 Lakeland Public Television presents Currents. Bethany Wesley, welcome. Tonight on Lakeland Currents, we will be highlighting the Minnesota Innovation Institute, a Bemidji-based organization that is dedicated to growing entrepreneurship, economic development, and educational opportunities in northwest Minnesota and beyond. The Minnesota Innovation Institute, or MI2, helps build the capacity of northern Minnesota employees and employers by developing and providing educational programs and workforce development. MI2, formed in 2013, was created by companies in northwest Minnesota and works primarily to fill needs within the manufacturing industry by providing current and future employees with the necessary technical skills to fill quality, livable wage jobs. Joining me for tonight's program is Mary Eaton, president of the IDEA Circle and Pete Obby, retired manager of the Potlatch lumber mill in Bemidji. Thanks for joining me. Thank you, Bethany. As we start talking about what exactly the Minnesota Innovation Institute is, let's set the stage a little bit. Pete, you've been in timber and logging now for a couple of decades. Tell us a little bit about what was happening in manufacturing that you saw perhaps a concern. At the turn of the century, frankly, it goes back that far that we saw the escalating technology that was brought to bear in manufacturing and the challenge for employees to acquire those skills and practice them on the job and really the concern, therefore, of competitiveness. And remaining competitiveness is the biggest challenge to manufacturers. We not only compete regionally but nationally and internationally here in our industry and so workforce development, skills, the things that people do and don't do make a difference to our competitiveness and therefore our ability to invest in our mill or in our businesses and the ability to grow and create value. So it's at the very root of what we do in manufacturing, the things that people do. And so you were hearing from other likewise employers that perhaps there was something you could do together to help find some more skills, some more trainings. Yeah, so, you know, the old way was basically to go out and find, to recruit and to compete for those skills. I can go back to 2006 going to Dunwoody down in Minneapolis and taking videos with me to show their 40 graduates what an exciting field sawmilling is. And many of them didn't know where Bemidji was, let alone they saw the sawmill running and they go, well, that's interesting. But the point is, is that we could recruit very few of them. And I think the amazing thing at the time, I asked the faculty at Dunwoody, you're graduating 40, how many jobs are there for these 40? And they told me 940. So this, the field of automation, manufacturing, technology has been in strong demand and people are very hard to find. And so there's a better way and we think we found that. So we often use this term, that skills gap term, to kind of talk kind of generally about the situation. It's not necessarily then that all your existing employees are retiring and you don't have youngers coming up as much as it was the skills. Correct. I think whether we talk about trades or manufacturing skills, we saw to reduce the availability of those skills in our society. And in fact, manufacturing has fallen a bit behind. And whether it's even here in Bemidji, I think, manufacturing represents 3% of the job base. We'd like to see that to be 15%. So how do you move that dial? And it's really going back to the mission of greater Bemidji, it's talent development. But even more important than that, Bethany, the changes in the demands of technology inside these plants never stop. And so staying current with that technology, whether it's incumbent workers or people that you recruit, how do you bring them up to speed so that they're comfortable with the demands on their intellect and abilities as well as, again, being productive, happy employees. So it's been something that's been there for a while. It's very challenging. And I think MI2 was developed with that spirit and need in mind. So it ended up becoming kind of a project of greater Bemidji, correct? So tell us a little about what exactly greater Bemidji is and kind of what it does. So greater Bemidji has been in Bemidji, you know, for I think it's 27 years it started as the Joint Economic Development Commission. It has been renamed under new leadership. It's a board of 27 folks that are stewards of the Economic Development Pitcher and Mission of Bemidji. We meet monthly and we talk about really how do we turn the dial to grow prosperity and grow development of Bemidji. And obviously a part of that, as we see, is again closing not only the skills gap, but closing the living wage gap that again create the society and the type of community we want here in northern Minnesota. And not only the city, but the entire region, because we see our mission as being regional, not just the Bemidji area. So Mary, tell me a little bit about your background and I know you are also involved with greater Bemidji, but exactly how you and the idea circle kind of fits in here. I am a board member of the greater Bemidji Economic Development Group and Pete and others approached my company. I've been doing training or workforce development for going on 25 years or so, a lot of years in the trenches and really working with companies to figure out where they're going next, whether it's new employees or a new process or new equipment, and how are they going to either upskill their current workforce or how are they going to bring in new workers that would have the skills that they're looking for. So I'm the president of the idea circle and our company is all about organizational workforce development. So Pete and a group approached and asked if we would consider looking at how do we upskill some of the incumbent workforce in our region and then that spread to other things. So let's talk a little bit about what exactly the Minnesota Innovation Institute is and how it operates. Who is it that is existing employees? Are they new employees? Tell me a little bit about how you're finding your client base. We have companies that have incumbent workforce that they want to upskill. They're very talented people, but they're facing, as Pete talked about, technology that continues to kind of go straight up and they have to know how to deal with automation, electronics, electrical, mechanical kinds of things. In addition to that, one of the things that the company started asking for too is could we create a pool? Are there, as Pete was talking about in the old days, we had the talent. We had a vocational skill base. We aren't producing that anymore. We need to bring awareness to the idea that these are very good, solid kinds of jobs and people are highly skilled. So now it's a matter of growing the talent. So they may hire someone who has all the work aptitude and attendance and those kinds of things, but may not have the skills. So we're creating probably three pipelines. The incumbents, the entry level are what we call the emerging worker and then some high schoolers. The idea of reaching into the high school as well. Whenever you see your materials or you've heard about MI2, something that's repeated often is that it's private led, private driven. That investment of the employers, the manufacturers themselves. How important is it that they have a voice in this process? Very, and maybe I'd let Pete speak to that. Well I think first of all back up a little bit in that it is private led, private driven primarily to create, you keep something moving and relevant by listening to your customers. And so whether it be students or employers, what do you need and how do we deliver that and that's part of the innovation part. I need to back up and say a lot of credit is due to Dick Hansen, the president of BSU when I went to visit Dick in February of 2013 and said, President Hansen, Bemidji State University is one of two center for manufacturing excellence in the state, the other being Mankato and we need help. And he inquired as to what kind of help we needed and he wasn't sure how to deliver that help but after probably a year or at least nine months of trying to figure out how we get this done, that's when Mary entered the scene based on her ability, proven ability to help to deliver on customized training. So I want to emphasize although private led private service is important from again being relevant to your customers the people that ultimately pay the bills this is a partnership between Greater Bemidji the manufacturers and the business people the region Bemidji State University and Northwest Tech. And that's when frankly Bemidji and Greater Bemidji shine is when we collaborate and cooperate to create something truly truly precedent setting. This is very unique. Have you heard of anything similar? No. In Detroit maybe in California you know a couple spots but nothing in Minnesota. I bet there's a lot of people watching now. Are they watching what you're doing now? Yes, I bet they are. There are and we haven't phoned anyone that doesn't think it's a good idea and it's worth supporting which is even more important. So you said that BSU and NTC were certainly enthusiastic and excited about trying to figure out a way to make this happen. How exactly are the classes and such delivered? What is their exact role in this? Well Northwest Tech and through President Hansen one of his gifts to the project was space and equipment. So the Blandin Foundation, the Bremer Foundation the Department of Employment and Economic Development all contributed to helping create that space and create the equipment that the people do their skills training on. We are actually located at Northwest Technical College in two of their labs and so our training all occurs out at Northwest Tech and we're working hard for that collaboration and hope to see that partnership even improve. How many students, how many clients have you had or you know people go through the program? Since 2013 about 700. We have probably 25 or 30 percent have been incumbent workforce, maybe 40 percent and then the other 60 percent are either entry level or emerging. And they've taken, you asked about how we deliver and it's one of the things and Pete's here to hold us accountable but one of the things that we really pride ourselves on working at the speed of business and one of that or one aspect of that is we have to be flexible so we have to be accountable and act flexibly we have to be cost effective and we have to be timely. So we really do work at that in the way we deliver so some of our training is occurs online so people can access it 24-7 from any location they also come into labs at the Technical College and do their skill work so we can be very flexible for those that need that flexibility for other agencies that maybe want to see the work hardening and the intendance, we can be very structured so we really have that full spectrum of ability as far as how we set up our courses. So how do you reach out to somebody who, let's talk for example, those who want to change careers I think one thing that I've read is somebody's tending bar and decides what this might not be a long-term solution for me and my family how do they hear about MI2 or do the temp agencies are different places I mean are you reaching out? How do you help direct? We have partnerships with all three of the temp agencies in the community in addition to that we've worked with rural Minnesota CEP the Constrained Employment Program we also have relationships with vendors that might and word of mouth is a big thing often times we'll get someone who comes in because their brother did this or their sister-in-law did this and we also get a fair number of referrals from our companies they'll have people come in and say I want to work here and then they'll say well first you need to get some skills built. Then come back. Have you found that you're incrementally getting more interest that each year you're finding more and more people finding? The first couple years with the incumbent workforce well we're getting deluged we haven't had to reach out as much as we've had to really look at what resources do we have to serve who we have coming at us we use the typical methods to social media great for Facebook shout out what these people do here there are many good sites where jobs are posted up and we'll post in those sites as well. You've touched, oh sorry one of the things that we just had our corporate board meeting and one of the questions I asked Mary is how big do you want to get? Because I think the numbers are remarkable I'll try to share a perspective so again I mentioned Doug Woody at 40 graduates at any institution at 40 graduates 40 graduates and we set our sites when we laid the mission forward how many could we graduate and we set 150 and people go that's impossible well we've done that and it's a different method and a different approach I also want to give some credit to others because in terms of linking we have Beltrami County who is in the workforce development and again closing the gap and we've just recently met before the county board talking about what role MI2 could play in doing this so it's truly we appreciate being here so we can share the story because getting that word out and Mary has quite a list she's very modest when I look at the number of companies that she's collaborated with over the past five years it's truly impressive there's 100 there so again it's a wide open field and we're really trying to again be innovative and what Mary says is deliver that deliver on the commitment to the student to the person that the employer I also might add that credit two goes to Jim Haas and Brian Stefanich at the high school so that one of the things as an employer is you don't necessarily want to be competing worldwide you want to grow people within your community and have people that want to stay with you and whether it's manufacturing or even the hospital you know you bring talent into this community well there's an incredible amount of talent here and there's a certain number of students that really want to do things with their hands they want to necessarily the college route is not applicable and we have been effective there's a group that graduated last year they're called themselves the Carhart Group and these are 12 remarkable students Mary got to know very well and we picked one several businesses picked one for interns and actually we're employing those they've started mechatronics and they will finish mechatronics but it's really the model that we want for people that want to live in Bemidji and have a living wage and in an exciting career of manufacturing there's opportunities and of course we want to grow the pie the manufacturing today based today is not what we wanted from now we want to create those that enterprise a greater enterprise of manufacturers in the region and Pete talked about our partners and we definitely have partners in Northwest Technical College and Bemidji State University the high school Bemidji High School but our corporate partners I couldn't say enough about those that are on our corporate council who do guide us and keep in our frame and focus what we need to be focused on and that is building and growing a talented workforce so Marvin Windows and Doors as we reach to the border Wells Technology we've got UPM and Blandon Norboard Nortec could name many many more but they have been instrumental in keeping us focused on our mission and what they are looking for and really that's the end game I mean that's what everyone the incumbents already are employed but the entry and the emerging and the high schoolers are searching they're trying to figure out what am I going to do and some of them come to this and find out it's not for them and that's okay and a lot of them come to this and think I could do more and maybe go to the construction electrician program at Northwest Tech or HVAC or go to Staples and do diesel and we like that we want to encourage them to find their niche because that ultimately will make them happy I do want to talk specifically about the high school program in just a few minutes here but before I forget I want to go back you talked about how it's flexible you talk a lot about the act it was accountability costs saving time how long I know how many students can vary but how long if I'm in a career now and I want to change careers approximately how long will it take me to do the program before I'm employable with the lumber mill ten months and we actually have a success story that I'll speak to we had a student, a young man that was headed to Hibbing he wanted to be a millwright and I offered he was an intern at Potlatch and I said how would you like to work at Potlatch and be the first graduate of Minnesota Innovation Institute and basically he on his time he worked and on his time he completed he was doing one segment one class a month and there are ten of them and he was doing the labs in the evening or when he can get away from work and he is he is our evidence that this works the key is the student it's what they do but when the students said this made a difference and this worked it was valuable of course the combination of going to school and working has their synergy there right to employ those skills immediately and Mary and her group you know there was some evidence issues perhaps in terms of math abilities or what have you and the individual attention they gave this young man to make him feel that truly he could do it and it was an AC AC electronics where the math gets a little little tricky and he did wonderful and so I again it's proof of what we how we wanted to go with that it works that again this is it's just the right combination of online training lab work hardening to get the job done I can give you an example of wells technology where they'll come for a month for a CNC training and then we'll go into an eight month apprenticeship at wells so it really depends on the person and the company but in the case Pete was talking about that person worked at potlatch so they were paid a wage and it wasn't just a training wage and yes the persons give was their time to complete it but also potlatch paid for his way so I think companies are willing to invest and have shown that and they want good workforce and you know talk about an acronym or whatever but it really is the people and it's unlocking that talent that is inside of them that we have to find how is it when you're working with your employees that the opportunities of MI2 typically comes up I mean is it something that they usually approach you is it in a review situation that you're like you could benefit from XYZ how do those conversations begin it's morphed and I think business is different but for us it was originally starting with the maintenance skills so we evaluated one of the beauties of the program is you don't start everybody at zero you assess their skill level and then you say well this is where you're strong this is where you're weak and this is where we're going to start you so we started with our maintenance group and I think there were 13 now since we've gone beyond that we actually open it up and my vision on manufacturing the future is a lot of times people see these are maintenance jobs these are manufacturing jobs and I would love to see what a plant of 100 mechatronics graduates could do to create a plant of the future and be the most competitive plant in North America so I think we're seeing opportunities so again we need to provide opportunities world-class workplaces train at about 2% a year and that's something we just have to do and MI2 is going to bear a horse to ride it's effective I want to spend our last few minutes here if we can talking about the high school program because I know that that's been super successful tell me about how that's offered are they doing it during school they do it on their own time how does that really become a piece of their education and Jennifer Volge who's now the coordinator of the academy program recruit students and then we interview each of them and they are going to take the course as one of their hours in the day often time it's first hour of the day or last hour of the day they'll do half their work at the high school so they're doing some of their e-learning at the high school and then they do their skills work at Northwest Tech it usually starts in a semester where they're at the high school a lot and toward the end of the semester we see them almost every day because they're ready to get their hands on skills and equipment and really prove that they have the skill building have you seen a certain type of student succeed that perhaps struggles in other places like do you find that this is a good fit for some of those kids that may don't have a great direction absolutely I mean we see a lot I'm an educator have been for 30 some years and there is a traditional way of educating through lecture and test and that's a good method for a lot of people but for some people who learn when they manipulate something with their hands or they're very good skill building they don't always find success so they'll come in shoulders down head down I don't know that I'm going to be very good at this and in fact one of the persons that Pete was talking about that the head last year was one of those young men did not know what he was going to do did not know what he was going to do beyond high school was very good working on his car but as he as he started thinking about I'm going to be 18 I'm going to graduate what am I going to do came to us and the confidence you know when you unlock their their own feeling of confidence then the world is their oyster they can do whatever they want closing thoughts Pete in terms of today is it solving the concerns that you had originally is it surpassing how is it doing yes MI2 has been a game changer I think one of the there's a lot of statistics on this page of paper but 88% job placement rate with with regional employer so cost effective timely you can do it at home and there's a job at the end I want to thank you guys both for joining me today and I want to thank you for tuning in hopefully you've learned a little bit more about the Minnesota Innovation Institute and its goals thank you join me next time