CEO Council Meeting & Reception

This member-exclusive meeting convenes our member CEOs and their HR leaders. Our last CEO Council meeting highlighted successful strategies to build your talent through upskilling and reskilling your current workforce. This Spring our focus turns to the postsecondary talent pipeline, and how we collectively improve West Michigan’s attraction and retention of educated, emerging talent from our region’s colleges and universities.

• Just 51.1% of West Michigan recent high school graduates enrolled at a postsecondary institution — down 5.5% from the enrollment rate observed in 2010.
• About 16,500 students graduate from a West Michigan postsecondary institution each year.
• Just 1 in 5 college students nationwide took an internship in 2022 according to the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions.
• 71% of students who wanted to take an internship couldn’t because there were no opportunities, while 58% cited insufficient pay as a reason they didn’t pursue an internship.

Our Spring meeting will highlight the value work-based learning opportunities offer to students, employers, and post-secondary institutions, featuring successful employer-institution partnerships and creating solutions that promote West Michigan as a great place to study, to stay, and to return — for not just a job, but a career.

Confirm your attendance by responding to the calendar invitation you received. We look forward to seeing you on May 20 at Amway!

Questions: Reach out to Colleen McInerney (c.mcinerney@talentfirst.net) or Kevin Stotts (k.stotts@talentfirst.net).