A new program that will hit the City of Jefferson soon has started to gain national attention.

Linc Kroeger of Pillar Technology, now known as Industry X, says they will be locating a rural Forge office in Jefferson. Their program is giving software development training to students while they are in high school. They will then go through the career academy with Iowa Central Community College and onto their own specific training program. Once the individual makes it through the program, they can earn between $60,000-$75,000 without any college debt.

Kroeger notes that their program has reached the ears of California Congressman Ro Khana, who was appointed by President Barack Obama to a group charged with bringing tech to rural America. He also spoke with US Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, who was at the Future Ready Iowa Summit. Kroeger says the US Department of Labor and Education is still being considered for consolidation and Acosta believes the system being put in place in Jefferson hits on the three aspects he wants to address in his administration. Those areas include: reducing the six-year college graduation rate, reducing college debt and creating parallel pathways to four-year degrees.

“The combination of actually taking more free college with the lower hopeful probability of not changing majors-which is one of the big reasons kids drop out and their debt goes up is they change majors-is that will be very influential with reducing debt and improving the college dropout (rate). And then obviously having the academy here, they don’t need to go to a four-year school. They can do this whole pathway here. And the whole bonus it actually prospers and helps the rural communities in America.”

Kroeger hopes to have the new Forge open in Jefferson by next May.