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Thursday, December 1, 2011
Governor's Special Message to the Legislature on Talent Development offers strategies to reinvent how we prepare children for the skills they need
LANSING, Mich. - Michigan must better align the talent of its people with the needs of job providers to ensure success in the new economy, Gov. Rick Snyder said today.
The governor released his Special Message to the Legislature on Talent Development during a news conference at Delta College in University Center. It offers strategies to reinvent the way in which we prepare children for fulfilling careers, reshape how Michiganders look for work and redesign the way in which employers obtain the skills they need. "Tomorrow's opportunities cannot be realized with yesterday's skills," Snyder said. "It's time to develop the next generation of talent. Today's young employees will have multiple careers in their lifetimes. The skills they attain must be marketable and transferrable. We need to align the aptitudes and career passions of job seekers with the current and evolving needs of employers."
Too few workers have the skills to meet employer demands in the new economy. Thousands of jobs remain unfilled despite Michigan's 10.6 percent unemployment rate. The state faces significant staffing challenges in areas such as agriculture, nursing, engineering and welding.
The governor announced the launch of an online tool that will help ensure the state's economic development and talent enhancement are occurring in tandem. Pure Michigan Talent Connect is a talent marketplace available at www.MiTalent.org. It eliminates the need for the multiple websites that now exist, many of which are duplicative or incomplete.
The site will feature tools that job creators and job seekers need to make better-informed decisions. Users will be able to assess their skills, evaluate the return on investment for an education or training program, browse careers and connect with mentors.
The site is being launched in phases for a June 2012 completion. The first phase, now available, features the Career Matchmaker and the Career Investment Calculator. The Career Matchmaker helps individuals determine the industries and locations where their skills are in high demand today and where they are projected to be. The Career Investment Calculator helps those who are pursuing training or retraining to make informed decisions.
Once completed, Pure Michigan Talent Connect will let Michiganders create an electronic talent portfolio early in their educational careers, driving everything form curriculum choices to career paths. It is developed by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget.
The governor's special message also cites the need to:
Other initiatives include promoting mentorship by asking the Michigan Jaycees to continue its leadership through a collaboration with the state Community Service Commission's Mentor Michigan program; redesigning Michigan's Jobs, Education and Training (JET) program to include meaningful performance measures; modernizing the Michigan Works! program; urging greater flexibility in the federal Work Investment Act; creating a Governor's Talent Investment Board that will bring citizen involvement and oversight to Michigan's talent enhancement effort; asking legislative partners to enact a work-sharing law that lets Michigan retain more of its talent; and asking lawmakers to allow the Unemployment Insurance Agency to let displaced Michiganders pursue entrepreneurship through self-employment assistance.
The entire Special Message on Talent Development is at www.michigan.gov/snyder.
About Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC)
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation is the state’s marketing arm and lead advocate for business development, job awareness and community development with the focus on growing Michigan’s economy. For more information on the MEDC and our initiatives, visit www.MichiganBusiness.org. For Pure Michigan® tourism information, your trip begins at www.michigan.org. Join the conversation on: Facebook Instagram LinkedIn, and Twitter.
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