At Pro Academy in Portage, the story goes beyond a training facility.
For Pro Services, the Academy reflects a challenge manufacturers know well: finding and developing skilled maintenance talent. The Portage-based company works across industrial maintenance, staffing, and workforce development, and Pro Academy is a central part of how it is responding to that need.
Roy Lemke, executive vice president of Workforce Solutions at Pro Services, put the problem plainly.
“It’s across the country in manufacturing today, there’s not enough skilled technical talent in the maintenance industry to support manufacturing,” Lemke said. “Trained, tenured technicians are retiring out. It’s three to one, the ratio of those going out to those coming in, and that’s a conservative number.”
For manufacturers, that shortage does not stay theoretical for long. Because maintenance plays such a critical role in keeping operations moving, the impact shows up quickly in equipment availability, uptime, scheduling, and overall plant performance. Lemke said many plants today are “understaffed, underserved and underskilled,” a combination that puts real pressure on companies trying to stay competitive.
That’s the lens through which Pro Services wants people to understand Pro Academy. The Academy isn’t just a place to train people and send them back out. It’s part of a broader workforce strategy built to help manufacturers address the maintenance talent gap from a few different angles. That includes apprenticeship, skills assessment and upskilling, and staffing support for employers who need help now while building something more sustainable over time.
Hands-on training at Pro Academy in Portage gives technicians a closer look at the systems shaping modern manufacturing.
The apprenticeship side is a major part of that. The program begins with a six-week bootcamp focused on safety and core fundamentals before shifting back to employer-based, on-the-job experience supported by online coursework. Apprentices then return for additional intermediate and advanced training blocks before completing final skill validation. The structure blends time-based progression with competency-based testing, which fits the reality of industrial maintenance. Employers are not just looking for experience. They need technicians who can demonstrate the skills the work requires.
At the same time, not every employer is starting from scratch with a brand-new apprentice. In many cases, a manufacturer already has technicians on staff but needs a clearer picture of where those employees stand and what kind of training would move them forward. That’s where Pro Services positions its skills assessment. Through that process, the company evaluates current capability, identifies gaps, and recommends a training roadmap based on what each technician actually needs. As Lemke explained, the goal is to understand where technicians are deficient and “apply upskilling to get them trained at a level that’s necessary.”
Taken together, those pieces show how Pro Services approaches the problem. The company does not view training as a standalone service, but as part of a broader system for supporting manufacturers. Depending on the need, that may involve apprenticeship, upskilling current technicians, or helping fill immediate gaps through direct hire, contract technicians, or short-term higher-level support while a longer-term plan comes together.
There is also enough history behind the effort to show this is not something Pro Services just started talking about. The company began its training program in late 2015, and its apprenticeship program has operated as a U.S. Department of Labor program since 2017. Pro Services has put almost 300 technicians through the apprenticeship track since then, while also upskilling and supporting roughly 1,000 technicians over the last decade. On its public website, the company describes training and development as part of a larger strategy to help organizations address the chronic shortage of qualified maintenance talent.
That work lines up with the company’s broader direction. In August 2025, Pro Services announced a Michigan Strategic Fund-supported expansion tied to at least 250 new jobs over three years and up to $12.4 million in investment, another sign that the company sees long-term opportunity in both its operations and the workforce solutions surrounding them.
For Southwest Michigan, Pro Academy stands out because it gives some shape to a conversation that can otherwise stay pretty broad. There’s no shortage of discussion around workforce challenges in manufacturing. The harder part is showing what a real response looks like once a company decides to invest in one. At Pro Academy, that response is taking shape in a practical way by developing new talent, strengthening the people already in the field, and giving manufacturers more than one way to start closing the gap.
About Pro Services
Founded in 1987 and based in Portage, Pro Services is a multi-skilled trades contractor serving industrial and commercial customers through maintenance, mechanical, project, and workforce solutions. Its work includes project delivery, maintenance services, training and development, and talent acquisition, with Pro Academy serving as part of the company’s broader effort to support skilled workforce needs.