MARINETTE – NWTC - Marinette hosted local companies and educators during their fall K12, Higher Education and Business/Industry connection event.
These meetings, held twice a year, serve to encourage building relationships between high school students and local employers through the lens of technical education.
Marinette Campus Dean and Director of K12 Pathways and Rural Community Impact Cindy Bailey began the event by speaking about the resources NWTC works on to help school districts, like Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance’s (NEWMA) video series “What’s Made in Marinette County?”
Bailey said the purpose of these videos is to “demonstrate the real-world application of what is taught in school and how it is used in the workplace.”
The videos also dive into soft skills — or what Bailey calls employability skills — because, “Something that our school districts are really striving for [is making] sure those employability skills, those real world essential skills, are happening in classrooms and students who are leaving our districts are have those abilities and are ready to go once they get out.”
Bailey also spoke on the academic restructuring that was announced this summer, making this the first full school year under the new layout.
The six colleges within NWTC include: advanced manufacturing and skilled trades; allied health; business, communication and social sciences; nursing; public safety; and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
According to Bailey, these changes came from discussions with business and K12 partners to create a better program for the community. This allows students to choose a college and gain a technical diploma, associate degree to continue on to a four-year degree with a transfer partner.
This also ties in to the college’s eight week advantage, which Bailey explained creates “opportunities for individuals to earn credentials within eight sessions.”
Different class times and start/end dates are available through this — with the first eight week session having started in August and the second starting in late October — allowing for flexible schedules for recent high school graduates or working parents, as an example.
This also ties in with a new position at NWTC, community impact coordinators.
Bailey described the purpose of the coordinators, “These community impact coordinators are here to listen to the needs of K12 [partners], but they’re also here to listen to business and industry partners. Whether that is for upscaling their workforce or maybe bringing them to our locations for training, we make sure we partner with them to offer what they need.”
Coordinators are assigned towns based on geographic location, with Bailey covering Menominee and Delta counties in Michigan as well as parts of Marinette County.
She closed out her portion of the meeting by speaking about the current NWTC strategic plan, navigating degrees of change. This plan, which the campus will be focused on through this academic year and into 2027, is about the cycle of turning student success and college excellence into community vibrancy.
These three aspects include:
Afterwards, Daren Sievers and Rob DeMeuse from the independent education research firm School Perceptions spoke about the career survey tool they are making based on feedback from students in Peshtigo, Marinette and Menominee, Mich.
Sievers said that their new product Opening Doors will give students information on career and education planning because “schools owe it to their kids to broaden their awareness of what opportunities are out there locally — be it local employers or local industries — and globally.”
The website will present students with available opportunities, like financial aid workshops or youth apprenticeship openings, so they are aware of what is going on.
Career matches will be presented based on a survey asking students what they like to do and what they are good at, which will then use data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to provide a clearer picture of careers the students match with.
Additionally, there will also be a readiness assessment that will indicate college, work and life readiness.
DeMeuse said that, overall, this program will serve to “build a bridge between the businesses and the students and the school as a way to bring these all together to better inform kids of all the rich opportunities that are available in the workforce today.”
Until the School Perceptions program is implemented, more information about local career and education planning can be always found through NWTC at www.nwtc.edu/about-nwtc/nwtc-locations/marinette.
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