Southwest Florida Business today publisher Karen Moore chatted with Lee County Economic Development Director John Talmage about how Southwest Florida’s future workforce development needs will be influenced by the companies locating here and how they connect with our local education system. Below is a transcript from their conversation, which has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Karen: So what is the biggest positive impact on the local economy that came from Hurricane Ian?
Talmage: Well, I think the biggest positive has been the diversity of corporate relocations that continue to occur, and in some ways, even accelerated, that you know, enough of the community was held together in Bonita and Estero for people to continue to purchase homes there. And so we added companies like Kingland, Convergint, Donna Jo Brands, to our inventory. And those companies are continuing to do well. Not only have they moved here, opened up offices here; in several cases, they've opened up their national headquarters here, as well.
Karen: Of all the commercial projects going on in Lee County right now, that you can discuss, what projects excite you the most?
Talmage: Kingland and it's 100 high-end jobs in software manufacturing and computer design is maybe the one that interests me the most right now. That's going to positively force FGCU to begin exploring doctorate programs and advanced master programs in computational sciences, which they are very happy to do and they are doing. So, we're going to create a new educational sector from this initiative, a new production sector and a new intellectual property sector based on having this company headquartered here.
Kingland makes the security system that allows the New York Stock Exchange to talk to the SEC. So, complex, multi-user systems with the need for talking securely to government regulatory agencies.
Karen: That is a big deal. That's a big company. And now I'm finally really beginning to understand, John, how your intent all along has been to work in conjunction with the local university, the local secondary education system to provide the education and to provide the workforce we need. So you're not constantly fighting what you used to hear from companies when you first got here: “We'd love to come here, but you don't have the workforce for us.”
Talmage: Our challenge, Karen, is that we're going to have to create 200,000 new workers, the next three to five years, to fill both exiting workforce jobs, workers retiring, and new growth, and across every single sector. And so the challenge for us, and FGCU and FSW and our other educational partners at the school board, is really being laser focused on micro-credentialing.
It was fun to go to the FGCU basketball game with President Timur and watch one of her senior staffers be interviewed by ESPN on micro-credentialing, of all things.
So, the time has come. FGCU has emerged as a national leader in this field.
Really, we’re using a grant that started off with the Economic Development Office provided with ARPA funds. And so that that led them to secure the $23 million EDA (Economic Development Administration) grant that has now allowed them to create now a national reputation in this space.
Karen: That's the most exciting thing, how all those things are pulling together to be able to revolutionize our region from an economic standpoint, because it's going to give us so many more opportunities that we didn't have before. And it took all of those factors that you just mentioned, to make that happen.
Talmage: And we don't have the time to make sure everyone gets a full four-year-degree before they start working. But if you can get a six-week micro-credential in senior care or cybersecurity or coding and can get to work — while you're pursuing a degree — then that will go a long way to go into that, that deficit that we're going to see very soon.
Karen Moore is publisher of Southwest Florida Business Today and special to WGCU.
