West Michigan’s economy runs on manufacturing, health care, construction, skilled trades, information technology, and a growing set of professional services. Employers across Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties are hiring—but too often they cannot find workers with the right skills. At the same time, many high school graduates leave school without a clear path into those local opportunities.
The question is straightforward: Are our schools preparing students for the jobs that actually exist here, or are we still steering too many young people toward a single four-year college pathway that does not match regional demand?
The Jobs Side of the Equation
Manufacturing remains a cornerstone of the West Michigan economy, accounting for a large share of private-sector employment and regional output. Health sciences, construction, information technology, and hospitality also show strong demand. West Michigan Works! and regional talent analyses consistently list roles in these fields among the most in-demand occupations—many of which require certifications, technical training, or apprenticeships rather than a bachelor’s degree.
The talent pipeline is not keeping pace. Regional analyses have shown a shrinking ratio of credentialed graduates to job openings that require postsecondary credentials. In manufacturing, a significant share of openings have gone unfilled in recent years, and a wave of retirements is expected in the coming decade. Employers report shortages in maintenance and repair technicians, frontline production roles, skilled trades, and clinical support positions. Automation and AI are changing skill requirements, but the need for people who can operate, maintain, and problem-solve in real workplaces remains urgent.
When local companies cannot fill these roles, growth slows, existing workers face heavier loads, and young people miss out on family-supporting careers close to home.
What Schools in Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon Are Doing
There is real progress. Career and technical education (CTE) is expanding across the three counties.
Kent Intermediate School District has set ambitious goals to grow CTE participation and is developing additional capacity, including plans for a second career-tech center. Districts such as Godwin Heights, Godfrey-Lee, and Sparta have received state grants to expand middle- and high-school pathways in manufacturing, engineering, computer programming, and related fields.
Ottawa County schools and the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District operate robust career-tech programs. Allendale Middle School launched a Manufacturing and Engineering Education Reimagined for All (MEERA) lab—one of the first of its kind in the state—giving students early exposure to industry tools and technologies. Ottawa CTE serves thousands of students annually, with many earning industry credentials and dual-enrollment college credit. Work-based learning opportunities continue to grow.
Muskegon Public Schools has invested in Innovation Academies that connect students to pathways in engineering and advanced manufacturing, health sciences, criminal justice and first response, business and entrepreneurship, and digital media. The district has secured substantial CTE expansion grants to upgrade equipment and simulation technology. Local leaders emphasize that graduates should leave with both a diploma and a marketable credential, internship experience, or a job offer.
Michigan’s Department of Education reported 55,431 CTE completers in 2024–25. Completion totals show participation and attainment; they do not establish that CTE alone caused higher graduation rates or employment.
The Gap That Remains
Progress is encouraging, but scale and consistency still lag behind employer need. Not every student has equal access to high-quality CTE, work-based learning, or early exposure to local industries. Some districts and schools continue to treat career pathways as secondary options rather than equally rigorous routes to success. Counseling and messaging can still default to “college for everyone,” even when many good local jobs do not require a four-year degree.
The result is a mismatch: employers searching for skilled technicians, welders, CNC operators, health-care support staff, and IT practitioners while some graduates leave high school without the credentials or workplace experience those roles demand. Meanwhile, the cost and opportunity cost of pursuing degrees that do not align with regional openings leave families and young adults carrying debt or underemployment.
What Other States Have Done—and the Results
Several states have treated career-connected learning as a core strategy rather than an add-on, and the outcomes are measurable.
North Carolina’s February 2026 report says students earned nearly 383,000 individual credentials in the prior year and nearly three-quarters of CTE concentrator graduates earned at least one industry-recognized credential. Credential counts are not counts of unique students or guaranteed job placements.
Colorado’s Career Development Incentive Program provides incentives for qualifying career-development outcomes. Its program design illustrates a funding approach; claims about graduation or earnings effects require separate evaluation.
Indiana’s Career Scholarship Accounts can provide eligible students up to $5,000 annually for approved apprenticeships, internships, work-based learning, and credentials. Eligibility and available programs limit access.
Texas includes approved industry-based certifications in school accountability. That measures specified credentials, not a guarantee of employment or future earnings.
These examples connect education to work in different ways. Comparisons should distinguish program participation from completion, employment, wages, and the quality of available jobs.
A Practical Path Forward for MI-89
Preparing students for the jobs that exist here does not mean abandoning college. It means expanding multiple high-quality pathways—apprenticeships, industry certifications, dual enrollment, and technical programs—so that every graduate has a viable next step matched to real opportunities in Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties.
That requires continued investment in CTE facilities and equipment, stronger partnerships between schools and employers for work-based learning and curriculum input, earlier career exploration in middle school, and counseling that treats skilled trades and technical careers with the same respect as traditional college routes. It also means measuring success not only by graduation rates and test scores, but by whether students leave ready for employment or further training in fields that are hiring locally.
West Michigan’s economy offers solid, family-supporting careers. Our schools have begun to align more closely with that reality. Other states show that deliberate policy—credential incentives, apprenticeship connections, dual enrollment expansion, and accountability that values workforce outcomes—can accelerate progress and deliver better results for students and employers alike.
The next step is to make career-connected learning the norm rather than the exception, so that more young people from Coopersville, Allendale, Muskegon, Grand Rapids, and the surrounding communities can step directly into the jobs that already exist—and help grow the ones that will come next.
Our kids deserve preparation that matches the opportunities in their own backyard.
The school and workforce examples cover the broader West Michigan region. They are not all located inside House District 89, and countywide findings should not be described as districtwide measurements.
Career programs require equipment, instructors, transportation, and employer participation. Students should retain meaningful choices, including college, and should not be directed into a pathway solely because of their family income or background.