NORTHEAST WISCONSIN – Leaders from the Northeast Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship (NEWYA) consortium and Cooperative Educational Service Agency 7 (CESA 7) demonstrated regional workforce development models and received top state honors at the 2026 Wisconsin Career Readiness Summit this month with NEWYA Director David Gordon and Kate Bartell of Emplify Health bringing home awards.

“The recognition of David and Kate, along with the opportunity for our NEWYA team and partners to share their work statewide, reflects what is possible when education and industry come together around a shared commitment to students,” shared Jeffrey Walters, executive director of CESA 7. “Youth Apprenticeship (YA) is creating meaningful pathways for young people while helping employers develop the talent they need for the future. We are incredibly proud of our team’s leadership, the strength of our partnerships, and the impact this work continues to have across Northeast Wisconsin. This is truly CESA 7’s mission of Transforming Education Together in action.”

Industry Partnership Award

Bartell received the Industry Partnership Award, recognizing her exemplary commitment to bridging the gap between business and education through sustained employer engagement.

“Emplify Health by Bellin is a spectacular partner both in creating career exploration events for students and also creating youth apprenticeship placements for students,” Gordon said. “On average, they’ve taken about 50 students per year for the last five years with dedicated YA placements. They also support significantly more students than that with job shadows, mentorship and different career exploration activities. We were so proud to nominate Kate and her team for that award.”

“Ever since 2020, the demand for a quality workforce has never been greater,” Walters said. “The doors have been opened, through Youth Apprenticeship programming during high school, to help resolve some of those challenges for industry partners… Emplify Health by Bellin has been successful in the retention of a significant number of their Youth Apprenticeship students after graduation.”

Businesses are able to participate in the Youth Apprenticeship program at no cost other than wages, with training for employers and mentors provided by NEWYA.

Luminary Award

Gordon received the Luminary Award in honor of his vision, leadership, and transformational impact on career development and youth apprenticeship across the region.

“I was honored to receive the Luminary Award for really pushing and challenging the status quo of how workplace learning is supported in the state of Wisconsin,” Gordon said. “We’ve seen significant growth in Youth Apprenticeship over the last six years. When I initially started this, there were probably 300 or 400 students accessing Youth Apprenticeship in our region. Last year, we broke 2,000.”

The Youth Apprenticeship program in Northeast Wisconsin looks a bit different than it does in other parts of the state — while students in other areas are supported in their career-based learning by a teacher or school counselor, NEWYA puts school-based coaches into its participating schools to support students in their search for an Youth Apprenticeship position.

“School-based coaches are immersed into the districts and are faces every day that these students and staff can rely on and trust and have rich, meaningful conversations about career preparation and success after high school. Youth Apprenticeship plays a really important role in a lot of those conversations, and it takes the burden off of some of the other staff members the districts have who are spread thinner than they ever have been.”

“We want to help students understand that there’s tremendous opportunity for them professionally in our communities,” Gordon said. “We’re really trying to bring relevance to a student’s education, making it meaningful by connecting them with employers and helping them create efficient pathways to that as they prepare to exit high school, they understand which post-secondary programs might be most beneficial for them and whether or not certain post-secondary programs are really required.”