Ranking third nationally for IT Jobs, Florida has seen a dramatic increase in demand for skilled IT Professionals. With this spike, the demand for IT professionals coming from the Florida education system is at an all-time high as well. With its close proximity to LATAM, Florida has the potential to become the largest state for IT Jobs as the LATAM market continues to expand, bringing many US headquarters to Florida. With these incentives, having homegrown talent ready and able to meet the demand is essential to continued growth in the IT sector of Florida as a whole.
Today, as part of a coordinated effort to improve the Florida Education System, Florida Board of Governors presented Florida Atlantic University, Broward Collage and Palm Beach Collage a Targeted Educational Attainment (TEAm) Grant for the CAPTURE Project (Computer Accelerated Pipeline to Unlock Regional Excellence). The funds will be used to assist the colleges in increasing the number of Computer Science and Computer Engineering graduates coming out of the three schools. The grant, $3.5 million, will be spent on a coordinated effort by the colleges to help a projected 400 additional students to receive the education they need to successfully join the workforce as IT Professionals. Through the partnership, admissions for transfer students between the colleges will be streamlined, new courses on a cyber-learning platforms will be introduced, shared advising will be offered, curriculum will be unified to make transfers easier, math boot camp will be implemented and flexible course schedules will be available to accommodate those that are earning their education while in the workforce.
Speakers included John Kelly, President of Florida Atlantic University; Norman Tripp, Member of the Florida Board of Governors; Gary Perry, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Florida Atlantic University; J. David Armstrong, Jr. , President of Broward College; Dennis P. Gallon, President of Palm Beach State College; and Daniel Cane, CEO and Co-Founder of Modernizing Medicine.
From an IT Staffing perspective, the need for additional funding, including grants like the TEAm Grant, are vital to Florida’s workforce infrastructure. For more information on the TEAm Grants and the colleges receiving part of the $200 million in total funding, visit http://www.flbog.edu/about/commission.php
