Inspire Madison Region is all about making connections. With the help of our education, business, and community-based partners, those connections have grown over the summer months as new employers and career coaches join the network. Several new school districts have also joined or are set to join after we build a critical mass of participating employers from their respective communities. In addition to new school districts coming on board, Blackhawk Technical College has also joined Inspire putting us at two participating technical colleges.
By utilizing Inspire Madison Region in your classroom, you help students in the Madison Region improve their understanding of the labor market the steps needed to pursue careers in many industries. You can also access the many Career-based Learning Activities (CBLEs) offered by employers using the system as well as the database of employers and career coaches.
Below are some current highlights on the Inspire Madison Region initiative:
- 580 Career-based Learning Activities (CBLEs) offered to students, educators and job seekers
- 147 Online Career Coaches answering questions from Inspire users
- 133 Employers with profiles highlighting their business
- 15 active districts/educational institutions with a total of 34 active school sites: Madison Metropolitan School District, McFarland School District, Deerfield School District, Mt. Horeb School District, Cambridge School District, Baraboo School District, River Valley High School, Highland High School, Monroe School District, Beaver Dam School District, Columbus School District, Madison College, Blackhawk Technical College (Monroe Campus), Dane County Job Center, Jefferson County Job Center.
- 22,986 active student portfolios in the seven county region and nearly 1,000 educators with active accounts to get access to Inspire.
Industry Highlights – Number of employers with profiles in the top eight focus industries in our region:
- Advanced manufacturing = 45 employers
- Healthcare = 35 employers
- Life Sciences = 40 employers
- IT = 48 employers
- Construction = 41 employers
- Agriculture = 33 employers
- Finance = 33 employers
- Real Estate = 5 employers (Attention: Real Estate companies 🙂
Interactions through Inspire to date:
- Career Coach Message Boards: 159 interactions between September 2015 and May 6th, 2016
- Career-based Learning Activities: At least 50 experiential learning activities completed between September 2015 and May 6th, 2016
Other updates:
Beyond the excellent progress on the Inspire metrics, there’s also been a change in leadership. In April 2016, Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP) assumed the managerial role for Inspire Madison Region, bringing with it new opportunities for partnerships between post-secondary institutions, school districts, employers, government agencies and community-based organizations.
Inspire’s geography is also growing. Grant, Lafayette, Crawford and Richland Counties are joining through the leadership at Prosperity Southwest Wisconsin. That will make Inspire Madison Region an 11 county implementation, one of the largest Inspire networks in the nation!
There is still a lot to accomplish to take Inspire to the next level. In the coming months, many more school districts from across the region will be joining the initiative – and we hope yours is one of them. If it’s not, please feel free to contact us to set up a time to meet about your school/district joining.