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Quad Cities economic round table addresses the problems area industries face

Industry leaders from the Quad Cities’ area explored challenges and opportunities at a round table meeting.

MOLINE - Industry leaders from the Quad Cities' area explored challenges and opportunities at a round table meeting hosted by Illinois Congresswoman Cheri Bustos and Senator Richard Durbin.

Businesses talked about the problems they're facing and one of the biggest, is finding skilled workers.

"When I hear the representative from John Deere say we have 350 job openings, for goodness sake, there's some good jobs, I bet in that group of 350 many of them might be local," said Durbin.

Both Senator Durbin and Congresswoman Bustos says working with community colleges in the area will help to find those workers to fill the jobs.

"When we all work together, community colleges for example, partnering with some of these small manufacturers, knowing what the job needs are and adapting their curriculum to get people ready," said Bustos.

Another issue industry leaders brought up is finding certified teachers to work in rural areas.

Senator Durbin says in order to find teachers, they need to have more incentives.

"Most of them are coming to these jobs with student loans, if we gave them a forgiveness on student loans to teach in certain high need areas," said Durbin.

Congresswoman Bustos will be holding an Economic Summit on Friday, November 17th at Augustana College to discuss possible solutions to the problems that were talked about.

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