Displaying items tagged: talent

A year after diversifying its focus beyond alternative energy technology, Muskegon Innovation Hub continues to find ways to reach and serve both entrepreneurs and the greater community.

Giving up a Harvard University education to help develop a high-tech wearable device for elite athletes might sound crazy to some.

GRAND RAPIDS — Care providers seeing patients through telemedicine visits need to develop what Barry Brown call a “web-side manner.”

GRAND RAPIDS — Citing concerns over widespread inequality, economic development stakeholders want to improve their outreach to the growing Latino population in the greater Grand Rapids area.

BENTON HARBOR — Lake Michigan College’s new president starts next month with an initial goal to become well connected with the local business community.

Citing increasing public awareness resulting from high-profile incidents, Grand Valley State University plans to place greater emphasis on cybersecurity training.

KALAMAZOO — Western Michigan University will launch a new product design institute to create a hub of designers in Southwest Michigan and supply local companies with talent.

As President Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries continues to play out in the courts, university administrators and international students in West Michigan say they’re keeping vigilant.

As Michigan life sciences companies grow and seek to commercialize their innovations, the firms often face key constraints when it comes to access to capital in the state. 

GRAND RAPIDS — Given the demand for more engineers in West Michigan, two local universities hope to be the institutions that can step up and fill that need.

For today’s engineering graduates, technical expertise remains paramount, but companies are asking more of their young workers, especially when it comes to so-called soft skills and the basics of business. 

With more limited resources compared to for-profit businesses but an equal need for talent, nonprofits must turn to other incentives for attracting and retaining qualified, passionate people.

Employers plan to stick with moderate pay raises for workers next year and at the same time put more emphasis on one-time payouts and merit bonuses.

Anew ruling aimed at giving more salaried workers access to overtime pay may have negative consequences for West Michigan companies and could ultimately end up hurting workers, despite the best of intentions. 

BENTON HARBOR — The former president of Lake Michigan College claims she got fired last spring after just four months on the job because she found through an internal assessment that the school lacked compliance with federal rules for student aid.

KALAMAZOO — Achieving two key accreditation milestones this summer shows that the Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine at Western Michigan University is meeting expectations.

Amid growing demand for health care talent, the partners behind a medical assistant apprenticeship program now look to expand the model to other in-demand areas. 

The Michigan State University College of Human Medicine wants to get medical students into the real world much sooner with the launch next month of an entirely new curriculum. 

The emergence of life sciences-based higher educational institutions continues to have a discernible impact on ancillary development in urban areas across Michigan.

BIG RAPIDS — Manufacturers often find themselves at an impasse when it comes to sourcing qualified welding talent. 

The $46.1 million Bronson Healthy Living Campus sprung from a need to create more room for Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s health programs.

GRAND RAPIDS — The formation of a new support system to foster entrepreneurship in West Michigan severs what had been a direct link between higher education and the venture capital community. 

The number of entrepreneur-themed programs developed for non-business students continues to grow across West Michigan liberal arts schools.

Despite losing one-third of its student body since 2012, Davenport University has embarked on a wave of spending, including expanded facilities, new dormitories and the addition of a football team this fall.

A statewide analysis of the insurance industry’s $37.1 billion economic impact provides a basis to lure more players to Michigan, as well as highlights the need for training new talent to replace an aging workforce.

For years, the MBA has been the advanced degree of choice for many executives in West Michigan and beyond, particularly as they look to climb the corporate ladder.  But the times and the needs of students have been changing in recent years. 

With the arrival of a new generation of workers comes a new set of personal and cultural values that employers must adapt to as they try to attract and retain the top talent. 

As West Michigan businesses have identified a need for increased professional development and management training in the workplace, many of them have strengthened their ties to local colleges and universities.

If developing, attracting and retaining talent remains key to future economic prosperity, then Michigan’s big three research universities say they’re clearly doing their part, at least on the front end of the equation.