Nearly 10-years ago, FocusMaine founded a partnership with Educate Maine that resulted in our flagship workforce initiative known today as Maine Career Catalyst. It is with pride and excitement for the future that we announce that the program will fully transition to Educate Maine.

Maine Career Catalyst is a talent attraction and retention initiative that offers a series of programs and events to encourage interns spending their summer in Maine to consider pursuing their career and finding their place here in Maine after graduation.

At the inception of the program, FocusMaine convened some of Maine’s largest employers to develop a solution to Maine’s “brain drain,” which refers to the pattern of young people leaving Maine to find their careers due to a perceived lack of career opportunities in the state. The program, initially called the FocusMaine Internship Experience and now known as Maine Career Catalyst (MCC), enrolls interns from companies across the state and invites them to network with other interns while they explore Maine, engage in leadership training, and begin to build an affinity for the Maine way of life. Educate Maine was identified as the natural partner to help develop and implement this initiative, and together we identified relevant and trackable metrics to measure impact.

MCC has matured over the years and today hosts more than 20 summer events at locations across the state from panel discussions and workshops to activities that allow participants to explore Maine’s natural beauty. The data shows that the more programs events the interns attend throughout the summer, the more positively they rate their internship experience and Maine as a place to live and work. In 2025, a record 524 interns were enrolled by 140 different employers, both small and large, from areas across the state. At the end of the summer, 73% of interns reported they would like to pursue a career in Maine.

2026 marks the 9th year of the 10-year FocusMaine initiative and we are making plans to sustain the impact we have catalyzed. Educate Maine has been a strong and reliable partner. Their seasoned staff are exceptional stewards of the program and we are confident that, with future funding, they will continue to lead and expand this program, making a real difference in the workforce available to Maine employers.

Thank you to all of our funders, partners, and friends who have believed in FocusMaine and Maine Career Catalyst along the way. We are excited to watch the continued growth of the program and look forward to welcoming more young talent to Maine.

Sincerely,

Andrea Cianchette Maker
Co-Founder and President, FocusMaine

Michael Dubyak
Co-Founder, FocusMaine
Former President, CEO, and Chairman, WEX Inc.