Minnesota’s medtech workforce has grown older. A Medtronic program may unleash Gen Z.

Medtronic faces a recruitment challenge: The medical robot and pacemaker company isn’t very well known outside of Minnesota, said Mark Smith, vice president for global talent acquisition.

Attracting Generation Z, whose members were born between 1997 and 2012, Medtronic’s biggest challenge is “actually making [them] aware of who we are, versus those brands a little bit more prominent” such as SpaceX, Walmart and Google, Smith said.

An ambitious new program may help the Fridley-run company clear this hurdle.

The medtech giant has launched a program called Medtronic Spark aiming to propel 1 million students from low-income households into health care technology careers at a time when the medtech workforce has grown older.

Medtronic Spark will include scholarships going beyond financial assistance, a custom certification program and innovation labs for children.

Dr. Sally Saba, president of the nonprofit Medtronic Foundation, said success for the program “would look like Medtronic has played a part in reducing the workforce shortages.”

“It’ll also look like every Medtronic employee was really proud that they played a role in enabling future talent — young talent that comes from low-income communities — to have joined this field,” Saba added.

Medtronic isn’t alone in confronting a shrinking workforce.

During the past three decades, the number of early-career medtech workers in Minnesota has slightly shrunk while the number of workers 55 and older has increased dramatically, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Cameron Macht, a regional analysis and outreach manager at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, said, “This is a trend. This is a real thing.”

Macht said it’s similar in other industries in Minnesota, as there has been a 124% increase in the share of workers that were 55 years and over between 1995 and 2024. In manufacturing, the figure is about 176%, he said, and specifically in medical device manufacturing it’s 202%.

He pointed out that the workforce shifts come amid a long-term demographic change in Minnesota, as the large baby boom generation grows older. Trade groups such as the American Hospital Association expect a shortage of health care workers to grow in the coming years.

But the bar to securing a health care or health tech job has traditionally been high.

It takes years of schooling and training to land an engineering job at a leading medtech company. Yet by age 24, the attainment rate for bachelor’s degrees is five times higher for those in the highest income group compared with those in the lowest, the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education reported in 2018.

Workforce data that is “very, very compelling” and employee feedback led Medtronic to the spark for the new program consisting of three pillars, Saba said.

Medtronic Spark Innovator Labs will work to ignite an “innovator identity” in kids roughly 10 to 15, Saba said. These creative and innovative spaces will teach children about the human body, biomedical engineering and 3D printing.

The program will also come with scholarships beyond just tuition support for students, Saba said. The scholarship program will include added benefits such as mentorship from Medtronic employees and help with resume building.

“We’re going to have wrap-around services,” Saba said.

In the long term, the program is also establishing a free, global credential. Youth around the world can take up the program after high school to become eligible for jobs at companies such as Medtronic, Saba said.

The credential program would be an industry first for medtech, Saba said. The program is an opportunity for the medtech industry to work together as a collective, she said.

Saba wouldn’t say how much the company is investing in the program. “But the foundation will be dedicating its full granting capacity to this work,” she added. The foundation disbursed about $20 million in 2023 for charitable purposes on a cash basis, according to a tax filling.

Saba said the company set the ambitious goal of reaching 1 million low-income students, as it needs a large funnel in order to make an impact with a smaller group of students.

“In the math of scholarships, you’ve got to touch 20,000 in order to get 10 applicants,” Saba said.

Saba hopes the majority of the 1 million students will receive credentials and that some participants end up joining the company.

“The corporate world needs to not only make money, but also give back,” Saba said. “And that’s in our mission.”

Matthew Lewis, the vice president of partnership strategy at business chamber Greater MSP, said the Medtronic program is aligned with workforce needs in Minnesota. “We need a lot more people working in health care and medical technology,” he said.

“We need completely new, a little bit outside-of-the-box solutions,” Lewis added.

Smith, the top Medtronic recruiter, said younger workers are mission-conscious. The company, he said, will “have to negotiate with tradition” moving forward and use different pathways to find talent.

“Our mission around alleviating pain, restoring health, and extending life — that, I think, can be a huge advantage to us, and it certainly is when we communicate to them," Smith said.