State businesses working to foster green sector growth, retrain workers

Growing the green job sector is the goal. But that won't happen without the training and retaining of workers, attracting companies (through a trained and retrained workforce), and, of course, sacks of cash. Currently, a lot of Michigan businesses are working toward that goal, along with public and private universities and community colleges.

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So, Michigan is spending about $6 million aimed at not only retraining workers for all those green jobs, but it will attempt to quickly play matchmaker between companies that need certain skills and the retrained workers who have them.

But if you ask Marcia S. Black-Watson, a deputy director at the Michigan Bureau of Workforce Transformation, the value is much more than $6 million.

"Schools are dedicating their facilities, employers are offering their facilities, equipment," she said in a recent interview. "Everybody has a stake in the game. The $6 million is purely what the state has set aside to help with this effort. But that by no means equates with the value."

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