LANSING, Mich. — A new program from the Michigan CU League and the Michigan Workforce Development Agency is trying to increase participation in vocational training throughout the Great Lakes State.
Known as "Career and Technical training for Skilled Trade Occupations in Michigan," the initiative was formally introduced during the league's annual conference in Grand Rapids earlier this month.
On hand to help debut the program was Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who told attendees that the state needs to redefine what "skilled trade" means, expanding that concept from things like manufacturing and farming to include fields such as pharmaceuticals, IT, healthcare, food services and more.
Snyder said that in recent years leaders haven't put the same emphasis on skilled trades as they have on college — both two- and four-year degrees — and called on credit unions to help change that.
According to league representatives, the idea for the program dates back about a year ago to a discussion between MCUL President and CEO Dave Adams and Republican Rep. Dan Benishek.
The two discussed Michigan's trade gap with Benishek noting that many young people were leaving the state at the same time many local employers struggled to find qualified job candidates. The idea was to find ways to connect young people to well-paying, specialized jobs that would keep them in Michigan.
Rather than build out all the materials itself, MCUL turned to experts to identify those jobs, along with the education and training necessary to secure them. That meant a partnership with Michigan's Workforce Development Agency, consultants and other players who have researched those areas and determined which jobs are currently in high demand in the state or projected to be.
"We worked with them very closely to choose which specific careers we highlight in our guide, and provided detailed research information about projected salaries and they helped us find links to the information for those jobs," Adams told Credit Union Journal.
Five Clusters
The guide — available online
The league plans to roll the program out to credit unions throughout the state and to share those materials with schools where they have partnerships in the hope that the schools will utilize them.
Adams noted that Michigan leads the nation in the number of student-run credit union branches and has long excelled at reaching young people through schools, so a solid infrastructure is already in place for this campaign.
"Credit unions already have partnerships with the schools, they know the people in their communities, and they can get those materials out to people in the schools and individually," he said.
The catch, however, is that most of that work won't really get underway until this fall, since most schools have already closed for the summer.
"It will probably be late September or October before credit unions can get the ear of their schools and teachers and talk about this," said Adams. The league also plans to showcase the project at teacher conferences, as well as with groups like the Michigan Jumpstart Coalition, among others.
League representatives said because the program was just launched, only a few credit unions have expressed interest so far, but they expect those numbers to rise throughout the summer and into the academic year.
One CU that has expressed interest is Shore To Shore CU in southeast Michigan. Representatives from the credit union did not return calls seeking comment.
No Cost For CUs
There is no cost for credit unions to participate in the program. While the league is willing to make hard copies of program materials available, it is encouraging CUs to utilize online resources, which also have links to information about career training.
And though the league can track by self-reporting from participating credit unions, one benefit of the site is that it monitors how many times the guide and individual lesson plans are downloaded. The league is also considering including a short survey when users download the guide to better follow up on usage and impact.
Different tracking will also be done by the Workforce Development Agency and the Department of Labor and Economics to research how businesses and manufacturers are finding workers and how many young people from within the state re filing those jobs.
"It would be really hard to say that because of this project we helped the economy in Michigan, but we sure hope it contributes to that along with everything else," said Adams.
He pointed out that credit unions should also see a benefit from participating.
"They want to keep young people in their communities just as much as employers do so they have future membership, and they're always looking to grow their young members. So assisting in that will help them," he said, adding that the project has the potential to not only help boost local economies, but also strengthen credit unions' ties with their local schools.
