Southeast Michigan forms industry partnership.

New Industry Partnership in Southeast Michigan Confronts Workforce Challenges

With support from the New Economy Initiative, the Detroit metro region’s eight community colleges, seven workforce boards, and other economic development partners have come together to form the Workforce Intelligence Network (WIN) of Southeast Michigan. WIN members will work collaboratively to:

• Gather, analyze and distribute real-time workforce data specific to southeast Michigan;
• Serve as a connection point for regional business, industry and other stakeholders in regard to workforce development; and
• Research talent-related policy concerns.

WIN represents the essence of a sector partnership, a proven workforce development strategy to close immediate and future skills gaps within an industry. Sector partnerships connect companies within a specific industry that is essential to a regional economy with training and education providers. Together, these stakeholders develop customized solutions to meet the industry’s skill needs. Customized solutions may include new training programs to improve the skills of the industry’s existing workforce or strategies for ensuring new or potential hires gain baseline skills needed by the industry. In recent years, 25 states have invested public resources in building regional sector partnerships, for which evaluators have documented improved results when compared to traditional training programs. Workforce advocates have also pushed for federal support of sector partnerships through the SECTORS Act since 2008, and Michigan’s emerging statewide workforce coalition—Michigan’s Got Talent: The Coalition for a Superior Workforce is advocating for state-level investments.

Led by Lisa Katz, who has previously worked for the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce and the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, WIN has already targeted specific industry clusters critical to the region’s growth and competitiveness, including information technology, energy, and electronic vehicle manufacturing. WIN partners will identify skill training needs and resources, develop career pathways for entry level workers, and build worker pipelines to meet short and long-term skill demands across these industries. Read more about the collaboration here.