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An award-winning early childhood education apprenticeship program involving Flowers Early Learning (formerly Tri-County Head Start), Southwestern Michigan College and Michigan Works! marked its first anniversary this year.

Coming out of COVID, the education center began experiencing a severe staff shortage which closed some classrooms.

As time went on, Flowers began examining ways to attract help, realizing that part of the problem was that many who might pursue this career pathway didn’t clearly understand how to go about it.

An apprenticeship program enabled someone interested in working with children ages 0-5 to get paid and receive benefits while training and working toward a degree.

Participants work in classrooms, side by side with experienced staff members and completing four SMC classes in early childhood education so workers can advance their careers debt-free.

Early childhood education is a great way to get started on the road to a teaching career while erasing a stigma because some people think such educators are babysitters. In reality, they help convey critical social and emotional skills to kids, doing it in a patient, nurturing way.

Flowers didn’t need to look far to find a partner for the classroom component.

SMC Professor Ranee Conley, early childhood and elementary education programs director, has a long association with Head Start.

“I have worked with Head Start programs in Michigan and Indiana for 25 years,” Conley said. “Where Flowers Learning is right now is truly a beacon of hope as far as I’m concerned. They worked so hard to develop this apprenticeship program. We’re blessed to be requested as the training provider within their apprenticeship.”

“This area of Michigan is considered a child care desert,” said Conley, a former Head Start board member. “COVID amplified what has been a longstanding issue. Renaming and restructuring them as an entity allows them to fundraise” while honoring Orion H. Flowers Jr., executive director for 34 years of Tri-County Head Start of Berrien, Cass and Van Buren counties. The Marcellus resident died Oct. 8, 2014, at 72. During his tenure, more than 10, 000 students and families were served.

“I care about their mission and vision,” Conley said. “I have nothing but respect for Flowers Early Learning. Their priorities are in the right place. I have a lot of nuanced knowledge as a former board member, and they know my commitment to ‘good enough is not good enough.’ They pulled together funding sources, like Michigan Works! and the TEACH scholarship,” a Michigan scholarship program designed to help child care center teaching staff, preschool teachers, family child care providers, group home owners, center directors, early childhood professionals and administrators meet their professional development goals while continuing their current employment in regulated early childhood and school-age care settings.

“The CDA (Child Development Associate, a nationally-recognized certification) is part of their holistic plan,” Conley said.

This program’s “earn while you learn” model addresses two big problems — a teacher shortage and a lack of reliable local child care for working parents.

“”Because they’re working fulltime,” she said, “the goal would be that they take two classes in the fall and two classes in the spring so that they could complete all of the required coursework between September and May, one year. We do offer at least one of the four classes in the summer.”

The collaboration proved so successful that the apprenticeship program won a 2026 Michigan Works! Association Impact Award.

At the awards ceremony at the Michigan State Capitol, Janiya Wilson was singled out as a success story.

The mother of four with three daughters and a son was born and raised in Benton Harbor. She was serving as a preschool teacher at Flowers Early Learning while pursuing her degree in early childhood education.

Wilson’s passion for teaching was rooted in the belief that children are our future, and that every child deserves to be seen, heard, valued and nurtured.

Wilson believes that early childhood education is about more than teaching letters and numbers, it is about planting seeds of confidence, encouraging curiosity, building meaningful relationships and creating safe spaces where children can grow and thrive.

“How you’re cared for birth to 3 sets the tone for the rest of your life,” Conley said, “from how your brain develops to how you manage stress.”

If desired, students can use the apprenticeship credential program as a building block into SMC’s Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degree in early childhood education.

“My classes include dual-enrolled (high school) students, employees of Flowers Early Learning, employees of other child cares, public and private schools,” said Conley, who has a son, 30, and daughter, 28.

“My son got a head start in business classes and finished at Western in three years because of what he did here. My daughter changed her mind in her junior and senior years at least three times, then went to Western and changed it two more times. It’s absolutely as valuable to try something your junior and senior years” in case it proves not to be their ultimate path.