The Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP) today announced its receipt of funds from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) to distribute to businesses in the Region who experienced damage to property and inventory due to the recent severe weather events.

While the loan program will be available to businesses in all 72 counties, the Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP) was among regional entities identified by WEDC to launch the program in the areas of the state that were hit hardest by the flooding.

“More than 160 businesses in the region were impacted by the recent severe weather and flooding, and our partnership with MadREP will provide a short-term source of funds to help them quickly recover from this disaster,” said Mark R. Hogan, secretary and CEO of WEDC, the state’s lead economic development organization. “For many small businesses owners, the unexpected costs associated with weather-related damage can be devastating, and this program will help offset some of the financial hardships.”

“Businesses in our community are still struggling to recover from August’s flood and wind damage,” said MadREP Acting President Michael Gay. “The program is designed to provide business owners with a readily available financial resource to make repairs and replace equipment.”

Van Nutt, Middleton Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, stressed the importance of the program for Middleton business owners. “We are appreciative of MadREP administering WEDC’s Disaster Recovery Microloan Program,” he said. “With 40+ businesses affected by the August 20 historic rains in Middleton, this program comes at an important time for small businesses with very tight cash flow during their recovery.”

With an underwriting process that engages experienced bankers, MadREP is prepared to take applications over the next few months. Qualified businesses will be eligible for interest-free microloans of up to $15,000 to assist businesses with a short-term source of funds for repair work and operating expenses until more long-term recovery funding can be secured. The loans have a two-year repayment period, with payments deferred for at least six months.

To be eligible for a loan, a business must be located in the eight-county Madison Region; must have suffered measurable physical damage because of the disaster; and must intend to resume business operations in the community as quickly as possible. The loans can be used for procurement of cleanup and restoration services, operating expenses, temporary space, and repair and reconstruction work.

Applications can be found at madisonregion.org/microloans or by calling MadREP at 608.571.0420.

Madison, WI – Local public school students will have access to additional career development and mentorship tools starting as early as sixth grade in a platform that directly connects local employers to students, thanks to a new statewide collaboration.

Area school districts have been using a web-based platform called Inspire to connect area businesses to their future talent pool through online profiles, virtual career coaches, and career-based online learning activities for students and educators.

Now, the Madison Region is one of nine regional economic development organizations taking part in a new collaboration that will enable local students, educators and businesses to connect with each other regardless of their location around the state in a secure, web-based environment called “Inspire Wisconsin.”

That means area students and educators will have access to the following resources statewide:

• More than 1,600 career coaches
• More than 1,200 company profiles
• Nearly 5,800 work-based learning activities

The Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP) was one of the first regions to implement Inspire and MadREP Vice President of Talent and Education Gene Dalhoff said the collaboration will open up opportunities for students and businesses alike. “MadREP is pleased to have its population of 70,000+ high school and middle school students integrated with potentially thousands of businesses throughout the state through the Inspire platform,” Dalhoff said. “This will allow for significantly more workforce experiences and contacts that will lead to career path development benefiting both students and employers.”

“For the last few years, we have seen the positive impact Inspire has had at the local and regional level in engaging students and educators with area businesses,” said Tricia Braun, deputy secretary and chief operating officer of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), which is providing funding to expand Inspire statewide. “This collaborative effort among The Madison Region and the rest of the state will build upon that success by providing students with even more resources and real-life experiences as they consider their career options.”

Developed by Xello (formerly known as Career Cruising), Inspire helps educate students, educators, parents, and job-seekers about the current and projected talent needs of local companies. It also provides an opportunity for employers and communities to enhance existing work-based learning and career-readiness programs by making it easier for students to engage in opportunities best aligned with the careers and career pathway areas of interest.

In the Madison Region, Inspire is being utilized to increase engagement between businesses and students in several ways, including interactive messaging with local professionals, job shadowing, interviewing opportunities and internships. All 63 public school districts in the eight county region have access, as well as three technical colleges, one UW system school and one private college. The Region also boasts over 400 participating employers and more than 500 career coaches.

For years, Wisconsin employers have expressed the need for ways to connect more seamlessly with their future workforce. Inspire addresses that need by aligning career exploration and occupational information with real-time data on local employers, their needs and the opportunities they offer young people to get experience in their industries.

At the same time, Inspire supports the development of robust career pathways and the Academic and Career Planning (ACP) system that all Wisconsin public school districts implemented in 2017-18. Inspire integrates employer profile information, career-based learning opportunities, and access to volunteer online career coaches directly in the ACP system.

Inspire is available to all Wisconsin public school students in grades 6 to 12 and to some technical colleges. The program is available to every student statewide, but not all districts have yet implemented it.

Employers in the Madison Region can learn about and register for the Inspire deployment at inspiremadisonregion.org/get-involved.

The companies say the project could provide Wisconsin customers with “net economic benefits” of between $23.5 million and $350 million over its expected 40-year life.

Opponents say the line is not needed and would damage important conservation areas. They argue Wisconsin consumers would be better served by energy efficiency and local renewable-energy projects.

The Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP) today announced the results of Inspire Madison Region’s assessment of the 2017-2018 school year. Inspire Madison Region serves a dual purpose: to connect students with regional companies to help these students refine their future occupational goals and to facilitate a means for companies in the Madison Region to take an active role in building their future workforce by connecting with these students.

Inspire Madison Region, the web-based interactive workforce development platform administered by MadREP and available in all public-school districts in the Region, continues its growth trajectory. Currently, nearly 1700 career coaches and over 1300 companies offering more than 5750 experiential learning activities are available for 76,000+ Madison Region students to connect to for career exploration activities.

A review of student interest vs projected areas of growth in the Region suggests the growth of jobs will outpace potential workers entering the workforce in several sectors, most notably Information Technology, Transportation Distribution & Logistics and Hospitality & Tourism. Conversely, the data also suggests interest outpaces available employment in several sectors, including Arts, A/V Technology & Communications, Education & Training and STEM Careers.

“One goal of this exercise was to look at this from the demand side and identify the career clusters, and their associated industries, that may have to do a better job making students aware of their job opportunities,” said Gene Dalhoff, MadREP Vice President of Talent & Education. “On the supply side, it is important to make educators and students aware of career opportunities that are expected to be available, and where there is a mismatch which could give them a competitive advantage down the road in the job market.” MadREP’s methodology involved a review of student interest in each of the 16 career clusters and compared that to the percent of total net new jobs projected in the Madison Region in the next 5 years for each career cluster.

As Inspire participation continues to grow, MadREP will continue to investigate ways to “mine” the data for additional benefit of participating businesses and students. For more information about Inspire, including how your business can benefit from connecting to students via the platform, contact Gene Dalhoff at gdalhoff@madisonregion.org.