Governor Snyder's Economic Summit (Update Crain's Michigan Business: Biz, colleges need to be on the same page)

Snyder at economic summit: Biz, colleges need to be on same page

By Chris Gautz

As Gov. Rick Snyder kicked off his economic summit this morning, he surrounded himself on stage with 10 talented young students looking for careers in the state.

One of the main goals of the summit is to find ways to better match talent with jobs in the state by encouraging more collaboration between the public and private sectors.

Snyder said people will often say the best thing about Michigan is the Great Lakes, but the real answer is the people.

"The greatest asset we have in our state is our talent," Snyder said.

But talent management is not being done well right now, he said.

The invitation-only event continues today and Tuesday at Cobo Center. This event will be followed by an education summit in April.

After the governor spoke, he sat on stage with the 10 students who were pitching themselves to the employers in the room. They explained why they want to find a job and raise a family in Michigan.

Laurie Asava, a Michigan State Universitystudent studying hospitality while interning for theMichigan Economic Development Corp. said she moved to Chicago for a time and just didn't like it.

"Chicago is not Michigan," she said.

Asava, like all of the students on stage, said they wanted to stay and work in the state.

"Michigan is where I want to be," said Dan Jackson, a senior at Central Michigan University studying graphic design and interested in designing websites.

Several of the students spoke about their efforts to find a job once they graduated and said they sent out dozens of résumés and would never hear back from the businesses. One student said she actually received a response, but it was negative feedback.

After the students spoke, Snyder said he hoped the audience of business leaders felt pride and passion.

"We should all have a passion to help them stay here,' Snyder said.

The state's higher education community does a great job of producing talent, Snyder said, but there is no real alignment with where the talent is.

"So our supply side is like on a second graph," Snyder said.

The goal is like any Econ 101 class, Snyder said: Get the supply and demand lines to cross, not be on two separate graphs.

By doing those things right and putting them together, "Michigan can have a strategic advantage that the rest of the country wouldn't have," Snyder said. "And having that strategic advantage is fundamental to making this a great state again."