ABSTRACTMichigan is closely tied to its economic success as a manufacturing center and a hub for the global automotive industry. Over the years, automation and relocation has reduced the role of manufacturing as a source of employment and led to the decline of manufacturing communities in Michigan. The challenges of declining manufacturing communities and concern for access to employment by displaced workers and underrepresented groups prompts this analysis of career paths and education for advanced manufacturing. Research examined the potential for training and upskilling at community colleges, and the development of a labor pool equipped to serve in emerging and future manufacturing jobs in the United States and the State of Michigan.To understand the career paths available and the experience of students, three analyses were conducted of students, instructors, and employers. The student survey of 190 students across five community colleges in southeast, central, and west Michigan was conducted in the summer and fall of 2020. The study found community colleges are providing Michigan workers with the technical skills needed for advanced manufacturing jobs but more work needs to be done. There is a divide between what the businesses wish community colleges were teaching and the rate it is being taught and what the budget constraints of the community colleges allow them to teach and how fast. Policy recommendations to close the divide is to formulate government policies that assist students in paying for their education to allow more to attend a community college and provide financial support for schools to invest in the latest equipment and technologies for training that employers demand. The technician study can be utilized as Michigan sets policies to get more students to meet its Sixty by 2030 goal where 60 percent of adult workers obtain a certificate or degree by 2030.
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