The key to the future success and growth of major metropolitan areas like Miami-Dade County is retaining and further developing talented students and workers. More companies are choosing locations for establishing or expanding operations based on the availability of talent rather than the traditional draws of infrastructure and low business costs.
One example is General Electric’s move to relocate its global headquarters to Boston from Fairfield, Connecticut last year largely due to the area’s available tech talent despite the high cost of living. In Miami, a qualified workforce helped keep global aviation distributor KLX Aerospace Solutions here rather than relocating to Memphis or Phoenix.
Miami’s ability to attract and retain qualified workers may represent our area’s greatest resource. Our city is ranked second in the nation as the top spot for millennials. The Miami-Dade area is also one of the largest “college towns” in the country with more than 250,000 students in local universities and colleges. Miami Dade College also has the largest undergraduate enrollment of any college or university in the country. Most communities would be thrilled to have one research university, while we have two “R1: Doctoral Universities,” which are schools with the highest research activities in the country: Florida International University (FIU) and the University of Miami (UM). Our colleges and universities are a pipeline for talent, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Miami’s academic and business leaders are working together to further develop our educated and talented workforce through programs that facilitate continuous interaction between the business and educational communities. These initiatives emphasize the exchange of ideas and the development of an in-depth understanding regarding the changing needs of local, national and international economies.
One newest initiative is the Academic Leaders Council’s (ALC) which was formed as part of the One Community One Goal (OCOG) communitywide strategic plan in an effort to diversify the local economy and add high-paying jobs. This group of academic leaders which comprises the presidents of our local major colleges and universities plus the Superintendent of Schools, is laser-focused on preparing our workforce for tomorrow’s jobs. The new Chair of the ALC, Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools Alberto M. Carvalho, has already brought national prominence to our local educational system and now takes over this important initiative from Dr. Mark Rosenberg, President of Florida International University; Dr. Julio Frenk, President of the University of Miami is Chair-elect of the ALC.
The ALC is one of very few such groups of local educational leaders in the nation who are tasked with focusing specifically on developing a community’s talent pool to meet the business demands of the future.
Armed with recommendations from the OCOG report to better align educational opportunities with growth industries that provide high-paying jobs, the ALC members have modified curriculum and class selection offerings, with a focus on creating more opportunities for internships. They launched the Talent Development Network, (TDNMiami.com) for businesses to share internship opportunities with students from all the local universities and colleges.
As the County’s official economic development partnership, the Miami-Dade Beacon Council is also working to this end with alternative providers of education, such as various computer coding boot camps like Wyncode and others. They provide a powerful means by which talent can be quickly re-trained to take advantage of the changing workplace needs. As technology inevitably changes our workforce landscape with increasing frequency, this education agility will be critical to our local economic development.
The collaboration and positive outcomes have already received rave reviews.
Tim Rowe, CEO and founder of the Cambridge Innovation Center, told a business group of Miami-Dade’s efforts: “I’ve been to many communities around the country, but I’ve never seen such a strong collaboration between academia and the businesses. Congratulations to your leaders for hitting on a unique and impactful idea that will make both commerce and the local population prosper in the future.”
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.
