May is an exciting month as many of our students are graduating from local universities and colleges – eager to enter the workforce. And our high school seniors are counting the days to a momentous moment in time – their graduation. As a community, we want to make sure that we have great opportunities for our graduates in the years to come. One Community One Goal (OCOG) is helping make that aspiration a reality.
One Community One Goal – a game-changing community strategic plan designed by the businesses and residents of Miami-Dade County – is helping shape the future of the local economy. Over the last five years, OCOG, led by the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, has been working on solving a variety of challenges in our community. On July 19, OCOG will present its Annual Report to the Community to showcase past results and to share a vision for the coming years. The event is free and open to the public to ensure the broadest participation of our community. This year’s event theme is innovation.
OCOG was created by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce in the 1990s and it is now in its second iteration. It continues to rally our community around a common, implementable, and collaborative vision. That is, to make sure that we have a business-friendly, sustainable economy that will benefit our companies and individual employees throughout Miami-Dade County.
One of the major components of the plan is to grow seven key target industries to help diversify the economy. These target industries, Aviation, Banking & Finance, Creative Design, Hospitality & Tourism, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Technology, and Trade & Logistics, are thriving and creating higher paying jobs. Over the past five years, each one had double digit employment growth led by a 38 percent increase in the technology sector.
Our goal in 2012 was to support the increase of employment in all industry sectors by 75,000 jobs in five years. Miami-Dade surpassed that goal with 111,000 jobs in just four years.
One of the big changes we have seen in the last few years is companies asking about the availability of qualified employees (i.e. talent). To help Miami-Dade stand out as a talent hub, OCOG has created the Talent Development Network (www.tdnmiami.com). A one-stop-internship-shop, the Talent Development Network portal gives employers the ability to reach students at any of the seven local academic institutions for no cost and gives students from across Miami-Dade access to top notch paid internships.
Academic Leaders Council (ALC), which is comprised of the presidents of Barry University, Florida International University, Florida Memorial University, Miami Dade College, St. Thomas University and the University of Miami and the Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, works alongside the Miami-Dade Beacon Council and industry partners, to build and retain talent, and align academic curriculum with industry needs in South Florida.
We attribute these accomplishments and more to the unprecedented support of our community. We could not have achieved this success without your help.
What’s next? What are OCOG’s future goals?
● OCOG has sought greater community inclusion and input by conducting mini-events during the year in every part of the county;
● OCOG will hit the “refresh” button in July to determine the best approach for creating new, high-paying jobs in the target industries;
● OCOG will continue to encourage businesses, community organizations and all residents to become and stay involved with the strategic program by taking on projects, participating in finding solutions and being ambassadors for our community-wide initiative.
OCOG is a national model for community collaboration to build prosperity for all residents in Miami-Dade County. Stay involved and help us shape the future of our community. Your engagement will help our graduates secure the higher-paying jobs of today and tomorrow. You make the difference.
For information, visit:
www.beaconcouncil.com/one-community-one-goal-reports-information.
Jaret L. Davis is the Chair of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, Miami-Dade’s Official Economic Development Partnership, and Co-Managing Shareholder of Greenberg Traurig, Miami Office.
