Educators, business leaders and workforce advocates in Kalamazoo, Michigan are aligning around a shared goal: giving students clear, supported paths into good local jobs — including the opening of a state-of-of the art $100 million regional career training campus.
Attendees at the Upjohn Institute Community Breakfast June 11 heard about efforts to prepare local students for a changing job market and toured the new Kalamazoo RESA Career Connect Campus.
The new career and technical education center will offer high school students nine career pathways identified as well-paying, high-growth and high-demand occupations, such as design, auto repair, health services and construction. The first 1,400 students start in August.
Strategically Developed Programming
Researchers at the Upjohn Institute helped officials determine what training programs would provide the best career opportunities and meet the needs of area employers. “It’s important that an investment such as this career campus prepare students for good jobs,” said Upjohn Institute President Mike Horrigan. “but it’s also important that those jobs are available in the local community. We don’t want to train our young people only to have them leave the area.”
Input from business partners also played a key role in developing the curriculum, said Sarah Mansberger, executive director of Career Connect secondary programs for KRESA. Business leaders were clear that students in technical education programs also need to learn skills such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, personal management and problem solving.
“Yes, technical skills are valuable,” Mansberger said, “and yes, they have to come alongside 21st century skills.”
Building Southwest Michigan’s Workforce Ecosystem
The Career Connect Campus was the day’s star, but speakers from other organizations working to shape the local labor market completed the picture. Michigan Works! Southwest Director Jakki Bungart-Bibb, who is also director of operations for the Upjohn Institute’s Center for Workforce Innovation and Solutions, described how her organization works to support employers, employees and job seekers. Those services include support for internship and training programs, career counseling and job placement assistance.
Jonas Peterson, CEO of Southwest Michigan First, detailed that organization’s efforts in workforce and economic development. Kalamazoo Promise CEO Von Washington marked 20 years of the Promise, the first-of-its-kind free-tuition college scholarship program that has evolved to offer other supports as needed.
While most people know that students can use the Kalamazoo Promise at colleges and universities, fewer realize it also covers vocational programs. “People don’t hear ‘scholarship’ and think ‘welder,’” Washington said. “We have to change mindsets.”
