Miami’s $10 Million Bet on Tech Talent
This is the April 18, 2023 edition of the Opportunity Miami newsletter written by Matt Haggman, which we send every Tuesday. Click here to subscribe to get our weekly updates in your inbox.
Featured Content
Interview: A three-year initiative to transform tech talent development in Miami
Watch our interview with Terri-Ann Brown of Miami Tech Works on fortifying the local tech talent pipeline.
Event: Climate Tech Conversations — Venture Capital
Join us on April 25th for a series of panel discussions with leading climate tech investors. Sign up here.
The need to develop tech talent remains acute as Miami’s tech community continues its rapid ascent. This week the vitality of Miami’s tech scene will be on full display with eMerge Americas and Miami Tech Summit. A recent analysis by software financial services firm Stripe¹ named Miami as a leading startup city, declaring that “Miami’s growth has indeed been quite striking.”
But this moment also presents the opportunity to ensure local residents are able to build the skills to be part of it, expanding opportunity and propelling social mobility in neighborhoods across Greater Miami.
To Terri-Ann Brown, Director of Miami Tech Works, it’s that second part which is at the heart of Miami Tech Works. “I want to make sure tech is an open pathway for everyone,” she said.
For our latest Opportunity Miami Interview, we sat down with Brown to discuss the program, the tasks and timeline ahead, how people and companies can participate, and the success she ultimately hopes the program will achieve. You can watch it here:
A KEY MOMENT
Miami Tech Works is a three-year bet on developing tech talent in Miami. The timing could hardly be better, nor the possibilities greater.
An initiative led by Miami Dade College, it was awarded $10 million by the Good Jobs Challenge, a federal program under the U.S. Department of Commerce aimed at catalyzing transformative, local-led talent development efforts. The challenge is part of the $3 billion American Rescue Plan, which Congress passed and was signed into law in 2021.
MDC — which pursued the grant with a host of community partners, including Miami-Dade Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County, City of Miami, OIC of South Florida, among them — is one of 32 winners across the U.S. More than 500 applicants nationally applied for the funding.
A SINGULAR OPPORTUNITY
The Good Jobs Challenge and American Rescue Plan are part of the array of federal legislation passed in recent years — Infrastructure Investment & Job Act, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act — that’s making unprecedented levels of funding available to cities to do everything from getting more households connected to the Internet to transitioning to electric vehicles or increasing domestic manufacturing of semiconductors.
For Miami, the prospect of winning its share of this enormous federal funding now available is a singular opportunity. The Good Jobs Challenge presents a big win for Miami in this larger effort.
But now, of course, comes the work of developing and implementing the program. Brown said it will be in three phases over three years.
First, bringing together employers. To do that, Miami Tech Works is establishing a Tech Talent Coalition. The first meeting was held in February. Employers interested can email miamitechworks@mdc.edu or go to Refresh Miami’s site on the Tech Talent Coalition to learn more.
Second, understand and detail employers’ talent needs for the future and how, working with educational institutions, those needs can best be met.
Then the third phase, which is the longest phase and starts at the end of this year, is the program implementation phase.
But what the program will look like and how it will be implemented are being determined now in conversations with employers and educational institutions. It can take any number of forms — from designing new courses that meet employers talent needs or scholarships for students to developing job placement programs that better connect job-seeker and job-hirer. This is where the bulk of the money will be spent.
Ultimately, the aim is to place 1,000 students over the next three years in tech jobs. Longer term, the hope is that a model will be established that will put many more in tech jobs.
“Hopefully, the work that we’re doing now with the Tech Talent Coalition is forecasting what those potential jobs are for the kids of the future as Miami’s tech scene continues to grow,” said Brown.
TOP CLIMATE TECH VCs in MIAMI
Next week we will join the World Climate Tech Summit, along with the University of Miami and M+D Advisors, to present a gathering of leading climate tech venture capital investors in the world. We will have investors from 2150 VC, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, and VoLo Earth Ventures. The program will be from 3 to 5 pm on Tuesday, April 25. You can sign up to join us by RSVPing here.
As ever, we would love to hear what’s on your mind. You can email us at next@opportunity.miami. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can subscribe here. We also invite you to subscribe to YouTube and follow us on social media channels.
Matt
