MMAC, M7 LAUNCH TALENT AND INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP

Responding to Milwaukee Region companies’ urgent need for talented employees, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) and Milwaukee 7 Economic Development Partnership (M7) are convening employers in collaborative solutions.

The new partnership will harness MMAC and M7 talent development resources, amplify both organizations’ existing efforts and launch new programming to help companies in our region attract, retain and train talented workers.

Pindel Global Precision CEO Bill Berrien stated, “As employers, we can do more together than any one company can do on its own. The MMAC and M7 are well-positioned to provide resources and convene stakeholders to drive solutions that will benefit our entire region.”

This partnership evolved from an ongoing collaboration among more than 30 of the Milwaukee Region’s top manufacturers. Led by ManpowerGroup and Rockwell Automation, MMAC and M7 convened a group of manufacturers in November 2018. Since then, chief human resource officers from participating manufacturers have continued to meet and design solutions to help their talent needs. “Simply put, we need to stop fishing and start farming – to do everything we can to find, develop, retain and attract the talent the region needs to be prosperous,” added MMAC President Tim Sheehy. “We can collaborate to inspire the next generation of our workforce, help current employees acquire new skills, bring in members of our community who have been left on the sidelines and attract more talented workers from outside our market. With a new partnership dedicated to making these connections, our region will be even stronger tomorrow than it is today.”

CareerX to create new school to industry connections

The first new program of the joint effort will launch this fall. Called CareerX, this program will create ongoing connections between industry and education by matching Milwaukee Region manufacturers with area high school educators and students for a series of career experiences to make them more aware of the spectrum of career opportunities in smart manufacturing. Additional details will be released later this year.

// Susan Koehn

VP of Talent and Industry Partnerships 414/287-4136 skoehn@mke7.com

// Alexis Deblitz

Director, Talent Pipeline Programs 414/287-4130 adeblitz@mmac.org

// Brittany Morton

Business & Education Partnerships Coordinator 414/287-4124 bmorton@mmac.org

The MMAC and M7 Talent and Industry Partnership plans to replicate this collaborative process in other regional industry sectors. Long-term goals for the partnership include: • Improving K-16 education pipeline connections with employers • Upskilling existing employees and lower skilled candidates • Connecting workers with untapped potential to opportunities • Recruiting talent from outside our market

“While M7 is best known for helping new businesses enter our region and existing businesses expand, we also have made significant steps in talent development since our formation in 2005. By combining our efforts with MMAC’s, we can do even more to help our employers solve their talent needs, ” said M7 Executive Director Pat O’Brien.

The Talent and Industry Partnership will be led by vice president Susan Koehn. Before joining M7, Koehn worked with the Southeast Wisconsin Workforce development board. She is joined by Alexis Deblitz, Director of Talent Pipeline Programs, who has led the MMAC’s Be the Spark program. The Be the Spark program has provided career-focused local business tours to 13,000 Milwaukee Public Schools seventh-grade students. Also joining the team is Brittany Morton, in the new role of Business and Education Partnerships Coordinator.

“Our region’s employers will always compete with one another to hire the best employees, and we don’t want to change that. But we are committed to helping employers find new ways to work together and increase the overall pool of workers that they all draw from,” said Koehn. “We also are committed to forming connections between employers, public and private workforce development programs and our region’s educational institutions. We can all do more together than any one of us can do on our own.” p