Courtesy Photo Thunder Bay Community Health Services, Inc. has been named a Race to Talent Registered Apprenticeship Champion. Pictured, from left, are Jessica Top, Michigan Works! Northeast Consortium CEO; Ashley Udell, Michigan Works! Northeast Consortium Apprenticeship Program Manager;, Lindsey Muszynski, TBCHS Medical Assistant Educator; Alex Villarreal, TBCHS Apprentice, Kari Grulke TBCHS Nurse Manager; and Jeremiah Johnston, Michigan Works! Northeast Consortium Apprenticeship Specialist.

Thunder Bay Community Health Services, Inc. is one of five northern Michigan employers recognized as Race to Talent Champions for using Registered Apprenticeship Programs to train workers. TBCHS earned honors on May 28 in a ceremony following a panel discussion in Gaylord aimed at recruiting more area businesses to offer Registered Apprenticeships to build the local talent pipeline.

Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Department, Talent Together, the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, and Thunder Bay Community Health Services were honored as part of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s (LEO) Race to Talent with Registered Apprenticeship Michigan event, hosted locally by Michigan Works! Northeast Consortium in conjunction with LEO.

The panel discussion, moderated by Jeremiah Johnston, Michigan Works! Northeast Consortium’s Apprenticeship Specialist, highlighted the vast benefits of Registered Apprenticeship opportunities for employers and job seekers. The event included representatives from LEO, workforce development experts, and northern Michigan business leaders and employers.

“It was an honor to host some incredible people in our region who are making great strides in the apprenticeship world,” Michigan Works! Northeast Consortium CEO Jessica Topp said in a press release. “Our Apprenticeship Specialist, Jeremiah, has been hard at work registering numerous programs with the USDOL, further strengthening the workforce and employers in our region.”

Opportunities created through Registered Apprenticeship are available through a variety of fields deemed crucial to Michigan’s future, including construction, energy, health care, information technology, manufacturing and mobility.

Boosting awareness of Registered Apprenticeship represents part of LEO’s overall efforts to expand the talent pool and match employers with qualified employees to grow and sustain a vibrant economy. That effort strengthens Governor Whitmer’s Sixty by 30 initiative to have 60% of Michigan’s working adults with a skills certificate or postsecondary degree by 2030.

Registered Apprenticeship is an industry-driven, high-quality career training model in which employers develop and prepare Michigan’s future workforce. Apprentices gain paid work experience, related classroom instruction and a national industry-recognized credential upon program completion.

For more information, visit Michigan.gov/Apprenticeship.

Local businesses interested in learning more can contact Johnston at 989-306-8589 or apprenticeship@nemcworks.org.