Develop

We believe there are three tenets that make up a comprehensive workforce development strategy: developing our future workforce through partnerships with educational institutions, attracting new talent to our area and retaining and skilling up our existing workforce.

We work to develop our future workforce by connecting K-12 and post-secondary institutions with businesses in order to expose students to all the career opportunities in Waukesha County and the region.

Expose students to career opportunities in Waukesha County by hosting the Manufacturing the Future Expo, the Discover Health Care Expo, Mini Business World, Kids Building Wisconsin-Waukesha, Schools2Skills tours and more.
Expand Careers Uncovered to bring educators into businesses to tour, interact with business leadership and enhance the Academic & Career Planning process.
Launch the Workforce Readiness Dashboard for Waukesha County school districts to assess K-12 workforce skills development.
Host quarterly superintendent/president roundtables to connect educational leaders with local business leaders.
Create a program to educate parents about career pathways available for their children to pursue after high school graduation.
Promote youth apprenticeship, dual enrollment and internship opportunities with local businesses.
Pilot a program to connect K-12 guidance counselors and post-secondary institutions to discuss degrees, programs and/or certifications that exist for in-demand industries.
Strengthen and support each school district’s model to partner with their local businesses.
Develop an equipment evaluation tool to determine Waukesha County schools’ manufacturing and technical education equipment needs.
Form a health care speaker’s bureau to streamline the process for school districts to request health care professional speakers for their classrooms.
Support the Milwaukee 7’s “GROW HERE” campaign by encouraging businesses and educational institutions to participate in career-based learning experiences.

Ramping up business education partnerships

October 9, 2019

Now that area students are one month in to the 2019-20 school year, the Alliance is officially kicking off our school year business and education programs.

Alliance advocates to expand youth apprenticeship opportunities

September 30, 2019

The Waukesha County Business Alliance supports Assembly Bill 72, which would expand Youth Apprenticeship opportunities to students and employers in the areas of education/training, public safety, human services, business administration and government administration. Adding these occupations would mean that the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development would be offering curriculum in all 16 career clusters for Youth Apprenticeship.

Alliance advocated to improve credit transfer among higher ed

September 12, 2019

The Alliance’s Education Policy Committee has long supported improving the transfer of credits among higher education institutions. On Thursday, September 12, the Alliance testified at the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities in support of two Assembly bills that advance these efforts: AB 189 and AB 371. Click here to watch the testimony from Robyn […]

School is out for summer

June 12, 2019

Waukesha County schools wrapped up the school this month. Click to read about the Alliance’s work over the 2018-19 school year to develop our future workforce by connecting businesses and educational institutions.

Supporting legislation to strengthen education

May 8, 2019

The Alliance is supporting SB165, which would improve the transfer of credits among post-secondary institutions. In short, the bill would expand the current universal credit transfer agreement between the UW system and the Wisconsin Technical College System. Currently the UW system is required to have a set of 30 general education credits that transfer seamlessly […]

Addressing the workforce issue

May 2, 2019

As part of a comprehensive strategy to address the workforce issue, the Waukesha County Business Alliance is working to connect businesses and educational institutions. It’s important for us to work together to make sure students are both college- AND career-ready after high school graduation. Click here to watch the video. This video was originally shown […]

Education Steering Council

Rick Kalscheuer

Chair
R&R Insurance Services, Inc.

Marikris Coryell

Vice Chair
St. Joan Antida High School

Jim Bayer

KHS USA, Inc.

Donna Bembenek

Catholic Memorial High School

Nicole Berlowski

ProHealth Care

Steve Bialek

Carroll University

Joe Bitter

River Run Computers Inc

Melissa Caldwell

Milwaukee Tool

Laura Catherman

Waukesha-Ozaukee-Washington Workforce Development Inc.

Mary Ellen Comp

Community Leader

Paul Decker

Waukesha County Board of Supervisors

David Dineen

Fairchild Equipment

Andy Dresang

Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin

Toni Gundersen

CJ & Associates, Inc.

Mark Hansen

School District of Elmbrook

Larry Harvey

Tailored Label Products, Inc.

Brian Hillstrom

Johnson Financial Group

Nate Hoffman

Carrus Group

Dee Jensen

Heritage Printing

Phylis King

University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee

Susan Koehn

Milwaukee 7

Ann Marie Krause-Hanson

Waukesha County Technical College

Steve Krause

The Prestwick Group, Inc.

Nick Kroll

Community Leader

Cynthia Krueger

Wisconsin Lutheran High School

Tami Marek-Loper

The Marek Group

Jim McLaughlin

United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County

Jane Menheer

Dedicated Computing

Dave Merrick

Mortenson Construction

Ashley Miller

SPX Transformer Solutions, Inc.

Joseph Miotke

DeWitt Ross & Stevens SC

Vicki Pinnow

Waukesha Metal Products

Ron Russ

School District of Merton

John Schiraj

Variety – The Children’s Charity of Wisconsin

Kevin Scott