Business Education Alliance

The Business Education Alliance (BEA), operated by the Iowa Business Council (IBC), is comprised of stakeholders representing the business community, K-12 education, and postsecondary education. The goal of the BEA is to align stakeholders in business and education to meet the current and future workforce needs of the state of Iowa.

The availability of a skilled workforce remains a major area of concern to Iowa businesses. Combined with Iowa’s weak population growth and diminished overall labor force, the scarcity of a highly skilled workforce will continue to negatively impact Iowa for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the alignment of business and education is critical to the long-term economic success of the state in effort to accelerate talent pipelines of educational institutions into the workforce.

Initiatives include:

• Continue to promote and expand work-based learning (WBL) opportunities.
• Continued educator and business roundtable meetings.
• Host fourth annual BEA symposium focusing on the connection between business and higher education.