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STEM Employer Talent Pipeline

Driven by Employer Demand

The Great Lakes Bay region has focused its efforts on the key findings related to the first of the four requirements for STEM Impact report. Specifically, the report urges the creation of a robust STEM talent pipeline driven by employer demand and cites the following key findings related to this goal:

  • Economic growth is constrained due to challenges finding qualified STEM talent.
  • Employers struggle to find STEM talent due to a lack of technical skills, soft skills, and required experience.
  • It is difficult to get a clear picture of the region’s talent needs because of a lack of transparency around current and future (short-term) demand.
  • Employer job expectations are confusing due to a lack of common language used across industries and between industry and education. (STEM Impact Initiative, 2014, p. 6)

Visit the STEM Employer Talent Pipeline website for business resources, information, and more.

WHY your business should care about building a STEM-based Talent Pipeline:
  • STEM jobs grew at 300% the rate of other jobs in the last decade
  • 71% of employers reported having difficulty hiring for a STEM job within the last 12 months
  • STEM skills are required for a wide range of in-demand occupations
  • 76% of employers reported that for their most in-demand positions, trained talent is difficult to find
  • Developing a talent pipeline can reduce your time spent recruiting, which increases profits.
BENEFITS to your business:
  • Grow your talent pipeline
  • Save money
  • Save time
  • Increase intellectual capital

Contact Us

Carol McCaul

Director of STEM Employer Talent Pipeline
(989) 289-9849 | cmccaul@midmich.edu

LEARN MORE AT THE STEM PIPELINE WEBSITE.

Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance STEM Pipeline

Stories of Success!

Local Businesses Support Student Success

Alro Steel took the initiative to begin building relationships between local manufactures and area schools. A group came together for presentations on the need for more collaboration. With JD Metalworks, StageRight, Melling Products, and Future Mold, students from 5 different districts came for tours of the facilities. Further development lead to Alro Steel, JD Metalworks , StageRight and Ed Hubbel from Clare High School creating a “rotating co-op” program. Each manufacturer would take two students for six weeks. At the end of the six weeks, the students would move to the next location. The understanding was that the students would be fully immersed in the manufacturing company.

At Alro, the students would spend their time in safety training, on-boarding, soft skills, and the Alro “culture” (total customer service). The departments they worked with included: Saws, Tube Lasers, Plate Lasers, Material Handling, CAD/Engineering and Sales.

JD Metalworks committed to working with the students to prepare them for the real world, working on their soft skills, attendance, work ethic, attitude, and communication. Stageright introduced the students to new technologies and teamwork.

At the end of the experience each location choose a single individual after completed applications and interviews to return the following semester. The student would choose the area that appealed most to them to spend 18 weeks. They had to follow work rules, attendance rules, and be part of the host family. They usually had nicknames within the first two weeks, so they fit in very well! During this time, we worked with the co-op coordinator to be sure milestones were being met in accordance to their plan.

My Experience with Mid Michigan College's Internship Program...

My name is Rachel and I am a sophomore at Mid Michigan Collage. I am currently a business and marketing major and plan to transfer to Central Michigan University next fall. After starting my winter classes in 2021, I started to realize how many different areas of business there are. I had chosen to pursue a degree in an area of study because I knew what it entailed; but there were so many other options. I had no idea how I was going to figure out which part of business I wanted to be in, without experiencing different aspects beforehand.

I received an email from my business teacher here at Mid Michigan about an internship position that was available for any business student to apply for. Since the position was mostly remote, I applied for it. The application process was so easy.

The role was a social media marketing position, at a non-profit called Gladwin Area Friends of The Theatre, or GAFT. The process was set up just like a normal job offer and I was given the description of what I would be doing what the position paid.

My internship at GAFT ran for one semester and since the position was through Mid Michigan College, our internship advisor Amy Dykhouse helped me every step of the way. She let me set my own hours each week, so I never felt stressed about school, and I was even able to count the internship as a class and receive credit for it, while getting paid.

I absolutely loved working for GAFT. It was scary at first because, I am still learning and I wanted to prove myself. But I soon realized that this was supposed to be a learning experience for me and that the whole point of this internship was to gain knowledge and learn as much as I could about the social media aspect of business. Everyone I worked with was super understanding of school, and patient with me as I learned. The amount of knowledge I gained throughout the time I spent with the team is something I needed in order to move forward with my degree choice. I ended up staying with GAFT for both the winter and summer semester because of how much I enjoyed working with them.

Some of the things I learned during my internship were;
  • How to use different editing sites like Canva. I used this site to make flyers, posters and
  • newsletters for upcoming events or fundraisers we had planned.
  • How the inner workings of a non-profit organization work.
  • How to properly write an email for board members.
  • How to run all social media accounts for the business, including what was posted on these sites.
Speaking about my experience helping the Gladwin Area Friends of the Theatre, GAFT president Alan Hawley had this to say:
“We found the Mid Michigan College Internship Program to be a win-win for all involved. For our group, Gladwin Area Friends of the Theatre, we got a fresh view into our fundraising efforts from Rachel, and she got hands-on experience in the field she is pursuing. We feel this program is a wonderful opportunity for all involved.”

After finishing my time with GAFT, I decided to continue growing my knowledge about different areas of marketing, so I applied to the internship program with Mid Michigan College again. I am currently two weeks into a brand-new internship with The Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance.

I am excited to continue gaining more experience and working with different people and companies. Mid has so many different internship options for every area of study and degree. I would recommend applying for an internship position at MMC, or any student with their own institution. It is a great way to gain experience and knowledge about any career or degree, that you may not be sure about.

Mid is grateful for the opportunities that its surrounding communities employers and agencies provide to give hands-on real world internship experience to our students. We look forward to developing new partnerships in the future to further enhance the skills of our students as well as increase the contribution our students can make in our community by becoming skilled and beneficial participants in the workforce" - Amy Dykhouse
 
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