‘This recognition a testament to hard work and dedication’
‘It’s about being a champion, a convener and a catalyst’
February 2, 2026
WISCONSIN – Ten technical colleges are joining forces with Microsoft to form a consortium aimed at bringing access to high-quality courseware, training and industry-recognized certification in artificial intelligence (AI) to community educators, business professionals and students across the State of Wisconsin.
Brad Gast – Northcentral Technical College’s (NTC) dean of workforce training – said Microsoft and the consortium began meeting in April 2025 to plan statewide AI training that is consistent in quality but tailored in application.
“One of the things we’re so excited about [is] Microsoft has brought significant investments to the State of Wisconsin, and this is one of the first consortium partnerships they’ve had with [a] technical college system in the United States,” he said “So, as the Wisconsin Technical College System forms this partnership, it really gives us a strategic advantage.”
Gast said the consortium – a Microsoft Training Service Partner consisting of representatives from Northcentral Technical College, Lakeshore College, Gateway Technical College, Moraine Park Technical College, Chippewa Valley Technical College, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Western Technical College, Northwood Technical College and Mid-State Technical College – meets biweekly as they “get this ramped up throughout the state.”
“It’s an extremely collaborative, great group of folks to work with,” he said. “And it gives us [a] local presence throughout the state [to know] what their industries and businesses need in terms of what the Microsoft consortium can provide.”
Since last spring, Gast said the consortium has been gauging the needs of area employers and educators to determine what infrastructure existed and what was required for the AI-training investments to be meaningful.
Together, Gast said Microsoft and the consortium colleges built the infrastructure necessary to support the initiative.
“So, as we go into 2026, we’re able to provide a lot of value to K-12 educators and businesses,” he said.
Technical colleges, Gast said, are built to serve the regions in which they operate and address their particular needs.
“That’s been a huge advantage,” he said. “Having boots on the ground in each area of the state really provides us that information [on] what educators, students and businesses need. Each area is doing a slight variation of everything to make sure they’re meeting those needs directly through the [Wisconsin] Technical College System.”
Rapid access to resources
For the consortium’s biweekly meetings, Gast said Microsoft supplies resources and collaborates with partners statewide and nationally to assist in preparations and support the program’s continued implementation.
Collaborating with the Washington State-based company, he said, has created significant value for both the technical college system and Wisconsin as a whole.
“We’ve trained more than 40 educators [on] Microsoft Learn, and that’s going to increase rapidly as we ramp this out, but that’s [already] a huge win for the State of Wisconsin,” he said.
Gast said Microsoft’s recent and historic investments – including the new consortium, the Milwaukee-based AI Co-Innovation Lab and TitletownTech near Lambeau Field – reflect a deliberate and growing partnership with the state.
“It’s really exciting for our state to be able to have that expertise at the table,” he said. “Looking at the technical college systems, [Microsoft] knows we are able to directly impact [our communities] and to get these skills in the hands of students and businesses. So, they looked at that as a great opportunity.”
Though the tech college AI-training consortium currently only consists of 10 Wisconsin-based schools, Gast said that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for growth.
“It’s not that the other six [Wisconsin-based tech schools] aren’t planning to be a part of it – they just weren’t ready to launch right now,” he said. “I would expect there would be continued opportunities for this that expand throughout all of the schools in the technical college system.”
Gast said the system’s ability to collaborate is one of its greatest strengths.
“These collaborations and these consortiums are something we do quite frequently, [because] we work really well together,” he said. “Knowing that each area of the state is getting covered with this initial [group of] 10 [tech colleges] is really exciting.”
Basic AI skills, critical response
Consistency in application, Gast said, is one of the largest challenges in any initiative – one that is made easier for the consortium through its partnership with Microsoft.
“The competency of [their] courses is consistent throughout all the courses they would deliver throughout the state,” he said. “So, the skills [students will be trained in] will be, relatively speaking, identical.”
At the time of his interview with The Business News, Gast said the consortium’s plan for disseminating AI training throughout the state was in the “rolling-out phase.”
“As we get this going here, each class, boot camp or initiative that we have, Microsoft requires a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT),” he said. “So, each school and campus is looking at who is the Microsoft-certified trainer in their local area. If they don’t have any, we are getting folks up-skilled and trained so they have that certification.”
Gast said MCT certification is required to ensure courses taught on Microsoft tools are not only up to par but high-quality and complete.
“For example, they have to take a class in AI and verify they have that skill,” he said. “Then, [they must] accurately and productively teach that particular topic. So, they go through a certification through Microsoft, Microsoft stamps them as approved and [that] just ensures the quality of those courses is meeting Microsoft’s expectations.”
Gast said the MCTs expected to roll out Microsoft Learn courseware across Wisconsin will likely be ready this spring.
“And I think we’ll see [the offerings] expand exponentially as we go through the rest of 2026,” he said.
In this initial phase, Gast said courses are focused on building “basic AI skills.”
“We’re really focusing on those productivity skills… and the business-enhancement skills,” he said. “That’s something we know is rapidly transforming every industry in the State of Wisconsin.”
Gast said providing students with opportunities to obtain “really advanced, technical IT certifications” also benefits Wisconsin employers by providing them with an advanced, locally grown talent pool.
“That gives a lot of our employers advantages [in] access to training they don’t currently have, so that’s exciting as well,” he said. “The sky is the limit for the training, so we really focused on some of those productivity and AI skills – digital enhancement skills – initially, just to get the ball rolling.”
Each tech college in the consortium, Gast said, is implementing the training in ways that make sense with respect to their existing ecosystem as well.
“What each college is doing is seeing where they could embed some of these certifications right in the [existing] courses, so students not only are sitting for those credits, but could walk out with that specific Microsoft certification,” he said.
One phase Gast said NTC, specifically, is still developing regarding its Microsoft AI offerings is its K-12 partnership plan.
“We’re really excited about partnering with our K-12 school districts,” he said. “We do a lot of collaboration with our dual credit initiatives with the K-12, [and] we do a lot of courses that could apply [to] certifications in this area. So, partnering with them not only [gets] those skills to those students, but [they then] walk out with those official Microsoft certifications, which adds a lot of value for them as well.”
All of this, Gast said, is done in an effort to ensure students are “employer-ready” when they graduate into the working class, and that businesses have a local workforce teeming with new-era potential to select from.
“This initiative is really about people,” he said. “How do we serve the people in each one of our districts and make that personalized to each area of the state? And I think this is where the consortium and the Wisconsin Technical College System do a really great job of identifying student employer needs, addressing those and making sure we respond rapidly.”
Navigate to ntc.edu for more information.
