NEW MID-MICHIGAN FACILITY TO PROVIDE WORKER TRAINING FOR BIOBASED ECONOMY

Michigan State University issued the following press release:

Mid-Michigan students and workers will soon be training locally to compete for jobs in the growing Michigan bioeconomy.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Labor Workforce Innovation for Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant to the Mid-Michigan Innovation Team, Michigan State University intends to open the training facility in midsummer, using licensed space at a Webberville site operated by the Michigan Brewing Co.

"With the advent of the new facility this summer, the Mid-Michigan Innovation Team participants will broaden the hands-on training curriculum available to regional workers, enhance training convenience, and promote regional economic development by providing local bioeconomy firms with access to specialized analytical instrumentation," said David C. Hollister, CEO of the Lansing-based Prima Civitas Foundation.

"The Prima Civitas Foundation and the Mid-Michigan Innovation Team are pleased to partner with the new Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) in launching this initiative," he added.

As a participant in the Mid-Michigan Innovation Team, MSU currently is offering biorefinery operations training at the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center in Edwardsville, Ill.The new training center in Webberville will permit mid-Michigan workers to train locally. The center also will support collaborative bioeconomy training activities involving MSU and Lansing Community College, another Mid-Michigan Innovation Team participant.

"Lansing Community College sees this facility as a natural complement to our existing offerings in the area of alternative energy vehicles and technologies," said Thomas L. Deits, chairperson of the LCC science department.

It is projected that the center will provide training for approximately 600 workers and students in its first two years of operation. The new facility is intended to show public and private synergy in workforce development. Besides being hosted by the Michigan Brewing Co., the center will be utilized under license by at least two high-tech bioeconomy start-up companies recently launched by MSU faculty: Spartan Biofuels LLC and Working Bugs LLC.

"A special feature of the new mid-Michigan center will be the opportunity to train on specialized analytical equipment," said Paul M. Hunt, MSU associate vice president for research. "For example, in the manufacture of biodiesel fuel, maintaining consistently high standards is of clear importance.

We want mid-Michigan workers to learn fuel standards compliance and quality verification in a hands-on training environment."

Awarded to the state of Michigan in February 2006, the three-year, $15 million WIRED grant assists mid-Michigan to refocus automotive supplier firms on emerging, high-growth manufacturing markets, as well as on the development of an alternative energy sector. Preparing workers for jobs in the biobased, postpetroleum economy is an important component of that effort.

For more information about the Prima Civitas Foundation, visit www.primacivitas.org.

For information on the Mid-Michigan Innovation Team, see www.midmiinnovationteam.org/.

For information on MSU biorefinery operations worker training, go to www.msu.edu/~ljh/biorefineries/biorefineries.html.

Contact: David Hollister, 517/999-3382, d.hollister@primacivitas.org.