We're HomeGrown.
We catalyze and equip business & community leaders to initiate and execute affordable, locally-owned, apprenticeship programs that serve students and businesses in seven weeks.
The best day to plant a tree is yesterday, the second best day is today. Let’s get to work on creating your community’s vibrant future today.
Employers are shorthanded. Many graduates lack employable skills.
We’ve heard all of this before. It’s time to actually do something about it.
We all know the struggle of finding and keeping skilled workers in the dynamic job market. There’s a widening gap between local workforce skills and industry needs. This leads to unfilled key roles and negatively impacts costs, productivity, and growth. And this problem is not getting any better. It’s getting worse.
The gap between academics and skills employers require leads to difficulty securing relevant jobs post-graduation (whether secondary or post-secondary). Most young people lack the skills and practical, hands-on experience needed for employability. Bottom line? New grads must have hands-on experience to enter the workforce.
The workforce development crowd has talked these two problems to death. Wash, rinse, repeat–same old thing, same disappointing results. This year’s “What do Employers Want” survey will look exactly like the last five years. Reliance upon existing programs will continue to produce the same results.
A fresh approach using the time-tested method of apprenticeships solves this problem. It’s time to embrace the art of skill development and mentorship in our communities. Getting started might seem daunting, but HomeGrown is here to mentor, encourage, enable, and equip your community to initiate and execute a locally-owned apprenticeship program.
Why HomeGrown?
Business executives and civic leaders have too much going on with seemingly overlapping deadlines. How in the world would a busy executive or civic leader find the time and resources necessary to start an apprenticeship program in their community? It sounds like a daunting task, and indeed it would be if one started from scratch. But HomeGrown has the materials, templates, resources, and experience to catalyze and support a locally-led apprenticeship program.
Leverage the resources and experience of HomeGrown and eliminate the anxiety related to starting from scratch.
5 Reasons To
Grow Your OwnREDUCE BRAIN DRAIN
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & STABILITY
CULTURAL CONTINUITY & COMMUNITY IDENTITY
CREATE ROLE MODELS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
FOSTER LOCAL WEALTH GENERATION
MEET OUR FOUNDER, RON.
Ron Brumbarger is passionate about empowering individuals and communities to reach their highest potential–a calling he’s sought to fulfill through founding the award-winning Apprentice University, starting many school and educational programs, speaking at numerous universities, and being a homeschool dad. He’s founded many businesses, including the Indiana-based technology firm Bitwise Solutions, where he served as president and CEO for 27 years.
Ron is serious about relentlessly pursuing opportunities to invest in and serve others. He has accomplished this over the years through facilitating workshops globally, authoring books like You’re Always Being Interviewed, and one-on-one mentorship. He also enjoys traveling and RV road trips with his wife, Cindy, and spending time with his two sons and their wives.
HOW IT WORKS
Step 2: Kickoff Planning
Once the status is green, HomeGrown project managers will organize the kickoff planning meetings with committed community stakeholders. Stakeholders will have homework to complete between kickoff meetings to help ensure progression toward launch goals. The frequency and duration of the meetings will be determined at the Readiness workshop. The content addressed during these meetings includes initiative naming, branding, websites, social media marketing, recruiting strategies, back-office/finance, and much more.
Batteries
Included!EXPLORE ALL THE WAYS WE SUPPORT
YOUR JOURNEY WITH HOMEGROWN
Who wants to figure this out from scratch? We assist you in creating the necessary governance structures, operating agreements, website domains, boards of directors, IRS filings, company partnership agreements, enrollment materials, and more that are best suited to your community.
To expedite the launch, we bring our experience in student recruiting, messaging, branding, websites, open house structures, and more to your community.
We can provide back office management to oversee the paperwork, finance, accounting, banking, human resources, reporting, and related details that often negatively impact an organization’s ability to start, grow, and scale.
By leveraging our experience, lessons learned, how to, and how not to, we can assist in avoiding costly pitfalls, missteps, and legal entanglements. There is no need nor value added to re-learn these crucial lessons the hard way.
RESOURCES
Catalyst's Guidebook
Are you interested in being your community’s catalyst? Ready to gather your fellow business leaders and get to work? This guidebook will provide you with the background information necessary to get started.
HomeGrown Overview flipbook
Eager to learn more about HomeGrown? This overview flipbook provides more details about the HomeGrown Operating System, the benefits of a HomeGrown program in your community, and a taste of our “Batteries Included” offerings.
HomeGrown Infographic
This readily sharable infographic helps business and community leaders tell the HomeGrown story to other businesses, civic leaders, school leaders, and, of course, families.
