The Detroit Regional Workforce Fund plans to begin turning one of Metro Detroit's biggest liabilities, the low-skill section of its workforce, into a valuable asset.
The new initiative, funded by a $3.5 million grant primarily from a handful of local foundations like the
United Way for Southeast Michigan, will focus on helping people with few or obsolete job skills move up the economic ladder. The fund will connect these people with local educational options, such as community colleges, and jobs.
"We're talking low-skilled folks," says Karen Tyler-Ruiz, director of the
Detroit Regional Workforce Fund, which will employ three people in downtown Detroit. "These are the folks who didn't graduate high school or have a GED." She adds that people who need retraining into industries relevant to the 21st Century will also be targeted.
Tyler-Ruiz points toward local illiteracy rates as a prime indicator of the people the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund is after. The 47 percent of the city of Detroit's population that can't read is often quoted, but Tyler-Ruiz counters that double-digit illiteracy rates in the suburbs, such as the 17 percent illiteracy rate in Warren, are also part of the problem.
The Detroit Regional Workforce Fund expects to reach 200,000 people in the city and another 200,000 in the suburbs. Mainly the fund will point these people toward remedial education that incorporates job skills for the new economy, such as sustainability industries.
"We can collectively do more as a region," says Tyler-Ruiz. "If we want to be a world-class state we need to address this as a region."
Source: Karen Tyler-Ruiz, director of the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at
SEMichiganStartup.com.
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