Gov. Jennifer Granholm Wednesday launched a "No Worker Left Behind" job training program.
The goal: to train 100,000 Michigan residents for high-demand careers.
By redirecting federal funds currently used for job training, NWLB will provide up to two years of free tuition at any Michigan community college, university, or other approved training program for qualifying participants. Participants must earn a certification or degree needed in a high-demand occupation or gain the entrepreneurial skills needed to start their own businesses.
Partners in the No Worker Left Behind initiative include Michigan’s 28 community colleges, the Michigan Community Colleges Association, the Michigan Works Association and 25 Michigan Works agencies, the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth, four-year colleges and universities, and licensed proprietary schools.
“By 2012, Michigan will have a shortage of 334,000 skilled workers,” said Keith W. Cooley, director of the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth, the state department that is charged with overseeing the NWLB initiative. “We know that 70 percent of the fastest growing jobs by 2010 will require a post-secondary degree.”
Training in-high demand occupations vary from region to region and include advanced manufacturing, health care, biotechnology, and renewable energy, as well as other growing sectors.
Eligible participants include any person who is currently unemployed, who has received a notice or termination or layoff from employment, or whose family income is $40,000 or less. Participants must be at least 18 years old, must not have graduated from high school within the last two years, and must not be full-time college students. They have three years to sign up for the program.
For more information, call Michigan Works at 1-800-285-WORKS (9675) or go to the NWLB website at www.michigan.gov/nwlb.
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2 comments:
How can the STEM initiative and your proposal on the table for the NSA grant link up with this effort to enhance its effectiveness.This program of the Governors is reactionary to current trends in the economy, which of course is better than a poke in the head with a sharp stick.However what is needed is a fundamental increase in peoples capacity to proactively think in all various dimensions applicable to life.This is absolutely necessary to "train" tomorrows "worker".
Jim B:
Our NSF ITEST Grant is a seminal research & development initiative regarding reinventing K-20 (K-12 and Higher-Ed) education to prepare them to address the current ever-widening disparity between what is inadequate and what is/will be anticipated to be adequate in the technological 21st (this) Century.
The current proposal is merely "good money afer bad" in my opinion in that if Higher-Ed were capable of addressing today's technological dilemma it would, but alas it can not. Witness the high-tech sectors seeking H-1B visa increases and searching everywhere (globally) but here for high-tech talent. We have met the enemy.....and it is indeed us. You probably encapsulated the thought with your comment regarding "capacity to proactively think" something that has gone-missing for a few decades or so in this country and something which is not so easy to simply quantify.....and test-out.
What to think is our current educational mantra.....when it should be as you have described "how to think!"
As far as aligning to these efforts on behalf of the Governors initiative mentioned here, you should know that ALL 50 governors (National Governors Association NGA) are actively on the STEM Train with their "Innovation America" initiative which is an outgrowth of President Bush' 2006 "American Competitiveness Initiative." In fact the 40 billion U.S. funding for the "America Competitiveness Bill" is being legislated in the U.S. House and the Senate as we speak. The funding will be used to facilitate STEM-focused innovation fast-track efforts. Although, as a country we may not have the "URGENCY Factor" yet (everything is just fine here), we do have capital to throw at the proverbial wall. AND as they say 40 billion is not chump-change....unless your fighting a war or two........Anyway, I endeth the rant. Please forgive!
Best,
Jim
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