The Florida Chamber Foundation’s 2017 Future of Florida Forum brought business leaders, industry experts, and elected officials together to discuss the issues impacting the Sunshine State. Data suggests that by 2030, Florida will add six million more residents. Will our roads and bridges be ready? Will we have enough clean water, energy capacity and infrastructure to guarantee vibrant and sustainable communities throughout the state? While Florida continues to enjoy robust job growth across sectors now, what about the future? The Florida Consortium of Metropolitan Research Universities hosted the College to Career Statewide Employability Summit during the Future of Florida Forum to gauge higher education’s role in the future of the state and workplace. The session took a deep dive on:
- Career readiness solutions universities currently offer
- Ways to further connect employers to higher education
- Handshake, a cloud-based career management system
- Tangible next steps
Key takeaways and suggestions from the summit:
- College & universities should connect with nonprofits and small to medium businesses. They can host experiential projects that will help students gain work experience and practice “soft skills”
- Business communications is critical for students. They have to be able to convey their leadership experience (i.e. via hobbies or sports)
- Large employers want to engage students through in-class presentations and small group discussion (in addition to career fairs). These alternative activities often lead to jobs.
- Handshake is a game changer that very few know about. Universities should use local college access networks, chamber of commerce, economic development organizations, nonprofit leadership associations and community foundations to spread the word about this powerful tool
Special thanks to leaders from the following organizations for their time and candor during the College to Career Statewide Employability Summit:
- Curley & Pynn
- Deloitte Consulting
- Department of Economic Opportunity
- Enterprise Holdings
- Florida College Access Network
- Florida High Tech Corridor
- Florida International University
- Handshake
- Junior Achievement of Central Florida
- Little Diversified Architectural Consulting
- Marriott Vacations Worldwide
- Orange County Government
- State University System of Florida, Board of Governors
- University of Central Florida
- University of South Florida
Up Next from the Florida Consortium:
- Doubling Florida Jobs Virtual Seminar, October 13, 2017
- Virtual Career Fair – November 2, 2017
- National Student Success Conference, February 21-23, 2017