Florida Colleges Focus on The Future

We caught up with Florida College System Chancellor Madeline Pumariega and four of Florida’s college presidents to discuss how Florida’s colleges can help connect the right talent to businesses, both regionally and around the state. Click below to hear the full interviews.

Part One – Chancellor Pumariega: Meeting Florida’s Talent Pipeline Needs

“If you think about the students that are in our colleges today- we are actually beginning to train for the job of tomorrow.”

“The [Florida Chamber Foundation’s Florida] Jobs 2030 report gives us a blueprint… [Florida Jobs] 2030 gives us a little bit of outlook- it says, here are these five emerging industries, how are we going to be ready? And it also gives us a little bit of the time to say how are we going to build K-12 partnerships, how are we going to make seamless transition from certificates that lead right into associates, and associates that lead right into baccalaureates, that meet the workforce. The [Florida Jobs] 2030 report, one, is data driven and that’s the best decision making we can do. Second, I think it has the outlook of Florida- Florida in 2030 not just Florida today.

 

If you think about the students that are in our colleges today- we are actually beginning to train for the job of tomorrow. That job pretty much doesn’t exist today… [Florida Jobs] 2030 report gives us that information, let’s us plan, let’s us be strategic and I think then align resources and investments to meet the talent pipeline of Florida for 2030.”

Chancellor Madeline Pumariega

We met with several presidents of Florida’s colleges and got their thoughts on the partnerships between Florida’s colleges and Florida’s business community.

Click the videos below to hear more.

Part Two: Chancellor Pumariega to Business Leaders- We Are Here

“We are here. We are ready to listen. We are ready to put together programs. And that’s where we’re partners in the work together.”

Chancellor Pumariega on attainment:

“If you’re a business thinking about coming to Florida, they know attainment. Because they want to know the adults in a community that are 25 and older- how many of them have a post-secondary credential. That means do they have a certificate, do they have an associates or they have a bachelors or beyond? That begins to give a business an idea of what their talent pipeline looks like. So attainment for a business that is looking to come to Florida or to grow in Florida is really important.”

Chancellor Pumariega to businesses:

“We are here. We are ready to listen. We are ready to put together programs. We need to consider how do we look at internships, paid internships and how do we create meaningful real life experiences for students, because that begins to address the whole student- not only the academic skills that they need, the business skills, but also those soft skills that we so often hear about. And that’s where we’re partners in the work together. But we work for you and we want to produce the right gradate and the right employee for you and the right leader. We are partners in this.”