Tips for Professional Technology Donations Recent anonymous donations of over $ 1 billion to Kalamazoo

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In the past four months, anonymous donations to support talent development, education and public services in the Kalamazoo area have exceeded the $ 1 billion mark, which local officials call a transformative and unique sum for the community.

The latest gift came via a $ 100 million donation in cash and property to build a new centralized center for career and technical education on the south side of the city. This gift follows a $ 550 million gift to Western Michigan University in June and a $ 400 million gift to the city’s Foundation for Excellence in July.

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“It seems surreal to live in such a generous community. Let’s hope the residents don’t take it for granted, it doesn’t happen very often, “said Carla Sones, interim president and CEO of Southwest Michigan First, who is overseeing the latest $ 100 million donation.” We were blessed with a donation. gift after another this year that left us speechless “.

Centralized career technology

The regional organization for economic development formed a public-private partnership about three years ago with the Kalamazoo Regional Agency for Educational Services (RESA) to create a centralized structure for career and technical education (CTE). These county-level CTE programs prepare students for further training courses or careers fresh out of high school in areas that include manufacturing, technology, and healthcare.

Until now, Kalamazoo County CTE programming has been deployed across nine different county facilities, each focusing on a specific type of training. About 2,000 students in Kalamazoo County participate in CTE programs.

“We found that the students only attended courses nearby,” Sones said, noting that production training courses are currently held in Vicksburg.

Centralizing these programs in what will be a state-of-the-art facility near the Sprinkle Road-Interstate 94 interchange also carries an equity component by making training programs more accessible, particularly for students who rely on the bus for transportation. .

“With a centralized location, we are able to help address the transportation problem and be mindful of a county-level system,” said Sarah Mansberger, executive director of workforce and community initiatives at Kalamazoo RESA who was hired last year to form partnerships with the Southwest Michigan business community.

While the $ 100 million in cash and land donation will set in motion the construction of a new professional technology center, the nearly four-year initiative has had several moving parts. In November 2019, Kalamazoo County voters approved a 20-year millage that generates approximately $ 8.5 million annually in operations, which will support the programming and staffing of the new facility that is expected to open in the fall of 2024. .

Research, industrial partners

Before the millage vote, local officials had planned a course of action with input from the local business community. Mansberger says companies are constantly involved in programming and that the new facility is located in one of the city’s industrial corridors.

“We know that having a world-class facility requires some things, and one of them is deep integration with industry partners,” he said. “This proximity to industry partners is really significant in being able to fill that crucial piece of the curriculum.”

Local officials also turned to the WE Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, based in Kalamazoo, for help in developing that local curriculum.

Last December, the Upjohn Institute released a report summarizing two studies that would align professional technology programming with work required in the Kalamazoo-Portage metropolitan statistical area. Essentially, workforce experts were enlisted to help high school students determine the most in-demand jobs now and in the future in their backyard.

The report identified “high-wage and in-demand jobs” from 2016 to 2019 and predicted these jobs over the next decade. The research also interviewed local employers about their needs and how Kalamazoo’s RESA programs might be relevant.

The report identified strong demand in the IT and health sciences sectors, as well as in some manufacturing sectors that need workers to oversee and assist automation processes. For example, the research found that welding, cutting, brazing and brazing occupations in Kalamazoo County had a 90% change in employment from 2016 to 2019, which means a high-growth area. Across the state, the percentage change in those areas was only 19.1 percent.

“The key here is that Kalamazoo RESA could take the information and use it to make decisions,” Upjohn Institute president Michael Horrigan told MiBiz.

Horrigan joined the Upjohn Institute as president in March 2019 after spending more than 40 years at the Bureau of Labor Statistics within the United States Department of Labor. Those decades of experience included identifying jobs in demand on a larger scale. His new role at the Upjohn Institute created the opportunity for a localized, service-oriented approach that would help high school students.

“I think the work we’ve done as a partnership is actually quite unique,” said Horrigan.

Additionally, Horrigan and others believe the process could be replicated in other counties.

“This is still relatively new,” he said. “If other areas in southwestern Michigan are interested, we would be more than willing to cooperate. That’s what we do. ”

As for the $ 100 million increase, people surveyed for this story used words like “transformative”, “incredible”, “unique” and “absolutely phenomenal”.

“These gifts represent a continuation of a remarkable legacy of philanthropy in our community and a recognition of the critical importance of investing in education,” Mansberger said. “We are so incredibly grateful to have received gifts to support CTE and look forward to continuing to partner with industry, educators and community organizations to make our shared vision of world-class CTE a reality in County. Kalamazoo “.

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