Vocations

MichiganWorks! is a state-wide workforce development system offering free career-development services for jobseekers, virtual workshops for those interested in expanding skills and, for students age 16-24, internship, tuition assistance, career planning and work-experience opportunities. Businesses can receive support for hiring, training, process improvements, and growth. Employers can take advantage of the Business Resource Network – free to join – and its “success coaches” who work one-on-one with employees to remedy personal challenges so workers can thrive at their jobs.

The Southfield office, located in the City Centre on the Lawrence Technological University campus, is bright and state-of-the-art. Clients are invited to simply walk in during business hours. “You don’t have to be unemployed to use these services,” explains Lisa Straske, manager of the Southfield office. “We serve everyone who walks in the door.”

Clients range from high schoolers eager to create career plans to displaced homemakers ready to enter the workforce, and anyone wanting to make a career change. There’s also the Clean Slate Program, which helps those with criminal convictions clear their public records. Another program offers scholarships for childcare at licensed centers. “We take a holistic, client-centered approach and tailor career plans and services to the particular needs of the individual,” Straske adds.

For more information, visit the Southfield office of Oakland County MichiganWorks! at 21415 Civic Center Drive, Suite 116, Southfield or call 248-796-4583. You also can email the office at this address: Sfldmiworks@gmail.com and learn more online at  www.OaklandCountyMIWorks.com.

Lawrence Technological University will offer a four-week certificate program in leadership during October.

Certificate classes will be held Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 6, 13, 20, and 27.

The program facilitator is Patricia Castelli, professor in LTU’s College of Business and Information Technology.

The cost of the program is $1,800, or $1,500 for LTU alumni. To register or for more information, visit this link.

Participants will develop critical leadership skills, using the latest research on how self- awareness and reflection develop leadership, ss well as techniques on conflict resolution, delegation, motivation, and trust building.

Castelli has been a management and leadership scholar and practitioner for more than 30 years, training more than 30,000 people in a wide variety of organizational settings. She joined LTU in 1995 after earning a PhD in instructional technology, a division of organizational studies at Wayne State University. Earlier she earned an MBA from LTU. She is the recipient of many academic and professional honors and awards, and is the author or co-author of more than 60 scholarly articles on leadership, entrepreneurship, human resource management, and motivation.

Lawrence Technological University is one of only 13 private, technological, doctoral universities in the United States. Located in Southfield, Mich., LTU was founded in 1932, and offers more than 100 programs through its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, and Engineering. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 11 percent of universities for alumni salaries. The Wall Street Journal ranks LTU among the nation’s top 10 percent. U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best in the Midwest colleges. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.

Lawrence Technological University is one of the nation’s top colleges for students seeking a superb education with great career preparation and at an affordable price, according to The Princeton Review, the Framingham, Mass.-based educational services company.

The education services company named Lawrence Tech as a Best Value College for 2021 in a feature the company posted on its website on April 20 at https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/best-value-colleges/ . The feature profiles 200 schools that The Princeton Review selected out of more than 650 institutions the company considered and surveyed for this year’s project.

Information on the Best Value Colleges for 2021 project and its seven categories of ranking lists, as well as profiles of Lawrence Tech and other selected schools, is accessible at no charge with registration on The Princeton Review’s website.

“The latest results from this well-regarded ranking is further demonstration that an education at Lawrence Technological University is well worth the investment in our students’ time and money,” LTU President Virinder Moudgil said. “Lawrence Tech graduates are in high demand in some of the fastest-growing occupations—jobs that provide both good salaries and opportunities to improve the future of society.”

The Princeton Review chose its Best Value Colleges for 2021 based on data the company collected from its surveys of administrators and students at more than 650 colleges in 2019-20. The company also factored in data from PayScale.com surveys of alumni about their starting and mid-career salaries and job satisfaction figures.

In all, The Princeton Review analyzed more than 40 data points to tally ROI (Return on Investment) ratings of the colleges that determined its selection of the 200 schools for the 2021 project. Topics covered everything from academics, cost, and financial aid to graduation rates, student debt, alumni salaries, and job satisfaction. Lawrence Tech’s ROI ranking can be found at https://www.princetonreview.com/college/lawrence-technological-university-1023483?ceid=ctpyb#!careers.

“The schools we name as our Best Value Colleges for 2021 comprise only just over 1 percent of the nation’s four-year colleges,” noted Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief. “They are distinctive in their programs, size, region, and type, yet they are similar in three areas. Every school we selected offers outstanding academics, generous financial aid and/or a relative low cost of attendance, and stellar career services. We salute Lawrence Tech for these exceptional offerings and recommend it highly to college applicants and parents.”

The Princeton Review’s editors noted that “students don’t often discuss a school’s motto, but with Lawrence Technological University’s motto of ‘Theory and Practice,’ they’re eager to share how they feel the school’s greatest strength is how involved you become in your major…It’s all praise for the ‘exceptional’ academics across all programs from industrial design to biomedical engineering…Undergrads love that their coursework often has a ‘hands-on aspect; it isn’t all about hitting the books.’ They also appreciate that professors are not only ‘technologically advanced,’ but ‘still in the industries they teach in.’”

In the student surveys, LTU students described themselves as “hard working, dedicated, and determined,” “extremely friendly,” and that “everyone is a techie.” Undergraduates pride themselves on the fact that the university attracts “people from all over the world.” But ultimately, no matter where they grew up, “students at LTU get to know each other fast and form a family. We help each other in courses and lift each other up.”

The Princeton Review is a tutoring, test preparation, and college admission services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school-bound students achieve their education and career goals through online and in-person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors, online resources, and its more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House.

Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers nearly 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, and Engineering. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 11 percent of universities for the salaries of its graduates, and U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best Midwestern universities. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.