Michigan’s Marshall Plan. It’s named after the post-World War II initiative where America provided billions in aid to help rebuild Western Europe. Governor Rick Snyder recently signed his 5-year, $100 million dollar, workforce development plan for talent into law.
It promises to be the catalyst to training more Michigan high school students for good-paying, high demand jobs. But getting these competitive grants won’t be easy!
“If they want to apply for these grants they need to get together as a group, a consortium of employers with higher ed, and K-12. They need to show how they are going to breakdown barriers between themselves, come in, work hard together and we're going to make it open up opportunities across the state."
- Michigan Governor Rick Snyder
In other words, team-up, think out the box and be visionary! Working together, how can businesses and schools make the greatest impact? Think of this is an opportunity to make sure that Michigan’s talent pool is on the right track the next time an Amazon-like opportunity presents itself. Indications are that the jobs of the future will require extremely skilled workers who have mastered their trade.
And as newer cities develop and older cities rebuild, the demand this kind of talent will increase. Just look around at all the construction, renovation and design taking place in Detroit, Grand Rapids and other Michigan geographic areas. A shortage of local talent could be the greatest single threat to our state’s economic recovery and competitiveness.
Investing in the high-tech and skilled trade jobs of today and tomorrow is a safeguard for state’s future. Now that the Michigan Marshall Plan is real, let’s come together and use it as a catalyst for making Michigan the best state in the nation.
I’m Mike Murri, Vice President & General Manager
Broadcast: July 12 - 15, 2018
