Hi, I'm Jeff, Rea your host for Economic Outlook.

Thanks for joining us.

Each week as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives with a panel of experts, business leaders in Southwest Michigan have teamed up to create a talent supply chain through registered apprenticeships to feed their future workforce needs.

We'll dive deeper into that effort on this week's show and talk about the work of the Berrien Talent Collaborative and how it's preparing students for future careers.

Businesses around the country are working to find solutions to their short term and long term workforce needs.

In Berrien County, leaders have teamed up a Berrien Talent Collaborative to open up new training opportunities for students through apprenticeships, with the hope of meeting those workforce needs.

Joining me today for a closer look at that effort are Arthur Havilcek the president and CEO of the Southwest Michigan Chamber.

Al Pscholka , the vice president of enrollment, marketing and government relations at Lake Michigan College, and Chris Machiniak the assistant superintendent, CTE and systems Improvement with Berrien RESA.

Guys, welcome.

Thank you.

I got some long titles there, but, yeah, I know that means you're doing important work, and so we appreciate that.

Thank you for coming.

This is a topic we've been wanting to talk a little bit about.

We're excited about the partnership that's, helping open up future workforce opportunities.

Maybe just to start just to help frame, you know, kind of who you are, what you do.

Arthur, come your way.

Tell us about the southwest Michigan Chamber.

Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber is a 501C 6 business advocacy organization, serving Berrien, Cass, Van Buren County.

We're based out of Saint Joseph, Michigan.

And as you well know, Jeff, talent is the number one issue facing our members today.

I see, al, you've been in the talent business to talk a little bit about Lake Michigan College and Lake Michigan College.

We've been around since 1946.

We're leading leaders in training 75 different programs.

And just excited to collaborate with you and these guys on building our future workforce.

Let's get to Chris lets come your way.

Yep.

So in.

Yep.

Berrien RESA, it's the regional education service agency.

We work with all of our local school districts around all things special education, career and technical education.

Great.

Arthur let me come back your way.

So talk a little bit about this workforce need.

You're working with employers really in all sectors.

Give us a little bit of the state of the workforce right now.

Well, sure.

In Michigan, there's an added element, that I like to address too, with populations.

So Michigan has been experiencing some population loss, declining and an aging workforce.

And what that amounts to really is talent scarcity.

So employers are having a harder time finding the talent that they need.

And one of the common terms that we talk about in education a lot is the workforce pipeline.

The talent pipeline.

And, you know, is the president of the chamber, in southwest Michigan.

We've been actually trying to change that terminology just a little bit, because a pipeline implies the steady progression of the resources you need to turn the faucet and what you need comes out.

And that's really not what's happening right now.

So we've been trying to challenge employers to think of it more as a supply chain, a talent supply chain.

Because with a supply chain, you get what you plan for.

And there's no better way to do that than to partner directly with suppliers of talent like our K-12, like our college institutions, and partner with them on apprenticeships specifically because then you are tailoring that talent to your immediate and future needs for outcome your way.

So because you're playing in this talent space for, as you said, going back to the 1940s, you know, you you not you, not you.

I didn't mean it that way.

The college for a long time has been helping, employers.

So give us kind of the state of kind of, of your work in and what you're seeing from a college standpoint, what's happening in the workforce.

We're having a great fall, first of all, enrollment.

Well, higher ed, right now is is kind of down a little bit or flat.

We're bucking the trend, and we're up 10% in headcount.

Credit hours is up 13%.

As we sit here today, we've got 50 companies with apprentices from LMC working over 150 apprentices out there.

They're taking 65 different courses at Lake Michigan College.

But we know looking forward, that we have a labor shortage.

We're still short workers from where we were in Covid.

We're still short workers from where we were in 2010, 2011.

If you look at the tri county area, Berrien, Cass Van Buren, it's about 136,000 people working now.

Back in 2010, 2011 was 143,000.

So folks should not look at the unemployment rate.

They should look at the size of the labor force.

And that's what we're really trying to address with this collaborative effort.

Chris.

Like, if this unique challenge, if you will, of sort of helping students ready for an ever changing, workforce out there.

So just talk about a little bit about, you know, kind of some of the things that the Berrien RESA is doing to sort of help, get students ready for career opportunities.

So we've been working in the CTE field for years, and really working at that foundational level with those kids.

And what we're seeing now is we're shifting into what is the handoff now look like into business and industry, and how do we partner, you know, further with we always had great partnerships with, you know, Lake Michigan College.

But how do we partner with them to make sure that training is coming down, you know, and beginning that process while they're still in our career and technical education program.

On to the next level.

Then.

So so let me just hit you here with so should all these kids be going to college, right.

Like, has it that been the goal, right, to get everybody to, four year college Chris and Doctor Hoppstock have a great have a great.

That's right there.

If ten kids starting kindergarten, eight of them graduate high school, three of them get a four year degree, seven of them where are they?

And that's what we're really going to try to focus on, is finding a career path for all of our high school students.

Because I really believe this.

Our labor force is in our high schools.

We graduate 14, 15, 1600 a year, up to 1800 students.

And what happens to them?

And so if we can and we've gone to business with Arthur's help and your help as well, and said, okay, if we train them to your standards, will you hire them and 95% of them raise their hand?

The other question is, will you pay them?

And and businesses are stepping up and saying, absolutely, this is the way we build that labor supply chain.

We've got high school students.

We can identify them and then put them right into an apprenticeship with an apprenticeship.

Jeff and I think, you know, that's in 95, 96% of apprentices stick with their employers more than five years.

Yeah.

So I want to come back to the apprentices in a second.

But let's talk this collaborative effort though a little bit.

And or maybe Arthur you'll you'll start.

So this Berrien Talent Collaborative is sort of kind of the, the three of you and others coming together to, to help solve this need to talk about building this partnership and what you hope to accomplish with this.

Sure.

So, chambers are typically conveners leading by convening, something that we talk about a lot.

South Bend Chamber is a great example of that.

Nile's Chambers is a great example of that.

And knowing that we needed to do something for our workforce, but knowing that chambers themselves may not be the best fit to provide that actual technical training, we realized very quickly that that our community partners, the college, Berrien Resa, you know, they were talking about this, too.

But we were sort of talking in silos as education and business often does.

And so really, it came down to getting together and creating some alignment and realizing we all had the same goals.

Some of the handoffs, with these students were not as seamless as they could be.

And so identifying where those gaps were coming together, communicating more, and creating a system to make it easier for employers to actually reach down and train that talent, to have that talent come to their doorstep with us as partners, doing a lot of that hard work.

So they can focus on their business, focus on their widget.

That's the important thing.

And I want to go back to one thing to, the, four year degree.

I think only 30% of employers today are actually requiring a four year bachelor's degree.

So the marketplace is sort of shifting.

I don't think that devalues degrees, but increases the importance of skill building in education.

And that's really what short term certificates and apprenticeships are.

It's skill building.

And and that's really the wheelhouse of the community college.

I mean, we're flexible.

We do a lot of customized training.

That's really, why we were established.

And, it's a great space to be in.

Great.

So and maybe Chris or, the tougher and partly because I'm not sure exactly who said it to, but but apprenticeship is a it means something specific.

Not everybody understands exactly what an apprenticeship is.

It's kind of the goal to grow the number of apprenticeships, help define apprentice Chris to handle that.

But I want to preface it with this is that's why this show is so important.

And others, we have got to talk to parents about the future as well, because I think that's I think there's still that stigma out there is if my kid doesn't go to a four year school, they're not going to be successful.

We've seen the the narrowing of the salaries between 4 and 2 years.

In apprenticeships.

You get into an apprenticeship, you do very, very well.

I was going to say apprenticeship is equalized once you get to a four year degree and what their overall earnings are and whatnot.

And the key to that is as they come through the system, it might take longer because you're working while you're going and getting your, your skilled trades, remedied or whatnot.

But really what it will, will work on is as, as they go through that process, you will see you'll see those numbers grow, with the kids moving forward.

And so they do a good job.

All right.

We're going to come back to this.

We're going to go out to the field.

We sent George left notice out to dive deeper into this topic for us.

George, let me toss it to you.

Thanks for joining us again.

I'm here in Stevensville, Michigan, at Lakeshore Public Schools.

I'm joined today by Savannah DeVries.

Savannah, thanks for being with us.

Thank you for having me.

Savannah, tell us a little bit about what it is that you teach here at Lake Shore.

Well, I teach a lot.

I teach, an intro to Health Care Careers course, which gets kids excited about healthcare careers or brings them in to explore all the health care careers.

And then if kids like that and they want to continue their academic pursuit of health care, they can choose from our more advanced careers, classes that offer them a certification.

Our main one is certified nurse's aide.

Where kids from all over the county, seven different districts come and participate in this, and they leave the course with a state certified nurse's aide certification so they can.

And I think that's important.

They can leave your course in high school, graduate their senior year of high school, whether it be a Lakeshore student or one of the seven other schools around Berrien County.

And they can go directly to work in the health care industry.

Yes.

And tell me what types of jobs they're fulfilling within the industry.

Well, with a CNA, they can work at a long term care facility.

They can work in home care.

They can work at a hospital.

They can work in an adult, foster care, lots of entry level.

They could even work as a medical assistant.

And this is without it, any other high school degree?

That is correct.

With a high school degree.

Yep.

And then you have their college degree.

Yes.

But that isn't always their journey, is it?

I mean, no, they're not done with their education when they leave here.

They're just working, right?

Right.

All right.

So tell me what, before we kind of further explore that a little bit.

Tell me what brought you to this career, because you were, in fact, a practicing nurse or oncology nurse for over a decade.

All right.

And what attracted you to teaching these kids?

I've always liked education.

I've always liked to kind of teach others.

And so I just kind of landed here.

A friend brought me in, said, I've got a program that I'm looking for somewhere to start.

And so I came here, and this profession fills my cup in a different kind of way.

That's awesome.

So as we look around the room and viewers can see the, our friends back here, and they're in all sorts of states of distress.

This is a full, you know, fully functioning classroom and feels like a doctor's office or feels like a health care clinic.

And.

Yeah, and I was gonna say it looks very lived in.

Tell me, what are the students learning in here?

Well, the state has 17 skills that they have to be able to validate on for the state exam.

So we start practically day week one where they are learning to wash their hands.

They're learning to transfer patients from the bed to the wheelchair feed patients so that when they take the state exam and they're randomly chosen for the four skills, they know them and they pass them.

That's awesome.

So when you talk about the curriculum, I know you're talking about expanding it.

You're never really standing still.

You're doing nursing, but there's also other, skill sets that you're teaching.

What are those?

This year, I started, pharmacy tech.

Okay.

We're doing EKG tech, as well as PCT, which is patient care technician.

It's a national certification.

So kids can take that if they choose to go to college outside of state and work at a hospital, instead of just being kind of tied down to Michigan with their senior license.

Well that's amazing.

That's truly amazing.

Well, I think our next step here is to talk to one of your students, to see how this program is helping them.

But, thank you for showing us around.

The class is awesome.

The program is awesome.

Thanks for coming.

Stay tuned here in about a minute.

Here, I'm going to talk to one of the students and see how this program is helping her develop the next stages of her career.

Welcome back.

I am privileged to be joined today by one of the CTE program superstars, Lydia.

Stahthakis.

Lydia, thank you for being with me today.

Thank you for having me.

So, Lydia, you are a senior at Lakeshore, but at the same time, you are working at Corewell Health at the Lakeland Hospital, and you go to Lake Michigan College, once a week to help further education.

Yep.

That's a lot for a senior.

Yeah.

I think I might have been skipping school and barely passing English.

So good on you.

Tell me a little bit about the CTE program.

And what first attracted you to participate in the CTE programs?

First attracted me by really getting my foot in the door within health care, by opening my pathway to see what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

So I think CNA was a great first step for that, and from seeing I was able to really, sort of specialize what I wanted to do with EKG tech and the emergency department specifically.

So let's start by telling our viewers a little bit about what are your hopes, what do you hope to become as far as your career path?

I hope to become an emergency department registered nurse.

Okay.

And so when you graduate high school, you will be a CNA, which is a certified nurses assistant, right?

And you will be able to start working and you will start working.

Is that your plan?

Yeah, I'll be a CNA along with a patient care technician.

So my license under that and my EKG, technician certification.

Okay.

So you will start working immediately.

Yep.

And then after you, start working after you graduate high school.

But you're not done with your education at that point, right?

No.

I'm going to further my education at Lake Michigan College and get my associate's degree in nursing.

Okay.

All right.

And so, but you'll still be earning money and providing a service to the community.

Now, before we end, I do want you to tell us a little about a little bit of your successes, because you're a little famous around here, aren't you?

What would you say?

So tell me a little bit about the skill set that you've learned here in this program and some of your other education.

You save somebody down at the beach the summer I did with my father.

And, was that because of some of the skills you've learned right here in this classroom?

Yeah, that was because of the skills that Mrs. DeVries was able to teach me.

And then yesterday, you were at work at the hospital, and you were the first person to respond to a code, weren't you?

I was.

Is it.

How important do you feel that this CTE education has been to your development?

The CTE programs have been crucial to my development, and they've really allowed me to, begin my career.

And I don't know if I would be a successful in my future unless it was for these programs.

And I'm incredibly grateful to be able to participate in a CTE program, go to community college, and give back to the community that raised me.

That's awesome.

Well, thank you for what you're doing to our viewers.

This is just another example of how CTE programs are not only helping our community and helping young students, but they're solving workforce development problems and crisises in regions like nursing.

All right, guys, back in the studio here, we had a chance to go see some of the good work that's happening up there.

And thanks for the introduction to that earthquake.

Come your way.

Because, like, when I think again, still try to get my head around this apprentice thing when I think about it, historically, it was kind of, construction building trades and some of those kind of things.

So is that what we're talking about here?

I think that's what most people think of immediately.

And that's the paradigm that we need to shift, because today you can apprentice any job, any industry, anytime, anywhere.

It is, social media, apprenticeships.

I mean, we can we can name them.

They're not your typical roll up the sleeves.

You need to know how to wield a hammer.

And any career can be apprentice.

And that's what makes this so important, because there's opportunity everywhere.

Back to you know, graduating with a four year degree versus an apprenticeship.

With an apprenticeship, you can graduate without debt.

Actually, you can get paid while you're doing an apprenticeship into a high paying job immediately building equity, being able to afford a home.

It's a it's a change for your life trajectory, for your economic well-being, starting off your career that way.

So it's it's just a phenomenal tool.

Okay, Chris, let come your way and know you as well.

But.

So I'm an employer.

I'm watching this.

I've been scratching my head for a long time trying to figure out this workforce.

Need to talk to you about how employers plug in to the work, the work you're doing, or the work you're doing.

It at Lake Michigan.

They're like, we want to make sure employers take advantage of this.

Give it some advice to employers.

So really it comes down to we've we've adjusted our CTE programing in the county really those two year programs juniors and seniors.

And the idea is at that 11th grade year, we really want those those employers coming down and working with our students, either doing quick job shadows or come down and actually instructing a lesson for our kids, you know, building a skill, those types of things.

By senior year, we're looking for a placement.

And that we kind of hinted at that we're really looking for a paid placement for those kids 10 to 15 hours a week, but those employers now get to really work with those kids on that skill, build and develop the skill that is going to be specific to that industry or that that location.

And we advance then that skill through the next step of training, through like an LMC program.

Yeah, we have an advanced manufacturing company in town that told us they would rather have an apprentice engineer then go to the University of Michigan and get an engineer, because then they've got to train them in all of their protocols, everything that they're doing, if they get somebody right out of high school that can come to LMC, get a two year degree, they've got an engineer that, is dialed in on what they're doing and is actually a better choice, right?

Yeah.

Actually, Chris, when I come back your way for a quick second.

So because you talk timeframe like, like 11th and 12th, you know, you kind of go into this, but but talk about like when, when's the right time to start introducing kids to some of some of what should what career opportunities look like.

Like I only ask because I think some people are like in middle school, we should teach them this, or in junior high, we should teach them that.

When, when?

When's ideal time really?

I mean, earlier the better.

The idea is, you know, especially when they're younger, they're looking at that overall scope.

By the time they hit middle school, they should be really exploring things, exploring the different pathways.

What does a health care pathway look like and whatnot.

So they're getting more into the details by the time they're in high school.

Now we're talking about the training piece of it.

So they're going in and actually working with either the different folks or whatnot.

You know, depending on on the career, the health, the health career.

So really, the earlier we can have the events and bring in business and industry, the better off they are.

We, we run the Career Pathway Day event in October, partnership with LMC.

Where we bring in all the ninth grade students across the county and have business and industry.

We have our post-secondary partners and we have our CTE courses in there, really demonstrating hands on activities for the kids.

By that point, they should be selecting I really want to go in that direction, which then leads into the course selection.

Right.

Ask them to come your way.

So as we're sort of launching and kind of drawing attention to this.

So how's it going like so far what's been sort of the reception from either students looking at these opportunities on one end or employers embracing this idea and this creative, solution to help find their future workers?

Well, I can certainly speak to the employer, aspect, and it has been overwhelmingly well received.

In fact, some of the employers have been so desperate to find an outlet for talent, that this is, in some ways, a long time coming in to go one step further.

The state of Michigan, actually, this came under their radar, because it's the first county wide youth apprenticeship model in the state, and they recently awarded in the last, budget process, a $500,000 state grant to make it a pilot for potentially scaling across the state.

So this could be a solution to our, our entire state's workforce needs.

And a lot of that is, to me, going back to population, losing young kids to other areas where there is.

And I I'm going to emphasize this word perceived opportunity.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

We have opportunity in our own backyard.

Great employers, high paying jobs, amazing quality of life.

It's why we all live and work and raise families here.

But connecting, as Chris said, the young kids to those opportunities and helping them realize at an early age that those opportunities exist, you do not have to move away.

You can have a great life.

Everything you want right here is transformational, right?

I want to come your way.

I think, like, just for example, my own career path did a lot of recalculating.

If you had plugged it into the GPS.

Right.

And and I do think like so talk about this kind of, maybe stackable, credentials or the just this, even this life.

Because, because even though you go to apprenticeship doesn't mean you're not going to go get a four year degree to speak a little bit to the how this prepares them for future success, no matter what their final path it could be.

This could be their permanent resting spot in terms of a job.

Or they could go on to other things.

And what we've got to do a better job with students and getting to students is and companies.

What's the career ladder inside those businesses?

Okay.

If I start here, where can I move and can I get some training in education?

Can I stack some of my credits at the community college?

Can I?

What we're doing right now is we're making certificates, right.

You can take two, three, four courses, and we can stack that into a certificate that you can that you can have.

And it's and it's something that's valid.

Okay Chris, let's come here with our last three minutes or so.

Talk a little bit about I think we all talked a little about we've got to make the case for students to participate.

We got to make it.

So help us make the case for a for a student who is uncertain about, go on a CTE path or apprenticeship, help make the case for why they ought to think about this really comes down to figuring out what your likes are, what your interests are, okay, and determining what our next steps are at that point.

So that's that's where the younger we can have them start exploring that and figure out what they like to do, how they like to interact with individuals.

That that really leads into career choices for them coming out of that.

One of my favorite stories, as a high school principal back in the day, would be when those students would go out and work in the hospital and they'd come back and, and some of them were not able to handle the air the same as some others.

I mean, they they would come back at white as a ghost, because the first time they'd seen blood or whatnot at that level, versus them going into another setting, it's all healthcare related and moving, moving on.

So really, it's about the kids finding their interest and moving forward.

And they look like a principal.

You want to not go to his office.

You're getting down to him like, no, I don't want to go down.

I want to disappoint this guy.

Yeah.

Elevate.

Maybe in a 60s or so.

Explain.

Make the case to a parent who's who's watching is unsure.

Help parents understand, why they ought to, spend some time looking more at this.

Well, one of the things that parents are looking at, is student debt.

And that is a huge issue out there.

This is a way to get your your child or your student, into a career path that makes a lot of sense where they can make money, have a great life.

And your grandparents will be and your as a grandparent myself, having my daughter come back and be in this community, there was nothing that made a bigger impact on our family than having them back in this community.

And northern Indiana and southwest Michigan are great places to live, and we know that, and we've got to attract our young people back here.

Awesome, guys.

Thank you for the work you're doing in there.

Appreciate the chance to to share a little bit more about our viewers.

Will watch your progress.

We'll have you come back and give us an update someday soon.

Thanks, Jeff.

That's it for our show today.

Thank you for watching our website or listening to our podcast, Find Economic Outlook at WNIT.org, or find our podcasts on most major podcast platforms like us on Facebook.

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I'm Jeff Rea I'll see you next time.

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Thank you.