[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] this is washtenaw community college is vice president of workforce development in community engagement.

brandon tucker, he works with southeast michigan employers to fill gaps in the libor force.

>> what we're hearing is that we need people that into that in four years with the people right now with the bay set of skills and will help them grow, encourage them to go back to school or to finish your education.

so a lot of those employees are safe.

i'll hire the right now.

i'll pay for them to stay gore to wash it off and i'll make a commitment to make sure they finished while they're still on the job, getting valuable work experience and in some cases were reportedly a paycheck.

>> the program to take this pad that wcc is called the michigan federation for advanced manufacturing education or pain, work and learn program between wcc in advanced manufacturing employers.

there are chapters throughout the country but wcc started the first in michigan in january.

this is thirty-two year-old andrew denton.

he's enrolled in the fame program for advanced manufacturing in mecca.

try knicks the study of technology, combining electronics and mechanical engineers.

i work at this place called orbit foreman jackson, michigan.

>> great company.

a great group of guys building and impact of the machines work there three days a week and then i come to school the other two days a week and i have a full course load before you made the decision to come back to school.

what was the decision-making process for me?

>> it was like i literally just couldn't keep going the way that i was gone.

i was like if i don't have some type of education, i'm not going to go to get that high pay.

i want i'm not going to be the live the type of lifestyle light at the end of the program.

i should have around eighteen hundred hours of work experience and an associate's degree.

and michael tried it.

>> although denton sees a future here in michigan, the citizens research council of michigan who studies michigan's growth in economic challenges says that overall the state is suffering from brain drain.

the loss of in-state college graduates to other states.

wcc solution is exposing younger students to in-demand fields in careers here in michigan.

we know there's.

>> at any given time hundred thousand jobs open in michigan, we do you what?

i've southeastern michigan, where we're situated has probably about thirty thousand to forty thousand of those shops.

we do that years ago.

there was a real interest and investment and try to get students to think about things other than just the four-year degree.

right to your greatest.

if it gets we try really hard to the college to engage or high school partners early.

>> wcc recently hosted high school juniors and seniors from multiple districts.

>> they had no idea about beckert writings.

they had no idea about cybersecurity.

they had no idea about additive manufacturing that we started reaching back and son say at the high school level, this is an opportunity.

then i think that we go further faster.

>> the fame program is keeping some students in michigan.

but what about students who are a part of it?

so when you're done with your certificate with your degree, you're finished with your program.

are you planning on saying here in michigan?

i'm planning on leaving.

>> live in another state.

>> i want to go.

is it?

so i don't want to atlanta to, you know, pursue that careers will be here.

>> probably less much of an issue there.

anything in particular that's keeping you here.

it's beautiful.

it's a nice day of north.

>> great, great people.

so for right now my plan is to transfer to hbcu my plans to transfer to central state which is in ohio while somerset on heading out of state.

>> wcc graduates like mike rudicel graduated before the fame program began built a thriving careers here in southeast michigan.

>> came here, the first measure of second much welding classes.

and each day i was walking by the metro knicks lab here and kind.

cnn's robots and i know what's what's the deal with these?

you know, as i take a robotics class, and as i'm taking his body classes like a well, what's going on with the cnc machines?

i'm walking by that lab.

and i want to learn about those and a sign of going through the metro knicks program with a focus on the cnc cad cam.

we ought to talk.

numbers are up, please do so.

you know, and the field i was in before chose to come back here.

you know, i've been where i'm at now for about four years.

mine comes more than doubled its nearly tripled if you count not to additional consulting and tutoring a different things on the side as well.

is there a a sentiment?

because sometimes you hear people who are going into highly technical fields that they feel like they have to leave michigan if they want to get a job or become not?

i think so at all.

i think there might be a misconception and how people see factories and how things are made, but that, you know, things are getting becoming more and more technical.

are you planning on staying here in southeast michigan to continue your career?

i will be here for for the foreseeable future.

>> denton's reasons for staying aren't just tied to a career-best.

>> i'm not even looking at it on economic base looking not unlike a world like the east coast floods all the time has crazy snowstorms.

west coast is on fire all the time.

south is crazy.

we have all the fresh water up here.

so i feel like michigan is like the logical place to be.

there's not a lot of natural disasters.

and so i feel like i do not see the trend that a lot of people are leaving michigan, but i have a feeling over the next ten, fifteen years.

a lot of people are going to be coming back to michigan.