Wherever you are across the country, you’ll find job creation is a topic of concern in every political cycle. The unemployment rate is a measure of our nation’s overall welfare and unfilled jobs (especially entry level) are a measure of the fit between local industry and the local education system.
And there is always government funding available for job creation from a conceptual level, but is that funding being used in a way that is most likely to build equity and close the local skills gap? Perhaps not.
In this article, we’ll look at the Workforce.Miami initiative and how it may be the perfect model for replication in your local community, whether big or small.
Workforce.Miami Purpose
You guessed it. Building equity and connecting local businesses with the local population is the name of the game. On its surface, Workforce.Miami looks like a Miami job board.
But unlike a well-known global job site like Indeed, the whole community came together to provide support services for both job seekers and employers and that’s different.
Who Is Behind Workforce.Miami?
When you’ve got the right stakeholders, you can launch an initiative like this and immediately have a large user base. Here’s who partnered to bring this initiative to life:
Local Government
Future Ready, an initiative of the Mayor Daniella Levin Cava’s office, sponsored the whole initiative.
Miami-Dade County put their muscle behind the initiative using their employer data to be sure that the relevant public employers got onboard quickly and that the private employers were identified and invited to participate immediately.
The Big Public Employers
When the local government is involved, the local public employers follow quickly and that makes it easy to get a large set of open, well-paid jobs. Just like in the private sector, large public institutes face a skills gap and hiring challenges. The Miami area is no different.
Private Employers
Once the word was out within the public sector, the private sector wanted to participate as well. As a client using Port of Miami real estate, Seaboard Marine immediately wanted to support the initiative and get their jobs posted and start closing their talent gap.
Seaboard Marine took it a step further by becoming a named partner in the initiative.
And big private employers are signing up as soon as they hear about this initiative!
A Local Workforce Initiative and Apprenticeship Sponsor
Attention! This is where you come in.
On this partnership, the goals were clear. But who was going to build the technology infrastructure to house the jobs and connect all the support services in a seamless way to maximize benefits for both employers and job seekers?
On this project, Miami EdTech, a local 501(c)3 played the connect role. They brought the technology know how to build the job board app under the workforce.miami domain and they connected all the workflows so that everyone could direct job seekers through the registration process, upskilling process, and more.
And Miami EdTech’s role with regards to apprenticeships is important to highlight. Miami EdTech has been consulting with local firms about how to create compliant registered apprenticeships and unlock all of the grants and other benefits of apprenticeships.
So they provided the support services directly or the digital connectors to get job seekers into other local programs.
For employers, they provide the support with importing traditional W2 jobs but also educating employers about why what they really need is to get in the RAP game (launch a registered apprenticeship).
The Apprenticeship, Internship, & Pre-Apprenticeship Management System
A graduate of Miami EdTech’s incubator, GoSprout was chosen to underpin as the apprenticeship tracking and coordination and facilitates pre-apprenticeship and internship management as well.
We’re extremely proud to provide the apprenticeship coordination tools to Miami companies launching apprenticeships.
Job Seeker Experience
Searching a typical job board as someone with big aspirations but not quite there on education or experience can be really demoralizing. Yes, you can apply to jobs that you’re clearly not qualified for.
Yes, you can apply for jobs that don’t pay what you want.
But if you want to apply for jobs that are well-paid and for which you aren’t quite qualified, what options do you have?
With Workforce.Miami, the support services are baked in. Upskilling is available via the certifications track, which is influenced directly by the employers in the Miami community.
Employer Experience
With most job boards, you post a job and if you find the applicant you want, great. If you don’t, you keep posting and more and more places hoping you’ll find them.
Workforce.Miami takes the more realistic stance that, like in many communities across the nation, the right candidates simply don’t exist to fill all the needed full-time positions, but within a couple of years, that problem could be solved.
In the meantime, launching registered apprenticeships in the skilled trades required, electrician, welding, solar, etc., will get great workers on the job, producing real work under direct supervision, and getting the training they’ll need to work independently upon graduation.
And employers who launch apprenticeships can take advantage of grants and tax breaks to make programs very ROI-positive.
Community Experience
Job boards traditionally are very focused on work for high school and/or college graduates. If you don’t have a college degree, you don’t qualify for most of the jobs you’ll find there.
Workforce.Miami and the initiative you can launch in your community will surface apprenticeship opportunities where people who could and should have college degrees and more importantly, the skills the community needs can start on a career path today.
Want to Replicate This Model?
Talk to Miami EdTech about your community and the steps taken to bring Workforce.Miami together.
Miami EdTech is taking it’s mission across the nation as a super sponsor of computer science apprenticeship programs and will be happy to assist you in getting your program and it doesn’t have to be about CS. Workforce.Miami is open to all career paths.
