Skills Alliances

A Skills Alliance is a group of partners from the private and public sectors, committed to finding solutions to workforce issues in a particular industry sector. The Northwest Michigan Council of Governments administrates skill alliances in food and agriculture; business, healthcare; hospitality, and business and job skills.

The Northwest Michigan Agriculture and Food System Sector Alliance brings together stakeholders from the entire food system network such as growers, processors, preparers, packagers, distributors, servers, and retailers. The Alliance will provide collaboration, planning and action.		The Business Training Alliance (BTA) is a community partnership serving entrepreneurs to make training opportunities more accessible to the growing business community of Wexford and Missaukee counties. The BTA works in partnership with the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center.		The Healthcare Skills Alliance is committed to assisting the healthcare industry in Northwest Michigan to develop a credentialed, sustainable, qualified workforce in long-term care, nursing, and allied health. The Healthcare Skills Alliance is a partnership of healthcare employers, educators, and workforce development organizations who are committed to enhancing capacity and increasing the quality of training and education in healthcare for job seekers and low-wage workers.		The Hospitality Skills Alliance fosters partnerships and collaboration between employers, educational providers and the workforce development community to address the training, employment and other human resource interests of the hospitality industry in Northwest Michigan.		KAL•TEC is an educational resource connecting Kalkaska area citizens with programs and classes to upgrade job skills. KAL•TEC's mission is to improve workforce skills to assist businesses and boost the economy in and around Kalkaska County.