Northwest Michigan Businesses Receive $593,000 For Employee Training

News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 27, 2023

NORTHWEST, MI – 18 businesses in northwest Lower Michigan will receive a total of $593,097 for employee training from a second round of fiscal year 2023 grants from the state’s Going PRO Talent Fund. Employers will use the funding to train 427 new and existing employees across the region. 46 apprentices are among those being trained. Award recipients in northwest Michigan include businesses in multiple industries including construction, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and nonprofits.  Businesses applied for the Talent Fund grants with assistance from the Northwest Michigan Works! Business Services team.

“We are encouraged by the amount of investment local employers are putting towards training their new and existing employees,” said Rob Dickinson, Regional Director of Business Services for Northwest Michigan Works!. “The awarded companies have identified their training costs at over $2.5 million in the next year, far above the amount they will be reimbursed from this award. This investment shows a willingness to invest in our community and its people. Northwest Michigan Works! is proud to work with these companies and welcomes employers to contact us to learn how they can apply for future rounds of the Going Pro Talent Fund.”

54 northwest Lower Michigan businesses received a total of $1,700,109 from the first round of FY 2023 Going PRO Talent Fund grants announced late last year.

A full list of Going PRO Talent Fund grants is available at, Michigan.gov/TalentFund.

For more information about applying for future Going PRO Talent Fund grants and to connect with a Northwest Michigan Works! Business Services team member, go to nwm.org/GoingPRO.

Since the program's launch in 2014, more than 6,000 Michigan businesses have received Talent Fund awards to assist in training, developing and retaining newly hired and current employees. Training must fill a demonstrated talent need experienced by the employer and lead to a credential for a skill that is transferable and recognized by industry. The Going PRO Talent Fund has supported approximately 170,000 workers with training over the years.