LEVERAGING RESOURCES THROUGH STRATEGIC ALLIANCES FOR WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The Michigan Technical Education Center (M-TEC) at Bay de Noc Community College is leading the way in workforce development for Michigan's Upper Peninsula. By leveraging resources through strategic alliances with industry, government, labor, and education, the M-TEC has become a powerful tool for training solutions. A March 1998 State of Michigan initiative sought applications from community colleges interested in a no more business as usual approach to technical skills training. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) awarded the M-TEC construction grant to Bay College in January 1999; groundbreaking took place in May 1999 and the center was dedicated in March 2000. The M-TEC concept - anytime, anywhere, customized training - proved itself through dramatic first-year increases in the number of workers trained (89%), total training hours (90% ), and MEDC training grant funds (500%). This has been accomplished in part through the impressive variety of resources the M-TEC leveraged from its strategic alliances. The M-TEC's sustaining partners, a group that has doubled in size after 1 year of operation (i.e., from 9 to 18), have increased the capacity of the center, even as they have contributed to its operation's budget. Equipment the center could not afford is now in use because the supplier wants its local customers to have access to it - and because the center could provide the training laboratories to house it. Dedicated computer laboratories make workforce training simple, with resources always available when needed by business and industry. The M-TEC is generating multiple revenue streams through nontraditional means to meet the state s 5-year mandate of self-sufficiency.