(Radio Iowa) — A central Iowa trucking company has gotten a state grant to train a small group of Iowans to be truck drivers or for the high-tech career of tracking trucks. Melissa Brooker Zollman is head of human resources for T-M-C Transportation, the largest, privately-owned trucking company in the nation. “In addition, we’re employee-owned,” she says. “…One of our greatest challenges is truly to find, attract and recruit skilled talent.”

The company is using the state grant to work with Youth Emergency Shelter Services to recruit four Story County students for internships next summer. The students will work in the company’s training facility in Ames for potential jobs in Information Technology or Logistics. “Those are two of our fastest growing departments at TMC,” she says, “and I think given the programming in the community and the schools, YSS has the ability to truly engage and recruit students and adult learners from under-represented and/or low income households.”

The company and Youth Emergency Shelter Services in Story County also will recruit and enroll six young adults who are at least 23 years old in truck driving school. “The participants will receive advanced pay each week as well as paid living assistance while they’re completing that program,” Brooker Zollman says. “Upon successful completion of the eight-week training program, participants will receive their (Commercial Drivers License) certification from the Iowa Department of Transportation and continued employment with TMC.”

The Des Moines-based trucking company is among 13 firms getting state grants from the Iowa Employer Innovation Fund. All the companies promise to spend their own funds along with the state grants on projects that boost the number of Iowans who get an advanced degree or some sort of professional certificate after they graduate from high school.