We’re training tech talent and we want them to stay. Here’s how the Miami Tech Talent Coalition is helping
Right here in South Florida, “we need opportunities for entrepreneurs to find a home, to find a community where their companies can grow and thrive,” Terri-Ann Brown, Director of Miami Tech Works, told the crowd gathered for the 12th full-group meeting of Miami Tech Works’ Miami Tech Talent Coalition last week.
She was speaking at The LAB Miami, an organization that has been a leader and mainstay in the tech community since its humble beginnings in 2012, but now runs two large locations for the tech community to co-work, learn, network and grow together in Wynwood. She told the full-house crowd that the homegrown organization “speaks a lot to the resilience and the grit of the people that recognize that we need spaces like this” and she urged the tech community to continue to show the grit and resilience that South Florida is known for as the community grows and evolves.
For its part, Miami Tech Works’ Miami Tech Talent Coalition is focused on connecting Miami’s emerging talent from our universities, colleges and coding bootcamps with local opportunities in tech. Local is the key word here. Unfortunately, too much of our entry-level talent studies here and then gets whisked away to companies in California, Seattle, New York and so on. “We’re actually building a town in San Francisco, Chicago and New York. We need to keep the town here in Miami,” said Ayal Stern, co-founder of the Lab Miami along with Danny Lafuente, Cris Daniels and Goldman Properties.
To this end, Miami Tech Works, which was initially funded with a $10 million grant from the US Economic Development Administration, has made significant progress in creating pathways for students interested in tech and forging connections with employers. Through Miami Tech Works’ assistance in the past two years, over 2,000 participants have enrolled in tech-aligned training programs, and 415 of them have already been placed in high-demand full-time tech roles across business, logistics, leadership and more, Brown announced
And while Miami Tech Works’ Gap Report sheds much light on the issue of retention, one issue in retaining local emerging talent as they graduate is that the great majority of businesses in the Miami area are small businesses that may not have processes in place for finding and training their tech talent. Part of the Coalition’s work is to help those small businesses (as well as larger businesses) find and train entry level talent through internships, apprenticeships and other ways that offer pathways to tech employment. The Coalition provides funding for that and even has a working group devoted to small businesses.
“One of our key focuses is to get as many of our participants that have gone through technology training programs hands on, relevant work-based learning opportunities. And the only way to do that is to create these collision points with entrepreneurs, with startups, with our corporate entities,” said Brown [pictured above]. To do this, Miami Tech Works has partnered with Miami Dade College, Florida International University, Florida Memorial University, OIC of South Florida, and several South Florida bootcamps.
Recently, Miami Tech Works funded its first cohort of AI and digital marketing through Creative Hub. “All of the participants that started the program completed. They all reported wonderful outcomes in terms of being able to implement right away their learnings in AI and data analytics when it comes to marketing,” Brown said.
More updates: The Miami Tech Coalition is launching the Miami Tech Works EPIC Challenge in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a 5-week innovation sprint connecting local employers with student teams to solve real-world problems. The first round kicks off June 20 with companies like Syneurgy and AllPeeP on board, said Jonathan Adell, Miami Tech Works Grant Coordinator .
What’s more, starting in the fall, the coalition is launching a series of Miami Tech Works employer workshops where big and small companies will receive hands-on training in emerging technologies and upskilling strategies to help grow their businesses. The coalition also co-sponsored the Talent Connect event led by Radical Partners, which brought together employers and jobseekers for interactive networking, storytelling, and hiring opportunities and served as a powerful example of coalition-driven collaboration in action, Adell said.
Challenges ahead
There’s been much written about AI downsizing the need for entry-level talent. Brown says our education institutions and training providers are looking at it a different way: How can they ensure that by the time participants have completed the programs, they are ready for these roles? How can they enhance the experience and curriculum of the participants so that they’re better prepared for the new roles that AI is requiring?
Also, while Miami Tech Works’ Gap Report sheds much light on the importance of keeping our emerging talent here after graduation, one issue is that the great majority of business in the Miami area are small businesses that may not have processes in place for finding and training their tech talent. Part of the Coalition’s work is to help those small businesses (as well as larger businesses) find entry level talent through work projects, internships, tinternships and apprenticeships that offer pathways to tech employment. The Coalition even has a working group devoted to small businesses.
At the meeting on Thursday, the coalition also gave four small businesses a chance to introduce themselves with short presentations: Nelly Ortiz, co-founder of SPARK Founders; Zachary Pinder, founder of Lineout, a branding and storytelling agency; Tena Palomino, co-founder at JS Careers, and Shammae Shackleford, founder of Shammae Photography, who by the way is also a recent graduate of Creative Hub.
After that. The Coalition broke up into the four workgroups. Three out of four of these groups, Emerging Tech Talent Small Business Capacity and Tech Skills Gap, have been working tother for two years, meeting monthly. One of them, called the Talent Pipeline Management Work Group, has formed this year.
Working group updates
The Talent Pipeline Management Work Group is a curated group of South Florida employers and organizations that are learning a talent pipeline management strategy that is funded for the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation with a grant from Walmart. Through the TPM Core Lab, which is an online platform that offers the training, 20 participants from Miami Tech Works are participating in the program, and Miami tech Works has extended the training opportunity to Palm Beach State College and Broward College.
The Coalition hosted the first in-person meeting of its TPM Academy of Miami cohort, where employers from across the region gathered to align on talent pipeline strategies using the U.S. Chamber’s Talent Pipeline Management framework. “It marked a major step toward building a more coordinated, data-driven approach to workforce development in Miami,” said Jon Adell, Miami Tech Works Grant Coordinator.
Here are some highlights from the other Work Groups:
Ken Finneran, VP of human resources at eMed and co-chair of the Emerging Talent Work Group, highlighted a project already underway, in which the group will be compiling a list of universities and training partners along with a description of key talent programs as well as the respective liaisons at each institution to facilitate easy contact and collaboration.
While this was acknowledged as a good first step, other working group members proposed more of a platform, on which the emerging talent could gain and highlight essential skills, seek out programs, partners (education and employers) and get matched accordingly, Finneran said. Some said the platform could serve as a “clearing house” for employer projects and matching emerging talents to those internship opportunities. Some also suggested that the site could incorporate mandatory pre-work as a “hurdle” showing interest, follow-through, and commitment prior to the engagement with the employer.
“All of these suggestions are coming at a time when emerging talents, including recent university graduates and coding boot camp participants, are facing the most daunting job market prospects in the last decade due to macro-economic considerations as well as advancements in AI, which have taken over many of the data entry and repetitive tasks often performed by interns and entry-level talent previously,” Finneran said.
The Tech Skills Gap Work Group discussed that our community seems to have a gap in what employers understand about our academic and training providers and the quality talent they are graduating. They believe the coalition can be a useful vehicle in helping employers understand the programs and talent in our ecosystem and build strong and transformational partnerships with academic institutions, said Caryn Lavernia, VP of Lab22c, the facilitator for Miami Tech Works.
“Employers have a range of skills they are seeking – from junior level UX/UI to very senior level machine learning engineers. The transformational partnership between employers and academic institutions can support all types of employers as they may be able to help influence curricular offerings,” Lavernia said.
The Small Business Capacity Work Group welcomed 10 new employers, said Yaimara Roman Gonzalez, Grant Project Manager for Miami Tech Works. Each had the opportunity to introduce themselves and expressed enthusiasm about networking and connecting within the Miami Tech ecosystem. A brief overview of Miami Tech Works was shared, followed by an engaging discussion about the upcoming EPIC program, launching June 20 in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This 5-week sprint will connect local employers with student teams to co-create solutions to real-world business challenges. The group expressed strong interest in the EPIC program and is looking forward to participating in the next Coalition meeting.
If you are an employer in South Florida in need of tech employees and have not joined the coalition yet, there is still time. Join a Miami Tech Talent Coalition working group here.
The Coalition hosted 20 new companies at its meeting last week. The next Tech Talent Coalition meeting will be in early September. Stay tuned for the date.
At the meeting, Brown also unveiled Miami Tech Works’ latest video. View it below.
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