Over half of high school students in the US
don’t feel prepared for college, and often it’s because there is a lack of exposure to career options.
The
Fueling the Talent Pipeline Program (FTTP) allows high school students in Macomb County to connect with businesses in the area and explore fields from manufacturing to medicine before they graduate. This could be through tours, job shadows, and internships.
Senior Outreach Specialist for the program Jennifer Weot says the program began in 2017 and was strictly focused on manufacturing, as it’s the number one industry in the county.
“People in the manufacturing industry are aging out,” Weot says. “Over 50% of employees are over the age of 50, so they’re getting to a point where they were ready to retire and there’s really no young people knocking on the door trying to get those positions.”
As it was coming off the ground, COVID-19 hit, Weot says. It put this program on a shelf until around 2022 when it started running again.
“But there’s a big difference between now and pre-COVID,” she says. “Now there’s a shortage of workers in every industry. So now it’s not just manufacturing. We’re dealing with health care shortages, we’re dealing with IT (Information Technology) shortages.”
Weot says FTTP’s goal is to show high school students career options in their community where they don’t have to possibly waste their time and money going to college and then figuring out that’s not what they want to do.
The other goal is to fuel the talent pipeline of the businesses in the area. Many are manufacturing businesses like L&L Industries and
TK Mold and in healthcare like Henry Ford Health, McLaren, and independent clinics.
“When COVID was in full swing, a lot of people left the healthcare field because they were afraid of it,” Weot says. “So now they’re trying to get more people to look at healthcare as an option and realize there are lots of great opportunities and good incomes that can be made in healthcare”
Schools Involved in FTTP
There are 21 school districts in the county with their own Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. Some focus on law, IT, health care, first responders, and other fields. The FTTP will find businesses in the area that could match the CTE program so kids can gain exposure to these different career fields.
Within the FTTP, two districts are unique, Romeo and Centerline. These schools are
Ford Next Generation Learning (NGL) districts, meaning their success is based on business partnerships. When the kids are in their sophomore year, they are guaranteed a tour of any industry they’re interested in. Then when they move to junior year, they will have a job shadow. Then when they’re seniors, they will get a paid internship.
At Centerline High School, senior Joseph Schonter says when he first began high school, he wanted to be a forensic scientist.
“That had been what I wanted to do since I was in elementary school, but as soon as I got to high school I realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do anymore,” Schonter says. “I felt lost.”
From their, he tried business, which didn’t work out. It wasn’t until his junior year when he tried welding through the CTE program that he figured out that’s what he wanted to do. It had always been in the back of his mind since many of his family members are welders.
This past summer, Schonter worked as an intern at
Upton Industries in Roseville, and is thinking about specializing in pipe welding.
“Out of all the experiences I’ve had with welding, pipe welding was probably the hardest thing I came across and it made me want to master it,” he says.
Welding has also impacted him on a personal level.
“It gave me structure to my life,” Schonter says. “It gave me a purpose to strive towards and that’s what I enjoy about it the most.”
As Schonter reaches closer to graduation, his plan is to attend Ohio Technical College to obtain certifications in welding and potentially work with Upton Industries again.
“I’d love to work with them honestly, it’d be a great spot to work at,” he says.
The Future of FTTP
We are always looking for more businesses to join FTTP, Weot says. The more exposure these students have to these industries and experiences, the better.
“For example, in the Ford NGL districts, if you become a business partner with them, saying “Yes I’ll do at least two things a year with you,” it could be a career fair and an industry fair, your logo goes on their partner wall, which is in their commons area of the high school which is where all the kids eat lunch,” Weot says. “Every day these kids are looking at the logos and they don’t even realize that they’re doing it.”
Weot adds, that on November 19, the county is sponsoring
MiCareerQuest Southeast, which is the largest career exploration event in the area, Weot says. It will be held at the Novi Suburban Showplace where businesses are separated into four areas: health care, construction, modern manufacturing, and IT with hands-on displays for kids and participants to learn and get to know these industries.
Moving forward, the county is hoping to have more industries involved in this program such as IT, cyber security, law, public safety such as dispatch, and finance.
“This is a program that works and is very impactful,” Weot says. “We just need to get a larger variety of businesses to join us.”