LANSING ? Gov. Jennifer Granholm Wednesday launched her No Worker Left Behind job training program, which will provide up to two years of free tuition for 100,000 state residents any Michigan college or university that leads to a degree in a needed high-demand job ? such as biotech and renewable energy – or gains the student entrepreneurial skills to start their own business.
Training in-high demand occupations vary from region to region and include advanced manufacturing, health care, biotechnology, and renewable energy, as well as other growing sectors.
Eligible participants include any person who is currently unemployed, who has received a notice or termination or layoff from employment, or whose family income is $40,000 or less. Participants must be at least 18 years old, must not have graduated from high school within the last two years, and must not be full-time college students. They have three years to sign up for the program.
?To compete and succeed in this global economy, Michigan workers must acquire the complex skills needed in cutting-edge industries that will fuel future economic growth,? Granholm said. ?No Worker Left Behind will make Michigan more attractive to job-creating businesses, and it will get workers and families who have been hurt by globalization back on the path to success.?
Granholm proposed the No Worker Left Behind program in her 2007 State of the State address as part of her plan to transform Michigan?s economy. Calling an educated workforce the most important element of job creation, the governor has pushed for high standards in elementary and secondary education, a $4,000 Michigan Promise scholarship for every child to attend college, and a new focus on worker training to ensure that every worker has the opportunity to succeed in a global economy.
Partners in the No Worker Left Behind initiative include Michigan?s 28 community colleges, the Michigan Community Colleges Association, the Michigan Works! Association and 25 Michigan Works! agencies, the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth, four-year colleges and universities, and licensed proprietary schools.
?By 2012, Michigan will have a shortage of 334,000 skilled workers,? said Keith W. Cooley, director of the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth, the state department that is charged with overseeing the NWLB initiative. ?We know that 70 percent of the fastest growing jobs by 2010 will require a postsecondary degree.?
For more information, Michigan.Gov/NWLB
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