Career-Aligned English Instruction To Be Offered At Scale Across Michigan, Supporting Local Employers and Addressing Statewide Worker Shortages
The Michigan Global Talent Initiative will offer local employers, community colleges, and workforce organizations access to EnGen’s English upskilling platform at no cost, launching an effort to address statewide worker shortages.
June 4, 2024 - Detroit, Michigan - Today EnGen, the pioneering technology-enabled English upskilling solution, announced the launch of a new partnership with The Michigan Global Talent Initiative (MGTI), designed to provide career-aligned English instruction to Michigan’s 123,000-plus working-age adult English learners, driving workers’ economic mobility and helping employers fill roles in a state where there are currently more open jobs than available workers. The collaboration will provide Michigan-based employers, community colleges, and workforce partners with free access to EnGen’s personalized, career-driven English instruction platform.
“Michigan’s diverse workforce – including speakers of languages other than English – is one of our greatest assets. Yet English barriers drive the systemic unemployment and underemployment of this high-potential talent pool,” said Dr. Alaina Jackson, Managing Director of Global Detroit, member organization of MGTI. “We can’t afford for these workers to sit on the sidelines of Michigan’s economy. We’re proud to partner with EnGen to offer a high-impact approach to English instruction at the scale needed to serve our state’s global talent and local employers alike.”
As of March 2024, Michigan had 246,000 open jobs and 194,500 unemployed workers. Local employers must connect with new and hidden talent pools to address ongoing staffing shortages in essential sectors like automotive, healthcare, and manufacturing.
Speakers of languages other than English are well-positioned to help fill the gap: More than half of the state’s multilingual workforce has a college degree from another country. Yet tens of thousands of these workers are unemployed or underemployed, due to English barriers and other factors. In Michigan and across the country, the U.S. workforce system serves the needs of just 4% of adult English learners.
“Michigan has a long history of championing inclusion and global talent, and now the state is leading the way in leveraging technology to address English access disparities,” said Dr. Katie Brown, founder and chief education officer at EnGen.
“Technology-mediated, career-aligned English upskilling equips learners with language and job skills simultaneously, preparing learners for high-demand jobs in Michigan’s economy.”
EnGen’s platform includes more than 140 career-aligned courses calibrated to the needs of Michigan’s economy, from English for the Automotive Industry to English for Medical Assistants. Instruction is tailored to the needs of working adults; lessons can be completed in 10 minutes or less on a smartphone or computer.
Employers across the country now offer EnGen as part of employee training and benefits packages, while community colleges and adult education programs have adopted the platform to complement and expand their existing ESL courses and curricula.
In launching this partnership, Michigan joins Colorado and Maine in offering access to English upskilling at scale to serve this growing population. EnGen’s collaboration with MGTI expands an existing partnership with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Global Michigan, which has offered EnGen to Michiganders since 2019.
“EnGen has facilitated career and educational pathways for numerous learners from diverse backgrounds across Michigan,” said Ben Cabanaw, Deputy Director of the Office of Global Michigan. “Having seen the positive impact firsthand, we’re excited to continue to partner with EnGen to expand this offering on a larger scale across our state and ensure that opportunities for growth and prosperity have a greater reach and impact.”
According to a soon-to-be-released survey of 2,500 EnGen learners, 93% improved their confidence in using English as a result of the platform; 89% improved their job skills, and 85% improved their digital literacy, a set of skills now required for an estimated 92% of jobs in the U.S. A full 89% of EnGen learners said they’ll likely stay with their company because EnGen is offered as a benefit.
Michigan-based employers, community colleges, and workforce partners can learn more about the MGTI partnership and how to access EnGen licenses free of charge at https://getengen.com/mgti.
About EnGen
EnGen offers an at-scale, AI-powered approach to English instruction, designed to solve a systemic access issue: Adult English learners now represent 1 in 10 working-age adults, yet the U.S. serves the needs of just 4% of these speakers of other languages. A Certified B Corporation, EnGen partners with employers, adult educators, workforce development and state governments to open pathways to careers and credentials in high-demand industries. EnGen’s career-aligned approach addresses employers’ recruitment and retention challenges and advances learners’ economic mobility.
About the Michigan Global Talent Coalition
The Michigan Global Talent Coalition is a collection of 20+ statewide and local chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, industry associations and key supporters who believe that the intentional inclusion of immigrant talent in Michigan’s economic development and workforce development plans, policies, and programs will expand the state’s economic growth, shared prosperity and competitiveness. The Coalition has advocated for the Michigan Global Talent Initiative, a five-year investment to ensure comprehensive immigrant inclusion in the State’s Sixty by 30 workforce development goals.