Researchers, professionals and industry partners from across Michigan and the country gathered at Michigan State University on June 11 to collaborate and engage in productive discourse about the future of work.
The conference was part of MSU’s Future of Work initiative led by Tara Behrend, the John Richard Butler II Endowed Professor at Michigan State University’s School of Human Resources and Labor Relations.
“There are simmering pressures on us as a community to respond to AI,” said Behrend, in her opening remarks at the conference. “We can help students build connections that can support human flourishing and for meaningful employment, which itself is a source of flourishing, as well as economic and material stability.”
MSU’s Future of Work initiative
The initiative focuses on what MSU can do for students amid the changing realities of the workplace and employment environments. How can the university and industry partners best support job-seeking students? What resources can give students a head start in a hypercompetitive job market? What tools can be implemented to improve career readiness for students?
The Future of Work project is designed not only to address these questions but to drive innovative solutions.
“The world around us is changing in a very dramatic way,” said Sanjay Gupta, dean emeritus and Eli Broad Professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at the Broad College of Business. “Our end goal is that somehow, we need to be able to say that MSU is Michigan’s state university. How do we engage Michiganders at first blush and push them further down the road?”
Improving career readiness at MSU
Part of the solution for engaging Michiganders and solving everchanging problems in the future of work takes the form of the Green and White Council. Introduced in 2025 by the Office of the President, the Green and White Council launched to amplify MSU’s role as Michigan’s state university.
The council’s initiatives were designed to develop talent for in-demand jobs, connect Spartans to career opportunities in Michigan and use MSU’s research to propel Michigan’s economy.
“We really need to think about how best we can prepare our students for the future of work,” Gupta said, who also co-chairs the council. “What else can we do to prepare them to be career ready, and how can we connect them in meaningful ways to meaningful opportunities that provide insight on what the workplace looks like.”
Following Gupta’s dive into the Green and White Council, Amy Hertel, senior advisor in the Office of the Provost for strategic initiatives, discussed another initiative aimed at getting Spartans career ready: Career-Connected Spartans. Informed by the Green and White Council, the initiative’s goal is to reach all MSU undergraduates with meaningful opportunities to explore careers while they are on campus.
“We noticed early career exposure was very helpful for connecting what students are learning in the classroom and what that means for their long-term life implications,” Hertel said. “Not only learning about their self-purpose and interests but learning about next steps post-graduation also helps students persist and feel a sense of belonging on their campus.”
As MSU has several thousand employees, the future of work for MSU staff was another topic during the conference, with remarks and insights offered by Lauren Scott-Briningstool, chief of staff for the Office of the Executive Vice President.
Hands-on, work-based experiential learning
The goal of Career-Connected Spartans is to teach employer desired skills to students in an interactive, experiential learning format. One of the ways Hertel and other conference speakers proposed to do this is through co-ops and micro internships.
Hertel described these opportunities as two- to four-week-long bursts of internships students can partake in during their first or second years while they are on campus and taking their regular classes.
Career-Connected Spartans proposes the idea that the more students engage in these early experiential, industry-specific work opportunities, the better picture they’ll get of what they want in their future of work and, more importantly, what they want their life to look like after they graduate.
This undertaking, according to Hertel, encompasses colleges from across campus and ensures students graduate with real industry experience.
“Students need appreciation for how their business works, not just expertise in their major,” Hertel said. “They need to understand the full picture so they can contribute to their industry sooner. We want students, during their time at MSU, to have real-world learning in their disciplines to pair with their in-class experiences.
Hertel mentioned artificial intelligence and what she called digital competency. In other words, she said, the ability to adapt to new tools and technologies is important. Not just the skills required to use the tool, but the growth mindset to being open and willing to learn.
“We don’t have a shared definition on our campus for work-based learning,” Hertel said. “We need to make these internships, research opportunities and high-impact learning opportunities more visible for all students. We have done an excellent job working with industry leaders to expand our thinking and engagement to get students connected with these opportunities.”
Bridging research and industry partners
The conference also focused on how industry, education and economic development can work together to prepare for the future of work here in Mid-Michigan.
Bringing together Cindy Kangas, executive director of the Capital Area Manufacturing Council; Patty Spagnuolo, transfer center director at Lansing Community College; and Tony Willis, chief equity development officer of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, they discussed how communities must prepare for changing careers, emerging technologies and evolving workforce demands.
The conference also brought in professionals from the Strada Education Foundation and the National Academies’ Action Collaborative Initiatives as well as researchers from across the country who shared their insights on the future of work.
Topics included:
- Career assessments encompassing the whole individual
- How intellectual dispositions and intellectual humility impact career aspirations
- How universities structure opportunities for Latinx and Hispanic-serving institutions
- Ways experiential learning provides students with the skills employers’ desire
- How students’ careers and aspirations develop over time
Speakers included MSU Strada Postdoctoral Research Fellow Layla Dang; postdoctoral scholars at the University of California, Irvine Jeffrey Devries and Enrique Lopez; Lauren Shook, postdoctoral scholar at the University of Texas at El Paso; and incoming assistant professor in MSU’s School of Human Resources and Labor Relations Ahleah Miles.
The Future of Work initiative will continue innovating opportunities that connect students with meaningful pre-career experiences. Learn more about the initiative’s research priorities.
The photo at the top of the story was from a 2024 event. Photo credit: Jackie Hawthorne, MSU College of Social Sience.
