LANSING - The Michigan House today passed a bipartisan economic development plan proposed by State Representative Richard E. Hammel (D-Mt. Morris Township) to enable community colleges to train residents for specific new jobs to ensure that companies have the qualified workers they need to do business in Michigan.
"The New Jobs Training Program offers a creative solution to the most urgent problems Michigan is struggling with: creating new jobs and getting residents back to work," said Hammel, who is Chair of the House Appropriations Economic Development Subcommittee. "Our community colleges offer valuable job-creation tools, and this plan makes the most of them. Having this new option to respond to employers' requests for skilled workers will help attract more job providers to our communities."
Hammel's plan, which the House passed on a vote of 102-1, enables employers who are creating new jobs to contract with community colleges for specialized training related to those jobs. The company's newly hired workers would receive the training at no charge, with the college selling bonds to fund the program. In return, once the employees started working, the company will direct the workers' income tax payments to the community college rather than the state in order to repay the training costs. The plan now goes to the Senate, where Hammel has worked to ensure that it also has broad bipartisan support.
A similar program in Iowa has helped attract more than 2,000 training projects and create more than 138,000 new jobs since it was established.
"A strong partnership between employers and community colleges helps Michigan create new jobs and produce a flexible, high-quality workforce," Hammel said. "Communities will be able to attract more projects now that they can train the specialized workers necessary. This program also makes it possible for residents who can't afford to attend college to land jobs that would otherwise have been out of reach."