like electricians and plumbers are ran through the community colleges as administrators of the programs, and they charge a fee that can range from 7-18% with that money earmarked to go directly to the college and not to the training programs.

Baltimore believes that they need to restructure how that money and the programs are handled.

“Let’s have them flow straight from the (Iowa) Economic Development Authority to the apprenticeship programs.  We cut out some administration (and) get more dollars into the programs and make it more efficient that way with more direct oversight as far as the entity that’s directly responsible for creating jobs in the state.”

He notes that community colleges would still play a part in the program, it’s just that the funding and the administration portion would be shifted to a different entity.

Baltimore adds that part of their bill includes increased funding from $1 million to $3 million from the economic development budget for the state to assist in the training programs.

He’s optimistic that the bill will be brought before the full House and over to the Senate to consider before the end of the legislative session.