From MNPS Classrooms to Careers: Enterprise Solutions Invests in Nashville’s Future, Margaret Anne Byerly receives the Ingram Award

When Enterprise Solutions’ Margaret Anne Byerly accepted the Ingram Award at PENCIL’s Back to School Breakfast, she shared her gratitude for an honor that recognizes more than individual achievement. For the Nashville native and Enterprise Solutions leader, it also reflects a commitment to creating meaningful career opportunities for the next generation of Nashvillians.

Margaret Anne has seen firsthand how Nashville has grown, and she believes everyone should have the opportunity to participate in that growth. That belief is at the heart of Enterprise Solutions’ partnership with MNPS, which introduces students to careers in the skilled trades, engineering and related fields.

Through weekly job-shadowing opportunities, MNPS students gain hands-on exposure to mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) careers and engineering work at Enterprise’s Integrated Design and Manufacturing (IDM) shop. But the partnership doesn’t end with exposure: Enterprise also hires students directly from local high schools and provides a pathway to careers through its fully funded Work-Learn-Earn apprenticeship program.

The four-year program allows employees to earn while they learn, building trade skills and leadership experience without taking on student debt. Since Enterprise launched its partnership with Overton High School in 2021, a growing number of MNPS graduates have joined the company and are developing into future leaders.

At the Back to School Breakfast, Senior Director of IDM Bo DelGaicco introduced eight former MNPS students who are now part of Enterprise’s team, including apprentices and prefab helpers from Whites Creek and Overton high schools.

For Margaret Anne, their success represents exactly what workforce development can, and should, look like: opening doors, building skills and creating opportunities that can benefit students, their families and Nashville for generations to come.

“It’s not just about exposing students to a career,” Margaret Anne said. “It’s about giving them a foot in the door and setting them up for success.”