In May 2014, leaders from business and education joined forces under the leadership of the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance to launch the STEM Impact Initiative. Our goal is to build the workforce of tomorrow through comprehensive science, technology, engineering, and math education to meet the growing needs of our current employers and to attract new jobs and businesses to the Great Lakes Bay Region.
The figures below are based on a 2014 study conducted in partnership with Accenture.
The world is changing. Gone are the days when a high school graduate could simply show up at the front gates of a manufacturing plant and start working. Gone are the days when companies could produce the same products in the same way year after year.
Success today comes to companies with the ability to adapt and people with the skills needed by those companies. Increasingly, those skills are in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) areas.
STEM skills are required for a wide range of high-demand occupations, including engineers, scientists, computer technicians, health care workers, welders, chemical process operators, electricians and many more.
Why the Great Lakes Bay Region?
The Great Lakes Bay Region has several large STEM employers, each with a heavy emphasis on manufacturing or healthcare. Roughly 38 percent of the region’s economic output is driven by those two industries.
A tradition of strength in science and manufacturing gives the Great Lakes Bay Region a head start in the race to STEM excellence. Discovery, innovation and the practical application of know-how are in the very soul of the region and its people. Few areas of the nation offer the fertile soil for STEM strength that can be found here.