Gov. Tony Evers visited Nicolet College on Thursday to mark Manufacturing Month. College officials told him that state grant dollars, dual-enrollment classes and a partnership with UW-Platteville are helping the college train a manufacturing workforce suited to the Northwoods.
Evers was joined by Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Secretary Amy Pechacek. They toured the Birchwood Center at the college’s campus and met with college leaders to hear about technology and trade programs tied to manufacturing.
Nicolet President Kate Ferrel said the college’s programs reflect the region’s economy, which differs from other parts of the state.
“I think that’s one of the exciting things about working in the tech college system,” Ferrel said. “So much tourism here, so much entrepreneurship here in the Northwoods. So that is really reflective of what we do in our programming.”
Custom products, changing technology
Dr. Jeff Labs, Nicolet’s associate vice president of academic affairs, gave an overview of the college’s manufacturing-related offerings. Ferrel said Labs has worked in the college’s trades area since he joined Nicolet and previously worked in the construction industry. The offerings include a one-year welding technical diploma, a one-year fabrication program, an associate of applied science degree in electromechanical technology and a one-year technical diploma in industrial electronics.
Labs said many Northwoods manufacturers make customized products, so automation has not always been a priority locally, “but we are starting to see that more and more.”
“It’s really trying to uniquely identify what will serve our district the best,” he said. He added that the college is also looking at “what are the technologies tomorrow” and investing to prepare workers with those skills.
Labs said most of the equipment Evers would see on the tour was paid for through grants. He also said rising equipment costs are a challenge. Prices sometimes climb 25% to 30% between the time the college applies for a Wisconsin Technical College System grant and the time it is ready to spend the money.
Ferrel thanked Evers for his support of technical colleges. She said general purpose revenue funding and state and sector grants pay for equipment, supplies and staff, and “take the pressure off of the local budget.”
Growing engineers at home
Gary Zarda, dean of university transfer and liberal arts, said Nicolet is the only public institution of higher education in its large rural district. He said Nicolet’s associate of science degree, which includes an Intro to Engineering course, puts students on a path toward engineering. He said local employers have stressed that engineers trained in the district are more likely to stay.
“They’ve struggled with engineers that come from other areas coming here and then ultimately moving on,” Zarda said.
Zarda said Nicolet works closely with UW-Platteville, which offers an engineering program that students can take mostly online. Its required labs are on the Platteville campus, and the travel can be a barrier for students. Nicolet now hosts some of those remote labs on its Rhinelander campus, including a large wind tunnel. Zarda said that makes the college “a Northwoods hub for engineering” for students from Nicolet and other technical colleges.
He said Nicolet is also offering engineering-track coursework in district high schools, both through sections taught on site and through dual enrollment programs such as Start College Now. He said not every high school can afford Start College Now, which creates an equity problem.
Asked by Evers how many students participate in the engineering pathway, Zarda said the effort is new and has had as few as two to five students so far. “Even though the numbers, the raw numbers, may not be that impressive, it does have an impact,” he said.
Pechacek said DWD offers $5 million in grants each year to high schools for career and technical education equipment, and she offered to send the information to the college to pass along to district schools.
First-generation students
Ferrel said many students in the Nicolet district are first-generation college students. For them, a dual-enrollment class at schools such as Rhinelander, Three Lakes or Mercer can be “life changing.”
“They get the confidence to know they can do college-level work,” Ferrel said. Some students earn credentials such as a CNA or welding certification before they graduate high school.
Ferrel said students at the district’s 11 high schools took 4,000 dual-enrollment credits last year.
“Our employers are, as you guys know, clamoring for any skill level, and then they will help train from there,” Ferrel said.
Evers praised the technical college system, saying the colleges “do different work in different places.”
Evers proclaimed October as Manufacturing Month in Wisconsin and Oct. 2 as Manufacturing Day. According to the governor’s office, Wisconsin has more than 470,000 manufacturing jobs at nearly 9,000 companies and ranks first nationally in manufacturing employment per capita.
The 2025-27 state budget invests $13 million in technical colleges over the biennium. That includes $8.3 million in general aid increases, $3 million for student materials and resources and $2 million in grants to technical college district boards for artificial intelligence adoption.
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