Bay City is an active participant in maintaining a highly trained, skilled labor force. Employers are at the front end, designing their own customized employee training programs and working in partnership with schools, agencies and other community resources to develop the most effective workers. Grants averaging $1,000 per new employee and $500 for each existing employee can be used to train or upgrade skills.

This state grant program provides $30 million to companies for training or retraining of workers to meet marketplace needs, with the employer required to match 25% of the state grant for training of existing workers. Funds are awarded through a competitive process. The employer works with private or public education providers to design the training.