Nearly 300 philanthropy, business, education and community leaders recently gathered at Schoolcraft College to discuss the critical needs of workforce development in Michigan.

Schoolcraft College Foundation, a CMF member, hosted the event - the first in what the foundation shared will be “an ongoing effort led by the college to shed light on this important topic and explore the strategies and partnerships necessary to address the critical needs of workforce development now and into the future.”

The foundation invited Heather McGowan, an internationally known speaker, writer and thought leader to kick off the conversation by discussing the demands of our changing global workforce and how it requires a transformation in how we think about work..

Dawn Magretta, executive director, Schoolcraft College Foundation, said after hearing McGowan speak on the main stage at CMF’s 46^th Annual Conference last October, she wanted to share McGowan’s insights with business and community leaders in Southeast Michigan and get their feedback and ideas as to how to collectively move forward in this work.

McGowan said that in the past we learned to work and that in the fourth industrial revolution that we are now entering, we need to work to learn. She stressed that she has great confidence in humans and their unique abilities and that we need to restructure our systems to support humans flourishing in this next revolution where the need for lifelong learning, critical thinking skills and the ability to adapt are critical components in a heavily automated world with the growing capacity of artificial intelligence.

McGowan predicts that in the future:

• 47 percent of jobs will be automated.

• 65 percent of jobs of the future don’t exist yet.

• Life expectancy becomes 90 plus which means people will be working longer and needing to adapt to job and career changes.

“Future of work is about learning and adapting and it’s not exclusively about technology or skills,” McGowan said.

Right now, McGowan said 4.4 percent of people in the workforce are over the age of 85.

“It’s the highest percentage of people we’ve had in the workforce. At the same time at the lower end we have the lowest number of young people we’ve had in the workforce since the 1970s,” McGowan said. “There are real implications, because they’re not getting the tacit knowledge that they need.”

Her message resonated with the college, which has identified lifelong learning as a need to prepare our workforce.

“Lifelong learning is key to addressing issues that are having an adverse effect on businesses and industry,” Dr. Conway Jeffress, president of Schoolcraft College said in the introduction to the event’s live stream. “It is the backbone to creating and maintaining a workforce ready for a future of growth and prosperity in all of Michigan. Schoolcraft has always believed in being a center for lifelong learning. We’re prepared to take our place in assisting Michigan to continue its renaissance.”

Panelists joined McGowan on stage, representing manufacturing, cybersecurity, education and health care.

Chuck Dardas, president and COO, AlphaGroup, a tier one and tier two automotive supplier, said that collaboration and partnerships among businesses, communities, public schools, community colleges and beyond is key as they need to bridge the gaps and work together toward workforce solutions.

Dardas’ company already partners with Schoolcraft College on one of their many experiential programs.

“We really work with partners to get students internship opportunities,” Robert Leadley, dean of occupational programs and economic development at Schoolcraft College said. “We have a lot of simulation labs here, we try to bring the work world here and make it as real as possible. They need to understand the real world.”

McGowan said she’s hopeful that collaboration and interventions now will prepare our workforce for the future.

“In this short period of time we’ve had this thing called the internet, 25 maybe 28 years now, we just connected more than half the globe,” McGowan said. “If we can do that, there’s nothing we can’t do. It’s just a matter of getting our priorities right.”

Want more?

View the video of McGowan’s talk and the panel discussion.