February 10, 2025
Announcing a Regional Agreement to Solve Early Literacy Crisis
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEGrand Rapids, MI (February 10, 2025) — An alliance of business, K-12 and teaching-college...
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Illuminate. Evaluate. Advocate.
TalentFirst is a catalyst working to ensure an ongoing supply of world-class talent for West Michigan. Composed of over 100 CEOs from the region, TalentFirst illuminates gaps, evaluates leading practices, and advocates for the implementation of those leading practices to make West Michigan a top 20% employment region.
Unmatched Collaboration for Regional Impact
TalentFirst serves 13 counties in West Michigan, engaging the industries, businesses, and nonprofit and educational institutions of each county. We chose this region — Allegan, Barry, Ionia, Kent, Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, Osceola and Ottawa counties — because it provides the talent pool from which local employers employ 83.6 percent of their workforce. We convene stakeholders from across sectors and facilitate efficient and effective collaboration.
Our Working Groups:
Where collaboration drives solutions
Ensure children have access to quality childcare and preschool that prepares them to enter kindergarten at…
Increase academic and college and career readiness measures and advocate for schools to adopt…
The Postsecondary Education Working Group aims to increase the number of students graduating from West…
The Workforce Development Working Group aims to create a best-in-class workforce system to engage and…
The Workforce Analytics Working Group aims to advance alignment across West Michigan’s talent…
Significantly reduce the racial and ethnic disparities in labor force participation, employment, and…
TalentFirst will be recognized as one of the most trusted resources for talent solutions among West Michigan…
Our Members
TalentFirst’s membership represents an array of the region’s business, educational, and civic leaders — a group as diverse as the region we serve. Together, they are a powerful force for meeting the talent demand of today and tomorrow.
Our Insights
- February 10, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Grand Rapids, MI (February 10, 2025) — An alliance of business, K-12 and teaching-college leaders today announced an unprecedented agreement to increase...
- November 26, 2024
Successful business leaders don’t tolerate broken components of their operations. When a department fails to deliver, when costs overrun revenue, when a system breaks down?...
- November 20, 2024
Before joining Mercantile Bank a decade ago, Misti Stanton worked in education for 25 years. Today, as Mercantile’s Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,...