Regardless of industry, finding and developing a strong workforce is one of the top concerns for most businesses. Employees serve as the backbone for many companies. Their performance dictates how customers feel about a company, how well the company grows and whether it is a profitable endeavor.
Education serves many purposes for the region, but chief among them is producing graduates who are ready to enter the workforce. Universities and technical colleges play a big role in that work, but increasingly schools in the K-12 education system have engaged with the business world. Students are getting exposure to the world of work by visiting businesses, participating in mock interviews or mentorship programs and even internships. A growing number of businesses and business leaders also seek to engage with educators from either a philanthropic or a talent development perspective.
While relationships between business and education can start with the best of intentions, it is easy for things to get off track. Business leaders and educators both have plenty going on outside their relationship and the two worlds can almost seem to speak a different language.
BizTimes Media’s Milwaukee Education Spotlight seeks to bridge some of those gaps by providing insights and best practices for building relationships between businesses and educators, plus dedicated time for networking and connection.
The Feb. 29 event, starting at 2 p.m. at the Italian Community Center, is sponsored by Northwestern Mutual with additional support from supporting sponsors Brown & Brown, Catholic Financial Life and We Energies.
The program will start with a Milwaukee education overview by Dale Kooyenga, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, and Allison Wagner, executive director of All-In Milwaukee.
All-In Milwaukee is a college completion program that provides financial aid, advising and program and career support to high-potential, limited-income students in Milwaukee with the goal of helping them build meaningful careers in Milwaukee. The program currently serves around 400 students and plans to grow to 1,000 over the next five years.
In a conversation with BizTimes managing editor Arthur Thomas, Kooyenga and Wagner will discuss the current state of education in Milwaukee, the work each organization does and ideas for breaking down silos.
Following the education overview, two panel discussions will dive deeper into best practices and lessons learned from relationships between business and education.
The first panel will feature Hank Kohl, president and CEO of medical device manufacturer MPE Inc.; Amy Levek, principal of Whitefish Bay High School; Danny McCormick, director of career programs and partnerships at Carmen Schools of Science & Technology; and Kari Conradt, president of Amplify Graphics & Branding.
Kohl currently works with Levek to implement the GPS Education Partners program at MPE. The program offers work-based learning for students. In addition to discussing how they work together, Kohl and Levek will touch on some of the cultural changes needed in their respective organizations to make the partnership successful.
Carmen Schools, which has six locations around the city, has a range of business partnerships from site visits up to an internship program. McCormick’s prior experience includes involvement in work-based learning efforts in Arizona and Colorado before he joined Carmen in 2021.
Amplify is a West Allis-based large-format printing company in its second generation of family ownership. Conradt will discuss keys for smaller employers to work with education institutions and how the company’s working relationship with McCormick and Carmen Schools has evolved.
The second panel discussion will feature Andy Stith, president of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School; Angie Sandoval, community involvement analyst at Johnson Controls; Blanca Gonzales, executive director of i.c.stars; and Sarah Dollhausen-Clark, assistant director of talent partnerships and pipelines at Northwestern Mutual.
i.c.stars is a technology-based leadership training program for young adults. Participants are at least 18 years old and are part of an intensive, 12-hour per day, 16-week training and internship program. Gonzales has led the program since 2021. Dollhausen-Clark led i.c.stars prior to joining Northwestern Mutual.
Cristo Rey in Milwaukee is part of a 39-school national network. Students participate in work study programs starting their freshman year at one of dozens of corporate partners. Stith was the founding president of Cristo Rey in Milwaukee and was also part of the founding leadership team of a Cristo Rey school in Kansas City.
Sandoval serves as the point person for Cristo Rey students at Johnson Controls, but she is also a Cristo Rey graduate herself.
The second panel will dive deeper into relationships between business and education, including the importance of a point person not just for the organization but also for students. It will also address some of the trickier areas in support between talent development and philanthropy, the importance of businesses thinking differently about talent and ways to ultimately keep more talent in Milwaukee.
After the panels, the program will continue with roundtable networking featuring more than 20 schools and their business partners. Attendees will have a chance to learn about the schools and leave with a clear idea of how they can get involved.
The program will conclude with a networking reception.
Learn more and register at biztimes.com/mkeedu
