Careers After Cars : Learning the Skills of Tomorrow ANN ARBOR (Michigan Radio) -


Michigan's children will need new skills for the changing jobs in the state's future.

A program in Lansing aims to teach these skills to children in elementary school.

Its been 6 years since students last walked the halls of Lansing's Holmes Street school. However, the old building will soon become a center of learning once again.

Kirk Riley is shooting hoops in the school's old gymnasium. He's the executive director of the I-Tec project. I-Tec stands for 'Information Technology Empowerment Center.'

"The next sound we hope to have heard in this gymnasium is the sound of students working together, in this particular room, learning digital media," says Riley.

The I-Tec project will eventually convert the old school building into a high tech learning hub for Lansing's school children. Organizers hope 3 thousand Lansing school children a year will get training through I-Tec. The center will have computer labs and classes on the first floor, and an operating I-T company upstairs. It's goal is to get more children into careers in the computer field.

Andy Kotarba is the president and CEO of Dewpoint. The Lansing-based company provides tech support for businesses in several states, including Michigan. Business is good. But, there's one problem. He can't find local people with the computer skills his company needs.

"The talent pool is a bit light. And as we go out and look for the type of skills we need they're not easy to locate, number one. Number two, not usually do we find them in Michigan. And number three a lot of times we got to go into the overseas market," says Kotarba.

Lansing I-T company officials say Michigan needs to start building a computer literate workforce that wants to stay and grow the industry here. To do that, they say the entire community must be involved in developing tech skills among the young. I-Tec has support from Lansing city leaders, school district officials, Michigan State University researchers and local I-T companies.

Teresa Vandersloot is I-Tec's board president. She admits each of I-Tec's stakeholders bring unique, seemingly conflicting interests to the table.

"There has to be vested interests. Everyone must have a role. At this point everyone does have a role, whether its working with the mayor's office to the various I-T companies who make us aware of what's going on, to the I-T council, to the faculty who continue to write grants. Everyone has had a specific role," says Vandersloot.

I-Tec is not only helping save the Holmes Street school, but also the neighborhood around it. Adam Pitcher is the president of the Holmes Street Neighborhood association. He says the neighborhood is made up of poor families. He says I-Tec is offering children from the neighborhood a chance to redirect their future. Pitcher says the key to that is developing their math and science skills.

"We're starting with middle school initially. That's where the research shows their math is good up til that point then it starts declining. Math is needed in a lot of the sciences. We found that, when you finish high school and you don't have a strong math and you're 're afraid of science, you'll never go into an engineering field," says Pitcher.

The only problem now is money. When I-Tec was announced in January with much fanfare, the plan was to open this summer. Now, that timetable has slipped to this fall. That's partly because of the pace of renovating the building. However, they still have to raise nearly 400 thousand dollars.

Still, those behind I-Tec remain hopeful they will raise the money and open their doors to Lansing school children this fall. © Copyright 2010, Michigan Radio