ADRIAN, MI – July 20, 2022 – Align Lenawee Talent Consortium has assembled some of Lenawee County’s brightest minds to solve one of its biggest issues: talent. Often in competition for students, Adrian College and Siena Heights University came together to help
resolve the issue plaguing most Lenawee employers, by creating several certifications, a departure from their tradition of offering mostly degreed programs. “Siena Heights University is thrilled to be collaborating with Align Lenawee and Adrian College,” President of Siena Heights University, Sister Peg Albert, OP, PhD said. “Together we can make a difference in people’s lives by moving their careers forward and impacting the growth of our local community.”
Dr. Albert noted that the unique partnership will assist in strengthening the local workforce and help build a talent pool that will provide solutions for almost every industry in the county.
“These certificates will provide students a path to high-paying careers in high-demand jobs with the flexibility our students and professionals need,” agreed Jeffrey Docking, PhD, President of Adrian College. “We are thankful for all those who worked together on the certificate program, creating a new pipeline of local talent to allow our businesses to grow and thrive.”
That was the intent of the effort—to allow local businesses to grow and thrive. Therefore, the Align team convened the help of local business owners, TECH Center teachers and other K-12 educators throughout the county to collaborate to build several exposure and skill-building programs for middle
and high school students in the areas of high-demand jobs across several industries. “This ‘laddered’ approach starts in middle school, carries through high school and ends in an adult certification, allowing recent graduates to enter the workforce sooner than they would after pursuing a 4-year degree,” said Randy Yagiela, Director of the Align Lenawee Talent Consortium.
The three-tiered talent pipeline ladder that Yagiela references was developed for each of the following areas: Accounting, Applied Computing, Cybersecurity, Digital Marketing, Early Childhood Education, Entrepreneurship, Future Educators, Healthcare, IT/Data Management, Project Management and Web
Development, with, possibly, more to come. “Ideally, with our youth, we’d like to start to introduce them to some of these hot job areas because they’re all in areas of high demand, high wage, and high skill,” said Mark Haag, Superintendent of Lenawee Intermediate School District. “Some of our best students get bored and I think these lessons if you really look at them, offer an opportunity to integrate some new things into the classroom that might spark a student who hasn’t been sparked before.”
To aid teachers in using the curriculum in their classrooms, the Align team, with the help of several school personnel, has identified the state teaching standards that apply to the newly built curriculum at the middle school and high school levels, allowing teachers to easily incorporate the curriculum while still reaching their teaching goals.
The curriculum was piloted in several different schools and situations to help refine it. The Project Management curriculum was piloted at the LISD Middle College, Lenawee Christian Schools, an LISD
Summer Camp and at Springbrook Middle School. I really appreciate what (the subject matter expert) was able to put together materials-wise, said Nicole
Holden, Springbrook Middle School teacher. “Having her put together the lessons that were the foundation for what we did and allowing me to then put my own spin on things, knowing my students, was a wonderful experience.”
Holden would encourage other teachers to use the materials created from these joint efforts.
“Everybody says it takes a village and this is a great way for us all to come together to make sure that our students know they are part of our community and that they matter and that their growth matters,”
she added. The development of these lessons was funded through a multi-year Marshall Plan Talent Fund grant provided to the LISD and executed by Align.“I think I can speak on behalf of all our districts to say we were very excited to land the Marshall Plan
grant here in Lenawee County,” Haag added. “We think we’re probably the only ones in the state doing this type of work.”
ProMedica’s Hickman Hospital in Adrian accounts for about 20 percent of all job openings in the county. Therefore, Dr. Julie Yaroch was excited to hear about the programming for youth.
LISD Summer Camp Teacher, Mary Tommelein (right), takes Project Management students to
Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore in Adrian to execute mini projects like restoring old furniture.“If we can collaborate with the schools and they can identify students that may have a passion for what we do,” she said, “if we can form those connections earlier on, that’s a win for both of us.”
Dr. Yaroch went on to say, it’s not a long process to become part of the healthcare field. There are a lot of short-term programs that will get you the education and/or certificate and licensure needed.
“It only takes an additional 12 weeks after you get your high school degree to become a phlebotomist,” Dr. Yaroch offered. “And what you start as your job in health care, is not necessarily where you finish.
There is a lot of opportunity to evolve.” Through these programs, Align is not discouraging students from going to college, clarified the Manager
of Align, Sheila Blair. “The goal of the certification development is to get people into the workforce faster after high school graduation so they can establish what they want to do and then go to college to advance their position,” she said. “Student loan debt is weighing on the economy these days. It’s staggering,” agreed Early Childhood Development expert, Dr. Jennifer Haeussler, a professor at Siena Heights University. “Not all people belong in college; it’s okay to go to a technical school or graduate from high school and learn on the
job.”Dr. Haeussler said that student brain development changes when they are exposed to career options at an early age: “If we start early, at the middle school level, exploring a variety of career options, it helps
students realize that their gifts and talents can become their career; it helps them become focused.” Blair said, while the adult certification programs were already going live at Adrian College and Siena
Heights University starting this Fall (enrolling now), the middle- and high-school curriculum would be rolled out to teachers and districts this Fall through several events for teachers, counselors, principals
and superintendents. The first of which will be a special event just for middle-school teachers on October 4th
.
Holly Reh, Project Controls Analyst (left), and Jake Wright, Project Manager, share their
personal experiences about project management with the LISD TECH Center’s Organize and Fix the World
(Project Management) Camp in July.
“We are very excited about this rollout and want to make it fun and easy for teachers to incorporate the materials into their existing classroom time,” she said. “We’re going to ask our subject matter experts to work with teachers directly to make it as simple and natural as possible to use the lessons.” Align is the workforce development arm of Lenawee Now, a countywide economic development organization. Lenawee Now started Align in 2014 to help address talent issues, which greatly impact the economic development of a region. “Talent is the number one factor that companies are looking for when they identify a new community to
put down roots,” said Interim Executive Director, Tim Robinson. “If organizations don’t see a good workforce development system in place that will supply them with talent for years to come, they will
look somewhere else.” To that end, Blair stated that the new certifications developed under the Marshall Plan are just another piece of the Lenawee County Workforce Development System, which includes Align’s new Learning
Management System (online training solution) they will be launching later this summer, K-12 schools across the county, the TECH Center in Adrian, Southern Michigan Center for Science and Industry (CSI) in
Hudson, and Adrian College and Siena Heights University, both in Adrian. Finally, effective immediately, Align is convening training partners and certification providers for area businesses to conduct employee
and leadership training. To convey to parents, students and school personnel the benefits of early exposure to career options, Align has developed a short video that explains the benefits: https://youtu.be/rRnoK2ngGtk
“Align’s design team and task force are moving forward to create a communitywide workforce development center,” Yagiela stated. The center would be an adult training space where Align hopes to provide best-in-class talent development solutions across all industries. For more information about Align training, certification and/or other efforts, please contact Sheila Blair at sblair@lenaweenow.org.