Q&A with Ivy Tech AVP of Employer Connections Leighton Johnson
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Leighton Johnson currently serves as the Assistant Vice President for Employer Connections at Ivy Tech Community College, serving employers and learners across the state and representing the largest, accredited community college in the country.
He supports over 60 employer consultants and program managers across 19 Ivy Tech campuses to build and scale non-credit skills training delivery, industry engagement, training program development and much more. He supports program designs aligned with high-demand, high-wage industry sectors both regionally and across the state.
Johnson spoke with Inside INdiana Business about emerging industry trends in the South Bend-Elkhart region and Ivy Tech’s workforce programs. This article has been edited for brevity and clarity.
What have you seen in terms of enrollment in workforce programs or interest in these programs?
At a state level, our enrollment over the last five years has steadily increased. A driving force for that enrollment increase has been our workforce programs. Just in our statewide workforce programs alone, we’ve gone from enrollment of 20,000 five years ago to 37,000, that’s more than a 70% increase. In the South Bend-Elkhart region, we’ve seen over 60% increase in workforce programs from 2019 to 2024. Overall, our workforce enrollment was approximately 12% of total enrollment in 2019 and it’s now around 17.5% of total enrollment in 2024.
We’re seeing this additional need for upskilling incumbent adults, quickly reskilling them and if a company doesn’t want to necessarily enroll them in a full-term academic program, there’s a three or four week boot camp or a three or four day intensive training that they can be enrolled in that could result in a third party industry certification. That’s a lot of what we’ve seen employer demands signaling.
What do you mean when you say workforce programs?
So those range from apprenticeship programs, both registered non-registered tuition assistance. It’s called “Achieve Your Degree at Ivy Tech”. So if an employer wants someone to take an online Excel class or a basic electricity machining certificate pathway through our academic programs, they would be able to sign an agreement with Ivy Tech. Beacon Health is one example of “Achieve Your Degree” company in the South Bend-Elkhart region. Companies can set up for their students to take courses and those courses will be paid for by the company rather than the individual needing to secure a reimbursement to cover it.
There’s also our interdisciplinary degrees and certificates. On the certificate side, companies can come in and help us build out a customized blended academic certificate that you know might bring in different components of our various programs. Our larger segment of workforce programs is our skills training. That is anything from custom contract training with employers to Open Enrollment Training, where individuals from anywhere can access and take a course and just get a quick credential, quick upskilling with relevance to the labor market.
Are these programs open to individuals or companies outside of Indiana?
Depending on the program type. If it’s an open enrollment, let’s say in northern Indiana, someone from Michigan can enroll in the course. Companies from either side can enroll people, someone can self pay and enroll individually. Someone in Berrien County can find out about the course and enroll as well. We’re looking to upskill the state workforce but also regional workforces, some companies have sister companies across state lines. If we can support that supply chain, that ecosystem supports Indiana companies as well.
How does the partnership between Ivy Tech and the company work?
A lot of our work in the past has been like a best kept secret with custom training, corporate training. Typically, what happens is a company finds out about a program that Ivy Tech can deliver, they reach out. When they reach out, one of our employer consultants from the Ivy+ CareerLink team will meet with that company. They’ll conduct a needs analysis, ask questions about their plans for training and hiring, ask if there are any new capital equipment investments that are going to require new technology training. Will they require some digital skills training? Are they moving people into new supervisory positions where they might need that leadership training, supervisory training?
We have 60 employer consultants program managers statewide. We will create a recommendations list to make sure we’re aligned on the potential for delivery and timelines. Then they bring that back to the company. The company will select what program or partnership they want to deploy. In many cases, it’s a custom contract training. We’ll format a customized curriculum for them and then the company will enter into a contract agreement with Ivy Tech. Statewide, over 150 companies took a recent feedback survey on our skills training. From our preliminary analysis, over 90% have shared extreme satisfaction in the delivery of the programs and the alignment towards their needs.
A lot of that training is really helping with direct industry needs that companies often can’t get elsewhere. You can’t get that online from Coursera, Udemy or with any other programs. There isn’t that localized angle that we’re bringing in to teach the course and to help upskill their company. That’s what’s driving a lot of the workforce training, this ability to customize, to adapt to the regional industry needs. Employers are definitely taking us up on that more and more.
Johnson speaks on the partnership between Ivy Tech and Hoosier companies.
Speaking about the regional industry needs, what are the top industry needs in the South Bend-Elkhart region?
So we’re talking about Marshall, Elkhart and St. Joseph counties. Advanced manufacturing, for sure, that’s the largest employment sector in the region. Through the LIFT Initiative and others, there’s been a major emphasis on smart manufacturing, digital adoption. Elkhart County has received the most Manufacturing Readiness Grants (MRG) across the state. St. Joe County is number three or four. We see that as signaling that employers are embracing digital adoption in smart manufacturing. So there’s a need to shift the manufacturing workforce into a more tech integrated, digitally integrated, skilled workforce. Ivy Tech has aligned our smart manufacturing and digital integration program with Smart Automation Credentialing Alliance (SACA) certificates. It was one of the first alliances in accrediting third party industry groups in the country to embrace smart manufacturing. So Ivy Tech aligned towards that model in 2018/2019 and has since been one of the leaders in the country on one of the first smart manufacturing degrees through our associates.
In addition to that, there’s health care. In the nursing workforce post-COVID there’s been a large need to upskill and move people into nursing roles. Our Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) program is often at capacity. So continuing to upskill the nursing workforce, develop more programs around medical assisting, more programs in that middle-skill space is a neat area for the region. That’s another area where we’re trying to double down.
We would also love to see folks who are in a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) role move from a CNA to a more upskilled position, higher paying opportunity like medical technologist, medical assistant, radiologic tech. That doesn’t often happen based on the data. So you may be able to get certification in three to six months. You’ve already got the transferable skills from the health care industry and now you can quickly upskill into something else. The burnout rate for CNAs is so high, working 50/60 hour weeks. Many of them want to move into a different career, CNA is a starting point for them. So the more we can promote health care mobility pathways for those individuals, the better.
The third, especially for the region, would be in the business and tech space. Business and tech are starting to merge more and more. You have roles like business analysts, business information intelligence officers, etc. So as we look at business careers, how do we better prepare people for more digitally integrated business environments and occupations? If you’re getting a business management credential, also having a data analytics credential to help you embrace digital transformation in every aspect is going to be a key opportunity. We have a data analytics academic certificate associates program. We’re building out some data analytics workforce skills training programs. So that’s another opportunity as well.
For people who are out of a job, how can they partake in the programs at Ivy Tech and what’s the cost implication for that?
They have three avenues to glean more information. One, they can just visit our website with a lot of information on how to get started, resources, financial aid and all that. But we also have full time staff dedicated to supporting those types of individuals. So through our Ivy+ Career Link team, we have career coaches, and so an individual can connect with them and set up a coaching appointment just to talk through. We also have academic advisors. So if someone comes in and says, I know I want to just enroll directly into an academic program, they can talk to the academic advisor.
We’re an open enrollment institution, so unless it’s like a nursing program where we have a cap, most programs, you can just enroll right away. That academic advisor will connect them with a financial aid advisor. Our career coach will also help them navigate the career aspect. So regardless of whether they go the for-credit academic route, the non-credit skills training route or the apprenticeship route, we’re going to get them to where they feel they need to be and what positions them best.
If they don’t have a degree, there’s a workforce READI grant that will cover the costs of credentialing, there’s financial aid through the federally funded Pell Grant program. If you haven’t already utilized the Pell Grant at a different school, depending on your income, it would most likely cover your tuition, some parts of books and other costs of attendance. That’s why talking to an advisor or a career coach is helpful because that person will help that individual navigate the financial aid resources, the registration processes and all the other elements of their next step. Rather than going in alone, they get to go in with a multitude of advisors to help support them through that next step.
How can Ivy Tech help people be confident about their current abilities and then help them take the step to continue to upskill?
Through credentialing, through obtaining third party certifications. A lot of times, folks come in and they know a lot about whatever industry they’re in. They have very strong, transferable skills but adding those third party certifications signals to industry that you have this level of knowledge competency. Say you’re working in manufacturing and all you have is a bachelor’s, but you’ve been in the industry for 10-15 years, you’ve got some knowledge. Sometimes all you need is a certification or a credential to help signal that you have this knowledge.
Because, let’s say your company lays off and you’re impacted, how are you going to prove that you know what you know? How are you going to signal that? We support Manufacturing Skills Certifications; that’s a third party nationally recognized program. They can get certified in industrial technology, machining, lean manufacturing. Now when they go for another job, they can present their resume and these certifications that signal that they have mastery in a certain subject. Sometimes people don’t realize the vast knowledge they’ve accumulated in their work, having a third party certification just helps you build that confidence and show this is what I know. That helps you move up to that next step or gives you the confidence to ask for that raise or go for that supervisory position.
Expanding our workforce program offerings and also enabling those to be more digital is something we’re actively working on. Having an online marketplace for our programs and being able to automate that journey for someone. We’re going to always have in-person career coaching appointments, that’s always going to be a resource. But how can someone navigate that journey at midnight, when they’re up and inspired, thinking about their career?
Any final comments?
We’re launching some pilots right now. In the South Bend-Elkhart region on Nov. 7, we’re launching a Project Management Essentials course. It’s going to be a six-week virtual course. We’re also launching a Programmable Logic Controllers boot camp from Oct. 14 – 17 for industrial technology maintenance professionals. It’s a three-day intensive boot camp at our Michigan City site. We’re going to be launching new programs in 2025 and if companies want to reach out, they can reach out to me directly, they can also reach out to our South Bend-Elkhart CareerLink team. We’re just excited about where things are growing with the college.