How we put the plan to work: Three strategies for transformation
To build a stronger, future-ready Michigan, we’re focusing on three things: diversified industries, skilled workers, and resilient communities that are ready for what’s next. These strategies work together to help Michigan grow in a balanced way.
Strategy 3
Employee engagement & empowerment
The Community & Worker Economic Transition Office is leading a proactive effort to help workers prepare for and succeed in this changing economy. By filling gaps in existing services and coordinating resources across the state, the Transition Office ensures that workers, especially those at risk of being left behind, can participate in, benefit from, and help shape Michigan’s economic future.
The strategy is grounded in a core belief: Economic change should lead to increased prosperity for transition-impacted workers. To achieve this, the Transition Office’s workforce approach is built on three key principles:
- Better data leads to better outcomes: Improved access to data helps everyone, from individuals to institutions, make better decisions.
- For individuals: The Office is expanding access to reliable labor market data and career pathway tools to help job seekers in transition-impacted sectors make informed decisions about training and career opportunities.
- For training providers: Regularly updated, employer-vetted labor market projections guide curriculum design and ensure that training keeps pace with industry needs, especially in fast-changing fields like mobility, energy, and advanced manufacturing.
- For employers: By forecasting future workforce needs, the Transition Office helps ensure a strong talent pipeline, especially for transition-impacted small and mid-sized businesses that often lack direct access to high-quality data and training systems.
- Impact at scale requires coordination: Michigan’s workforce system includes many strong, independent partners, but collaboration is key to lasting success.
- Workforce programs must serve both employers and workers: Success means meeting employer demand and supporting transition-impacted workers in building stable, high-quality careers.
- For transition-impacted workers
- Programs are designed to move people from unemployment or underemployment into well-paying, stable careers.
- Tuition-free training and career readiness support are available — especially for underrepresented groups such as women, people of color, veterans, and individuals impacted by the justice system. Explore MI Student Aid, Michigan Reconnect, LEO – Registered Apprenticeships, and LEO – Veterans’ Employment Services.
- Barriers like childcare and transportation are being tackled head-on through partnerships and targeted investments that enhance local, transition-impacted communities’ ability to adopt and implement proven models.
- For employers:
- Training programs are aligned with industry-defined skills and regularly updated to reflect evolving needs.
- Apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and other on-the-job training models give transition-impacted employers tools to build talent directly, using effective models that increase the skills of new hires and existing employees.
- Regional feedback and employer engagement ensure programs remain relevant and responsive.
- For transition-impacted workers
Why it matters
Michigan’s future prosperity depends on a workforce that is prepared, adaptable, and included in the opportunities created by economic transitions. When workers are left behind, families suffer, communities struggle, employers face talent shortages, and the state loses its competitive edge. The Transition Office’s workforce strategy addresses these challenges by leveraging existing and proven approaches to ensure more Michiganders can access high-quality jobs, develop in-demand skills, and build stable, meaningful careers.
By removing barriers and expanding access to training, the strategy helps transition-impacted workers improve their economic security and quality of life.
The strategy strengthens the talent pipeline for transition-impacted employers looking to diversify into growing sectors, making Michigan a more attractive place to invest and innovate. As more transition-impacted workers gain the skills and support they need to succeed, Michigan becomes not only more prosperous, but more resilient and economically competitive. This is more than workforce development — it’s a foundation for statewide growth.
Our workforce strategy is a bold, collaborative, and equity-focused plan to navigate Michigan’s economic transition. By combining better data, deeper coordination, and a commitment to both worker opportunity and employer success, Michigan is building a workforce ready to lead in the industries of tomorrow, ensuring no one is left behind.
Explore the programs that are facilitating employee engagement and empowerment.
The Transition Office launched the MI Auto Workforce Hub, a statewide collaborative of over 150 employers, labor organizations, training providers, research institutions, regional workforce leaders, and state government offices to work toward shared goals. This collaborative governance structure helps partners identify challenges, co-create solutions, and adjust over time based on real-world outcomes and new data.
Rather than relying on top-down directives, the Hub enables partners to lead the way — ensuring that training, curricula, and workforce-development strategies reflect the lived realities of local communities and employers.
Key focus areas include:
- Barrier removal: This includes addressing systemic obstacles faced by transition-impacted workers and communities, such as unreliable transportation and lack of childcare, through regional guides like the Reliable Rides playbook.
- Curriculum and career readiness: This includes building and scaling pre-apprenticeship programs, K-12 manufacturing and mobility curriculum, and employer-driven training models. The Hub’s Skills in Sync Playbook is being developed alongside auto employers and educators to align classroom learning with the skills Michigan’s auto industry needs.
- Data and coordination: The Data & Coordination workgroup is building a Michigan Auto Workforce Transition Report to forecast skill needs, highlight growth areas, and facilitate data sharing across partners.
This playbook helps employers, nonprofits, and other local organizations launch programs that remove transportation barriers, helping individuals without access to reliable transportation successfully get and keep a job.
Regional consortiums will be launched to increase the adoption of high quality CTE programming at the K-12 level and increase employer adoption of proven on-the-job training models, such as apprenticeship programs.
Regularly updated, employer-vetted labor market projections guide curriculum design and ensure that training keeps pace with industry needs, especially in fast-changing fields, like electric vehicles, battery tech, and advanced manufacturing.
Discover recommendations for continued employee engagement and empowerment across Michigan.
Michigan should strengthen its early warning and layoff aversion system to identify manufacturers in distress and offer support before layoffs or closures occur. By partnering with turnaround experts, the state can learn how to help at-risk firms assess challenges, explore restructuring options, and diversify into more stable or growing markets. The state can also build on its successful use of the UIA Work Share program during COVID, which helped employers avoid layoffs by reducing hours instead of jobs. To use Work Share more proactively in the context of manufacturing transitions, additional study and legislative updates may be required to ensure the program can be deployed flexibly along with broader stabilization efforts. Models such as Pennsylvania’s Strategic Early Warning Network (SEWN) show how targeted, early interventions can stabilize local employers, protect jobs, and reduce the long-term economic impact on surrounding communities.
Requires modest investment or new use of existing funds
Requires additional study or policy change
Requires collaboration or coordination
Michigan can expand its existing Employer-Led Collaboratives and other public-private workforce partnerships into broader sector-based networks that expand on their successful approach to workforce development by including a focus on supply chain needs, diversification efforts, and long-term industry growth. These cross-sector partnerships can bring together employers, training providers, labor organizations, industry groups, public agencies, and nonprofit organizations to jointly expand beyond coordinating training and talent development to assess emerging market opportunities, share demand forecasts, and coordinate responses to supply chain challenges. Examples of an early pilot could include tying an existing Employer-Led Collaborative focused on workforce training for the energy sector to the partnership formed to help the state’s utilities meet their supply chain needs. By aligning workforce and economic development within coherent industry clusters, Michigan can strengthen regional ecosystems and help firms compete in fast-changing markets.
Requires collaboration or coordination
Michigan should work with workforce, education, and industry partners to explore the creation of a user-friendly online platform that serves as a single front door to existing career and training resources for transition-impacted workers. Rather than duplicate current tools, this effort would focus on integrating and simplifying access to what already exists by bringing together real-time job openings, employer skill needs, training programs, and personalized career-path suggestions in emerging fields like EVs, battery technology, and advanced manufacturing. This effort would build on the Michigan Workforce Board’s Career Navigation Resource Guide, which calls for clear, accessible tools that integrate labor-market data, training options, and equity-focused navigation support, and supplement efforts underway to make it easier to navigate to state workforce programs. By coordinating with Michigan Works!, community colleges, industry associations, and private-sector or nonprofit technology partners, the state can help workers more easily understand growing opportunities, identify needed skills or credentials, and connect with the right support. A shared, partner-built entry point would strengthen talent pipelines and make it easier for workers to navigate the full range of resources already available.
Requires modest investment or new use of existing funds
Requires increased collaboration or coordination
Requires additional study or policy change
To truly include more Michiganders in the new economy, the state should make barrier removal supports a standard feature of workforce programs. Michigan has already demonstrated the value of this approach through the Barrier Removal Employment Success (BRES) program, which provided flexible assistance to help workers overcome real obstacles to training or employment. Because programs like BRES are funded intermittently as one-time investments, they are least available when state budgets are tight, such as during an economic downturn or transition, which is exactly when workers need them most. By building wraparound support and barrier removal directly into the design of workforce initiatives and using core funding streams (including WIOA, TANF, and ongoing discretionary workforce dollars), Michigan can ensure consistent access to the supports workers need to enroll, persist, and succeed. Other states are moving in this direction. Oregon’s semiconductor strategy linked childcare to apprenticeship expansion, and embedded childcare, transit assistance, and job placement services into its adult diploma programs. Making these supportive services integrated and embedded elements of Michigan’s workforce system will strengthen job retention and improve training completion, ensuring transition-impacted workers are not left behind during a period of economic change.
Requires significant new investment
Requires collaboration or coordination
Requires additional study or policy change
As technology and market shifts reshape Michigan’s economy, workers in transition-impacted industries need clear, accessible pathways into skilled, good-paying manufacturing roles and employers need access to workers with up-to-date skills. Michigan can expand earn-and-learn models such as apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and on-the-job training to help displaced or at-risk workers gain in-demand skills while earning a wage. Michigan’s Registered Apprenticeship programs and the Going PRO Talent Fund provide a strong foundation to build on, though both have faced recent budget cuts. By expanding and strengthening these tools and complementing them with targeted programs that incentivize hiring displaced workers or upskilling incumbent workers in transition-impacted sectors, Michigan can increase employer participation and create more opportunity for workers who need it the most.
Opportunities for expansion could include incentives like tax credits or grant support for companies that hire displaced workers or upskill incumbent workers in transition-impacted sectors. Kansas recently passed legislation offering employers up to $2,500 in tax credit per apprentice, alongside grants for apprenticeship programs. Indiana has expanded funds available for employer-provided training by implementing a modest employer-paid tax for programs that lead to in-demand credentials or wage increases. Implementing new incentives or innovative ways to expand funding in Michigan that can be targeted towards workers impacted by economic transition would encourage more firms to participate in apprenticeships and train talent in-house. Coupling this with support for multi-employer apprenticeship hubs (e.g., regional training centers that serve many small manufacturers) can make high-quality training accessible to small manufacturers in transition-impacted sectors. These steps meet employers’ needs while launching workers into resilient careers.
Requires significant new investment
Requires additional study or policy change
Michigan can maximize the impact of its current training programs by adding initiatives specifically designed for dislocated workers or those coming from transition-impacted sectors. One option is to offer transition training scholarships that provide last-dollar tuition support for workers moving from transition-impacted industries into in-demand fields. The state can also expand the use of portable, stackable credentials by building on efforts like the MI College Credit for Apprenticeship Program, launched by LEO and the Michigan Workforce Development Board in partnership with community colleges, MiLEAP, and the skilled trades, which awards college credit for apprenticeship training. By continuing to work with industry groups to develop recognized micro-credentials in areas like EV maintenance, robotics, and advanced manufacturing, Michigan can help workers carry proof of their skills to any employer statewide. As with other Transition Office efforts, these initiatives should start as pilot projects or regional demonstrations, allowing the state to test what works, show early results, and build support for expanding successful approaches when more funding or legislative support becomes available.
Requires modest investment or new use of existing funds
Requires additional study or policy change
The state should expand its workforce transition strategy to include a comprehensive, community-based response system that goes beyond traditional state workforce or unemployment insurance programs to fully support displaced workers and their families. While Michigan’s workforce agencies provide critical services, like unemployment insurance and training access, many displaced workers also face cascading challenges such as housing instability, food insecurity, mental health issues, stress, and lack of transportation that fall outside the scope of traditional workforce programs. To meet these needs, local workforce agencies can formalize partnerships with area nonprofits, faith-based organizations, charitable foundations, and community-based service providers that are often called upon when economic shocks hit. The state can play a supporting role, acting as a convener and capacity builder, coordinating locally developed partnerships to form Worker Transition Response Networks at the regional level. These networks would ensure impacted workers and their families are connected to wraparound support beyond what is provided through state programs, including emergency assistance, family services, and culturally competent counseling. This approach aligns with the Career Navigation Resource Guide’s emphasis on addressing the full range of worker needs through coordinated, culturally competent, high-touch navigation.
Requires modest investment or new use of existing funds
Requires increased collaboration or coordination
To ensure that every displaced worker receives a complete and effective response, the state should develop a standardized framework for tracking individual worker outcomes across workforce programs, nonprofit partners, and service providers. This framework should go beyond job placement metrics to capture whether workers’ core needs, such as childcare, transportation, housing, and mental health, are being addressed during their transition. By integrating data systems and enabling shared case management where appropriate, the state and regional partners can better understand what support each worker received, where gaps remain, and how to improve coordination. This level of tracking is essential for accountability and continuous improvement and reflects a deeper commitment to ensuring no worker falls through the cracks during economic transition.
Requires modest investment or new use of existing funds
Requires increased collaboration or coordination
Requires additional study or policy change
Building on the success of the Unemployment Insurance Agency’s Community Connect pilot program (funded by a U.S. Department of Labor Equity Grant), the state should invest in full-time community-based staff to assist UI claimants and guide workers through each phase of training, reemployment, and barrier removal. Consistent with the Career Navigation Resource Guide, navigators should be embedded not only in Michigan Works! offices but also in trusted community, cultural, faith-based, and nonprofit organizations so workers can receive high-touch, culturally competent, and trauma-informed support in locations they already rely on. To effectively provide service, align resources, and support community partners, these navigators should be housed in local Michigan Works! agencies and community, faith-based, or cultural organizations to meet directly with workers and close gaps in service delivery. Additionally, to complement state funding dedicated to workforce training programs, the state should also invest in human capital to help guide workers throughout each phase of the training, reemployment, and barrier removal process. These dedicated career navigators provide the tailored, one-on-one support needed to ensure workers are connected to relevant resources and pursue the job and training opportunities best suited to them and their families.
Requires significant new investment
Michigan can ensure that high-value, industry-recognized certificate and credential programs are available tuition-free to transition-impacted workers. Workforce training partners have shared that some credentials critical to emerging fields are not currently eligible for state tuition assistance, but expanding eligibility broadly is constrained by statutory requirements, limited outcome data, and quality-assurance challenges in the short-term credential market. While the state works to address these structural issues, it can prioritize employer-validated training pathways, where employer demand is explicit and employers help share the cost of training. This approach reduces the risk of funding low-value credentials and ensures public dollars support skills that are actually needed in the labor market. Michigan can also include targeted exceptions to the Michigan Reconnect program that allow laid-off workers with older degrees to qualify for eligibility when their prior occupation is tied to one shown by labor-market data to be declining in demand. Helping displaced workers increase access to short-term training to update occupational skills allows for faster, more affordable retraining and quicker reentry into the workforce.
Requires additional study or policy change
Michigan could explore a targeted time-limited income support program for transition-impacted workers in key sectors who reenter the workforce at reduced wages. This type of program could be structured as wage insurance, refundable tax credits, extended unemployment insurance benefits, or employer-provided supplemental unemployment benefit plans. The federal government used to provide this support through the U.S. Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program’s Reemployment Trade Adjustment Assistance (RTAA) benefit, which covered half of a trade-displaced worker’s lost wages for up to two years. These programs have been proven to encourage workers to get back into the workforce more quickly, and studies indicate that workers who receive income support have higher earnings than those who don’t, even when you exclude earnings from the wage benefit itself. Other states have proposed wage differential benefit programs, but the biggest challenge for implementation has been identifying a sustainable source of dedicated funding to ensure programs are available during economic downturns when workers need them most. Funding options could include a sector-specific fee charged to transition industries, a payroll tax surcharge, or a one-time transfer into a dedicated Transition Fund that could be managed by the state to provide benefits to displaced workers.
Requires significant new investment
Requires additional study or policy change
“Economic shifts are not a one-size-fits-all process. The Transition Office recognizes that and works with communities to address their individual challenges.”
-Daniel Gilmartin, MML Executive Director