AUBURN HILLS, Michigan — A century after Michigan fueled the American auto industry, state officials are focused on shoring up college curriculums to ensure a workforce is prepared for the evolution of combustion engine vehicles to those powered by batteries.

Though the industry's transition to electric vehicles is expected to meet resistance under President-elect Donald Trump, and debate rages over when — or whether — EVs will dominate the nation's roads, experts said educational institutions still need to respond to the industry's needs and prepare students with those skills.

EVs are here to stay, industry and higher education officials said, and that's why Michigan needs to play the long game to hold on to its historic reputation in the global auto market.

"The greatest hurdle is trying to build a bridge to a shore you can’t quite see yet," said Michael Nealon, vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer at Henry Ford College. "If you wait until it’s really in sight, it will be too late to start building."

Among the places where the work is unfolding is inside an automotive laboratory at Oakland Community College, where Mia Jones, 23, recently took apart the battery charger of an Audi e-tron.

Jones spent 15 weeks last summer on OCC's Auburn Hills campus in the college's pilot Electric Vehicle Technician Training Program. She now has a certificate to work in the field of electrification and is seeking a job as she continues her studies at OCC to become an EV software engineer.

"I view this as a stepping stone," said Jones of Oak Park. "This field is evolving. It's growing. It's the future."

The training is among scores of community college programs that dozens of auto employers recently vetted as part of a statewide effort to ensure automotive training programs are producing the talent to fill the estimated 3,000 Michigan electric vehicle jobs open now, and thousands more expected in the future.

The effort, known as the Michigan Electric Vehicle Jobs Academy, began three years ago with $5 million in state funding and the convening of more than 100 state leaders to identify the skills needed for future talent, look for gaps in existing automotive training programs and incorporate teaching those skills into curriculums.

Comprehensive training is now part of auto training programs that have existed for decades after 400 courses were reviewed to ensure they meet employer needs at community colleges in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties and other schools across Michigan, state officials said.

And new training is on the horizon to support electric vehicles in places such as Henry Ford College in Dearborn, which is building a battery lab to offer one of the nation's first battery technician certificates, and Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, which is planning a semiconductor technician training program to teach the manufacturing of semiconductor chips.

Creating workers who are prepared for auto jobs now and in the future is an important part of the state's strategy to be a leader in electric vehicles, said Jonathan Smith, senior chief deputy director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.

"It was really designed to make sure our state is as competitive as possible for attracting these big transformational electric vehicle and battery-related investments," Smith said. "It was a forward-looking investment to make sure we were sending the right signal to employers that we were going to be prepared, and that we were going to have the workforce of the future that was capable of filling these key roles."

Since 2019, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has announced $19 billion in private investments for electric vehicle, battery manufacturing and related supply chain deals projected to create more than 23,000 jobs, spokeswoman Danielle Emerson said.But uncertainty about electric vehicles has pushed back some projects: Ford Motor Co. announced this summer it would scale back its BlueOval Battery Park Michigan in Marshall by 43% because of slow electric vehicle sales, and a battery parts manufacturing plant proposed on Michigan's west side by Gotion is mired in politics and a lawsuit. Meanwhile, consumers have balked at electric vehicles' cost, driving range and lack of recharging infrastructure.

Trump's reelection as president last week, along with the Republican control of Congress, has added more uncertainty to the transition since Trump has pledged to end federal EV incentives on “day one” and scale back federal vehicle emission standards intended to prod automakers to make more EVs.

But higher education is not focused or driven by which political party is in the White House, Henry Ford College President Russ Kavalhuna told The News this week.

"Preparing students for tomorrow's job is our focus, and irrespective of which political leaders are in power, we're proud of following where the jobs exist, which is a question answered by industry," Kavalhuna said. "What matters most to us is where we can give students skills that lead them to meaningful careers, and that is a question most directly answered by industry and employers, not politicians."

There are 3.9 million electric vehicles and 9.1 million gas-electric hybrids among the 291.1 million vehicles on U.S. roads, making up about 4.5% of the vehicles, according to the September report from Experian Automotive Market Trends. New sales are up from prior years, the report said, "but growth shows EV momentum slowing." The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has predicted that 30 million to 42 million EVs could be on the roads by 2030.

Industry at a crossroads

Michigan pioneered the American auto industry, and manufacturing has been a central part of the state's economy. Many point to automotive manufacturing as pivotal in building the middle class during the last century.

But the industry, which had thrived on producing cars with internal combustion engines, came to a crossroads with the introduction of alternative mobility powered by hydrogen and electrification.

The advent and growth of those vehicles, government mandates requiring carbon emission reductions, and concerns about the environment and human health prompted Michigan to create a multi-pronged strategy to maintain its historical role as an automotive leader amid the burgeoning field as other states joined the race.

Michigan, in 2020, created the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification. The state has been competing for manufacturing and EV investments and set a goal to develop thousands of charging ports by 2030, among other steps.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced in 2021 the Michigan Electric Vehicle Jobs Academy and got the funding for a five-year collaboration of employers, labor, industry stakeholders and education institutions to examine and create training for a pipeline of workers who could work on electric vehicles.

Since January 2022, more than 130 leaders have been assessing the state of training and education at Michigan's colleges and universities. The process involved research into the top jobs associated with future mobility positions. Industry leaders led the dialogue about what type of skills are needed and work began to fill gaps in college curriculums.

"You really need the talent pool," said Michele Ureste, executive director of the Workforce Intelligence Network, a Taylor-based workforce development group that managed the state's initiative from 2022-24. "Economic development is one thing, but if you don't have the talent to stand that up, it really goes nowhere. We're on the path of building the electrified vehicle talent pipeline."

The cars of today and tomorrow are nothing like the cars of yesterday, and that is why students need training, said Don Hutchison, dean of the Engineering and Advanced Technology department at Macomb Community College. Michigan is seeing the big picture of the EV revolution by looking broadly at what is missing from auto training programs, Hutchison said.

“The automotive industry is shifting away from internal combustion engines to EVs,” Hutchison said. ”That is a huge shift in the industry itself, but it is an equally large shift for academic institutions and higher education.”

Experts agree.

Michigan’s economy could benefit "tremendously" from the EV transition and land thousands of high-quality jobs if the state takes more steps to strengthen its position, including a concerted effort to grow a pipeline of skilled workers, according to A Roadmap for Michigan’s EV Future, a 2023 report from the World Resources Institute.

"The production of EVs is significantly different from that of ICE vehicles, and EVs will expand the automotive industry’s focus from mostly hardware to also include software," the report said.

"Not only will Michigan’s educational institutions, including its four-year institutions and community colleges, need to educate and train this highly technical workforce, but the state will also need to market itself as an attractive location where talent wants to move. On both fronts, Michigan needs to do more."

Training open to all Michigan residents

The work of the Michigan EV Jobs Academy aims to do just that — make Michigan a hub for job seekers.

As of June, the latest data available from the state, 228 individuals have enrolled in training supported by the EV Jobs Academy, and 97 of those individuals have completed training, including 48 people who were unemployed, state officials said. About 70% or 37 of 53 trained people for whom the state has wage data are now employed in the field, according to the state.

The training, which is open to all Michigan residents, can lead to jobs earning a median salary of $62,000 a year, state officials said. Officials are working to ensure that everyone has access to these careers by offering free tuition, or up to $5,000, to those who are unemployed and under-employed through Michigan Works! offices.

Assemblers, electrical engineers and technicians, information security analysts, software developers, information technology professionals, and maintenance and repair workers are among the roles for which the EV Jobs Academy is preparing students, state officials said.

Ebitari Burutolu, a Taylor resident, found the EV technician training program at OCC after graduating from Michigan State University in 2008 and then spending a career in information technology, security and other jobs that, he said, "didn't stick."

Burutolu found the EV program on Google after thinking about how much he enjoyed driving a Tesla years ago at a mall and seeing EVs at the Detroit auto show. He reached out to OCC officials, who helped him get a scholarship through Michigan Works! to attend the training this past summer.

Burutolu, 40, said some of his friends were skeptical about the future of EVs, but he doesn't care. He sees it as the future. He earned a certificate in September and is excited about future job prospects and plans to continue his education in the field.

"This is not the end," Burutolu said. "Let’s take the next step. Let’s see what else I can learn."

'You have to be proactive'

The work of the Michigan EV Jobs Academy has prompted employers seeking to teach additional skills to its ranks.

Joe Pizzo of Grosse Ile earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Lawrence Technological University in 2000 and has worked with fuel and diesel engines for 24 years.

But Pizzo, an engineer and senior manager in the Green Technology Group at Denso, an automotive supplier based in Southfield, recently was back in a classroom at age 47 as the first person in his workplace to learn how to work on electric and hybrid vehicles safely.

Earlier this year at Macomb Community College, Pizzo leaned over the back of a Toyota Prius, examining the battery and voltage in each cell to assess problems and troubleshoot issues on the last day of a two-week training.

He was the only Denso representative and planned to share what he had learned with Denso team members who are working on traditional gasoline-powered products but looking for training to expand their knowledge of battery electric and hybrid vehicles.

"We want to position our workforce for future opportunities at Denso and new areas that we're pursuing," Pizzo said. "A course like this is very important for people in my situation who don't have a lot of experience in electrification products because it gives a very good overview of all the different systems."

Other states have been successful in attracting EV battery plants and offer similar education and training, said Smith with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. But those states don't have a pre-existing workforce like Michigan does, Smith said, and don't have educational institutions that have spent decades training workers in automotive fields.

Earlier this year, the state launched the EV Workforce Hub to expand the work of the EV Jobs Academy, Smith said.

The Jobs Academy is critical to Michigan, the auto industry and how it is evolving, said Oliver Gross, a senior fellow of electrical energy technology at Stellantis and co-chair on the governing board of the Michigan Alliance for Greater Mobility Advancement, a consortium of original equipment manufactures, suppliers, educational institutions, workforce groups and state officials working to address the auto industry’s skills and training needs.

Electrification is coming, Gross added, and will be transformational, comparing it to the cellphone, which has changed how people communicate and behave.

"This is similar transformation," Gross said. "It's one of those things that picks up pace and, before you know it, it's ubiquitous. And you can't be reactive in developing the workforce. You have to be proactive given not just the pace of technology but the impact it has on culture and society."

"We can be visionaries, and there are many of us who do that as part of our day-to-day jobs," he said. "But the reality is that whatever happens is going to be a combination of a bunch of people's visions."

(This story was funded in part by a media fellowship from the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, with support from the ECMC Foundation, to increase journalists’ tools for reporting on postsecondary education, particularly career and technical education.)

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