DETROIT – Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday announced his Marshall Plan for Talent to train Michiganders to fill 811,000 jobs by 2024 with an average salaries of $60,000.

“Our country is facing a huge national challenge about getting people connected to careers,” Snyder Thursday at the Michigan Science Center in Detroit. 

Snyder would focus on training programs, incentives and financial assistance to connect people with high-demand, high-wage openings in fields like information technology, manufacturing, health care, professional trades and business.    

He hopes to take a chunk out of that by focusing initially on getting 55,000 Michiganders into those high-demand careers, he said, something that would generate billions of dollars of annual income. Further, his plan would put Michigan on a path to be able to fill all 811,000 jobs, generating close to $50 billion in wages.  

The program focuses heavily on partnerships between businesses and schools. It also promotes certificates that can lead to these types of careers, not necessarily a four-year college degree.

Snyder is proposing a $100 million investment from the state to be spent on:

  • Scholarships and stipends for low-income Michiganders seeking certifications in high-demand careers.  
  • Providing incentives to teachers willing to get additional certifications into areas with shortages, like high school physics and career technical education.  
  • Grants to schools creating ‘world-class curricula’ that collaborate with businesses to create or expand classes that help prepare students for high-demand careers.  
  • Sharing best practices from those curricula and creating certification programs.  
  • Grants to schools partnering with businesses to train kids on the same high-tech equipment real businesses use.  
  • Incentives for increasing the number of students pursuing careers in cybersecurity.  
  • An awareness and outreach campaign to promote career opportunities.
  • Beyond the monetary investment, Snyder is looking to rally the school, university and business communities around the plan. He plans to start a Michigan Innovative Teacher Corps to help replicate successful programs around the state and pave the way for businesses to partner with schools on training people in in-demand careers.  

The plan’s name, the “Marshall Plan for Talent,” a reference to the comprehensive, U.S.-led effort to rebuild Western Europe after WWII. The governor sees this as a comprehensive, long-term plan bringing people together to accomplish a broad goal in Michigan.