A college in Iowa has received $100,000 to help them train and place new drivers as part of an essential workers training program. Eastern Iowa Community College (EICC) received a $100,000 grant from Future Iowa’s Coronavirus Relief Employer Innovation Fund. This money will provide full tuition for 88 students in the college’s manufacturing and trucking programs, which may help decrease the current national driver shortage reported by the American Trucking Association.

“We’re looking at a 21% increase in the need between now and the next decade,” said Paula Arends, EICC’s director of workforce innovation. “It really is a great job, it pays well, it’s just a matter of getting people into that pipeline, and that pipeline has started to diminish over time. Older drivers are getting ready to retire in the next few years, which is the largest amount of drivers there are out there. ”Arends also points out that the trucking industry is one of the few that is still thriving despite the pandemic, making truck driving a great position to have these days. “Truck driving really does run everything, you know everything that requires goods and services throughout the country,” Arends added.