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Matchmaking
Florida has lots of non-college-bound students, and employers have plenty of high-paying, skilled labor jobs for them. The problem is matching employers with potential hires.
Florida has lots of non-college-bound students, and employers have plenty of high-paying, skilled-labor jobs for them. The problem is matching employers with potential employees.
 "I needed to do something that was more of a career." — Tillman Lee Nelson III |
Meanwhile, only 16% of this month’s freshman high school class will earn a bachelor’s degree by 2017.
Hmmm. Jobs that don’t require college. People without a college education. It should be a marriage made in the marketplace. But getting employers who offer those high-wage, high-demand jobs together with prospective workers is proving as star-crossed as romance in a Victorian novel, complicated by parental expectations, awkward gaps in educational attainment and missed opportunities aplenty. Says Rodney Miller, head of FPL Group’s Juno Beach-based education and training effort, “There’s a huge shortage of specialized, trained, skilled craft workers.”
As abundant “Now Hiring” signs at fast-food joints testify, finding even unskilled workers is a challenge. (In May, despite the real estate slowdown, the state posted a 3.4% unemployment rate, continuing a trend of being a full percentage point under the national unemployment rate.) But filling jobs that require substantial skills training is even more difficult. Florida’s economy is “going from less skilled to more skilled,” says Curtis Austin, president of Workforce Florida, which directs the state’s workforce programs and services. “The biggest issue is you don’t have enough warm bodies.”
To bridge the gap, Florida increasingly is taking on the role of preparing workers for and matching them with employers of skilled labor. The state is ramping up technical education offerings throughout its education and workforce systems. Seventeen counties across Florida either have or are planning to add a CHOICE program [“Learn, Then Earn,” page 72]. Also expanding are the Employ Florida Banner Center skilled labor training centers that launched in earnest last year. The 10 centers aim to provide more workers for critical state sectors [“Banner Years,” page 79]. Some centers focus on long-established industry needs such as manufacturing while others represent a state economic wish fulfillment plan for jobs Florida wants more than has, such as in biotechnology. There’s even a matchmaking website, employflorida.com. “I think we would be remiss if we didn’t try to get ahead of the curve,” says Andra Cornelius, Workforce Florida’s vice president for business outreach.
