LANSING – Community colleges across Michigan are offering skills-focused education to help students in rural areas find employment in the state and elsewhere.

And such programs are badly needed, said Rep. Tom Kunse, R-Clare.

“My district is the most economically depressed district in the state,” Kunse says. “We are dealing with ‘Appalachian-style’ poverty – it’s generational.”

While the number of total jobs in major metropolitan areas in Michigan increased by over 183,000 between 2006 and 2023, rural counties lost over 41,000 jobs in the same period, according to a report by Rural Insights, an Upper Peninsula nonprofit research group, and data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to Kunse, the most important policy issue by far has always been the economy. “We need good jobs,” he says.

There is a path to good jobs, Kunse said, and that is through career technical education. “If you want to make $100,000 in Michigan, be a welder.”

“That is the path out,” says Kunse. “That is how we are going to break some of these cycles.”

Scott Mertes is the provost of academic affairs at Mid Michigan College in Harrison and Mount Pleasant, which offers career technical education.

“We have a career center that helps students find internships and jobs and helps prepare them for things like career fairs, resume writing and collects dress clothes for those who don’t have funds to buy them, in addition to career selection and placement,” he said.

Mid Michigan College’s advisory board helps identify the skills that most employers are looking for from its graduates, he said.

That often leads to industry partnerships such as the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3), a coalition of employers around the country that have set up certificates that Mid Michigan College has incorporated into its curriculum, he said. The college has issued 590 such certifications since 2018.

“As the student takes a class, they are able to be certified in these skills, and those certifications go with them as they apply for jobs, even if they cannot complete the academic degree,”said Mertes.

Mid Michigan College also offers academic degrees including advanced integrated manufacturing, automotive and welding.

These can lead to jobs with employers including Festo USA, an industrial robot manufacturer based in Troy, he said, or NC3 partner FANUC America, another industrial robot manufacturer based in Rochester, he said.

“Most of our students do want to stay local. We host the Central Michigan Manufacturers Association on our campus, including 130 local manufacturers, and we partner with them to gauge what they are looking for,” said Mertes.

Finally, Mid Michigan offers a career technical education dual enrollment curriculum in local high schools. Dual enrollment programs offer high school students the opportunity to take free college-level courses in their own school which count toward academic degrees offered on campus.

Roy Smith is the lead instructor for Utility Tech, a program at Alpena Community College that trains students in power line installation and repair.

Smith said the program tends not to attract the typical college student who seeks a four-year degree right out of high school.

“More typically it’s a worker who is very good with their hands and loves to work outdoors,” he said.

Alpena Community College also offers a one year-certificate program and an advanced certificate option that allows students to become apprentice linemen with Consumers Energy. Other options are a two-year associate of science degree and a four-year bachelor of science degree in electrical systems technology.

Job outcomes for recent students in the program have been good, he says. “If they are willing to move away from their hometowns, they pretty much all get jobs.”