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 MADE Career Pathways Expo, the Many Futures in Health Care Career Pathways
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.

School of Applied Technologies programs enjoy record enrollments

January 29, 2019

When the economy is strong, jobs are plentiful and college enrollments are steady. When the unemployment rate is high, people tend to go back to school and enrollments rise. In Waukesha County Technical College’s School of Applied Technologies, there has been a bit of a paradigm shift. The unemployment rate in the United States in October 2018 remained at a low 3.7 percent, but enrollment in our applied technologies programs soared.

Addressing workforce needs

January 29, 2019

The Waukesha County Business Alliance is creating new programs and expanding existing ones to address workforce needs in Waukesha County’s four high-growth industries: manufacturing, health care, construction/skilled trades and information technology.

Kids Building Wisconsin – Waukesha Expo

January 24, 2019

On Thursday, January 24, more than 800 fifth through eighth graders came to Milwaukee Tool for the first annual Kids Building Wisconsin – Waukesha Expo.

Measuring students’ preparedness after high school

January 22, 2019

Currently, the state of Wisconsin has a tool that measures how prepared high school students are to attend college. The tool measures standardized test scores and more. However, those indicators aren’t necessarily representative of all the skills a high school student may need to be successful after high school graduation.

Waukesha School District awarded $250,000 DWD grant

January 2, 2019

The Alliance’s 2019 Policy Agenda focuses on many education priorities, including “advocating for effective and flexible programs to address the teacher shortage.” Congratulations to the School District of Waukesha on its Fast Forward grant!

Waukesha County Business Alliance expands Schools2Skills to address workforce needs in health care

November 14, 2018

The Waukesha County Business Alliance, Inc. has expanded its Schools2Skills™ program to educate high school and middle school students on careers in health care.

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