PEORIA, Ill. – Illinois Central College will introduce three new program offerings for the fall semester, with the intent to help address gaps in employment in the region.
The new programs announced by the college Tuesday are Construction Management, Cybersecurity Analyst, and Artificial Intelligence.
President Doctor Sheila Quirk-Bailey says the three were picked, based on local labor data that showed the biggest gaps between who is available and what the needs are, after talking with area businesses. But adds that it can also help those who are in need of a job quickly.
“Wouldn’t you like to know that you’re going to get a certification in something where there are 100 job openings, as opposed to getting certified in something where there may be seven or eight?” Quirk-Bailey said.
Certifications will be offered for each program, and will take between six months to a year to obtain. Quirk-Bailey says each field has around 100-300 job openings each year, with annual salaries above $80,000.
Jim Eller leads the Construction Management program, and says one of the biggest problems is contractors being unable to keep the people they want to promote.
“They’re trying to promote these guys after they’ve seen their work for, say, four or five years, and they know they can do the job, they know they can do the job well,” Eller said. “If they have all these people jumping ship, or even say just changing trades, or changing jobs in general, you’re going to see a lot of that void,” Eller said.
Eller says the program will also teach those enrolled how to do the jobs they will oversee, so they will know how each job gets done, along with the typical management tasks.
Eller is also hopeful the program will show people that it benefits to stick it out with their job.
Shari Tripp is the teaching chair for computer and web programming at ICC, and will lead the Cyber Security program. She says it’s a high demand field.
Tripp says it’s an industry that changes each day, with growing attacks from all over the world.
She says the program teaches students how to make those security breaches not happen, through an understanding of computer networks.
Rafeeq Al-Hashemi leads the Artificial Intelligence program, where he says students will learn the foundations of AI, along with data mining and algorithms.
“Learning about these algorithms, they will push them to know and design new technology, or their own algorithm, to build better programs,” Al-Hashemi said.
Al-Hashemi says one potential application is building a program to determine when food goes bad.
Quirk-Bailey says another new program focused on electric vehicles will start at ICC in the fall of 2025.
Comments