Michigan's Going PRO Talent Fund, the state's flagship worker-training grant program, spent more than $59 million reimbursing employers for basic on-the-job orientation rather than the credentialed training the program is supposed to fund, according to a new state audit. The Michigan Office of the Auditor General also found that the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity went nearly three years without performing any required file reviews of the regional Michigan Works! Agencies that administer the grants locally.
The findings, released September 17, come from a review that sampled 33 Going PRO grant awards from the three-year audit period. As reported by the Michigan Office of the Auditor General, none of the sampled files contained documentation verifying trainee eligibility, and local agencies relied almost entirely on unverified, employer-reported median wage data to justify awards. Michigan Works! Agencies manage the day-to-day execution of employer grants, which is precisely why state-level file reviews are supposed to happen — and, per the audit, largely did not for nearly three years ending in June 2025.
Auditors pointed to specific examples of what they consider non-compliant spending. The state approved $18,000 for an auto parts manufacturer to train nine newly hired machine operators and $8,000 for a metal stamping plant to train four packers, both covering basic 160-hour orientation sessions. Auditors designated that kind of onboarding as ineligible because it does not produce transferable, industry-recognized credentials — the core purpose lawmakers built into the program.
A Program Built to Close Michigan's Skills Gap
Going PRO was launched in 2014 under then-Governor Rick Snyder and later codified into law under Public Act 260 of 2018, per the Michigan Legislature. The law created a competitive grant system run through regional Michigan Works! Agencies specifically to address skill gaps and worker retention through advanced certificates and credentials, not general job orientation.
According to the Associated Press, distributed via CBS News Detroit, Going PRO spent $182.5 million in taxpayer funding between 2022 and 2025, with an average award of $55,400 across 3,296 businesses. The audit found that roughly one-third of that funding did not comply with the program's established credential requirements. About half of the workers trained through the program during that period worked in manufacturing, and manufacturers along with a nursing home were among the employers that received grants covering pay for newly hired staff — spending the fund is not supposed to cover, since Going PRO is not meant to pay for orientation or onboarding.
Millions in Eligible Requests Went Unfunded
While the state approved payments auditors flagged as ineligible, it simultaneously turned away 2,245 unfunded requests totaling about $93 million, per the AP report. That gap between rejected, qualifying applications and approved non-credential spending is central to the criticism from lawmakers and auditors alike.
Michigan House Appropriations Committee Chair Ann Bollin, a Republican from Brighton, issued a formal statement the day the audit was released, saying it exposed material failures in state oversight and misspent millions intended for worker credentials, according to Michigan House Republicans. Bollin also said taxpayers expect program resources to be used effectively and consistently with the program's purpose, per the same statement.
The state has disputed many of the audit's findings and defended reimbursements that did not lead to formal credentials. Susan Corbin, director of the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, and Mike Murray have both pushed back on the characterization that the spending was improper. Murray described Going PRO as a nationally recognized, highly valued and cost-effective upskilling method, and the state has argued that on-the-job training is a recognized and nationally utilized method of upskilling that does not necessarily result in a credential. Auditors, for their part, suggested the legislature should better define what counts as basic training, noting that lawmakers have not explicitly approved using Going PRO funds for it either way.
Shrinking Budget, Bigger Stakes
The dispute lands as Going PRO's budget has already been cut sharply. The program's budget declined 40% from the previous year, falling from $32 million, and the 2027 state budget, which takes effect October 1, funds Going PRO at $14.4 million. The Michigan Manufacturers Association separately reported a roughly 42% state budget reduction for fiscal year 2026, as noted by Bridge Michigan, prompting the department to project fewer participating employers and trained workers going forward. Auditor General records separately show Going PRO employer grant awards totaling $65.3 million in fiscal year 2023 and $63.4 million in fiscal year 2024, before those reductions took hold.
The stakes extend beyond the balance sheet. Michigan ranked 39th nationally in educational attainment, according to the AP's reporting, and the state's postsecondary credential rate reached just 51.6% in 2024 — behind the 54.8% national average — as officials work toward Governor Gretchen Whitmer's “Sixty by 30” goal of 60% credentialed working-age adults by 2030. Going PRO was designed as a key non-degree pathway toward that target, a connection Bridge Michigan's coverage draws directly to the audit's findings.
State workforce reports have promoted Going PRO as producing an average 6.2% hourly wage increase for workers who complete training, though metrics published in March 2026 noted that wage outcomes for recent grant cycles remained under evaluation. Auditors have said unverified on-the-job training makes it difficult to independently track whether those wage gains are real. In response to the findings, the department says Going PRO is undergoing a more formalized internal review manual along with record-keeping improvements meant to close the verification gaps auditors identified.
Locally, Going PRO grants have already shown up in major economic development deals. Hoodline previously reported on a $93 million Hansae Mobility plant in Chesterfield Township, where state officials offered Going PRO grants of $2,000 to $3,500 per worker for credential training alongside the broader investment — an example of how the fund is packaged into corporate incentive deals even as its internal oversight comes under fire.
