SRQ Daily Columnist Vicki Vega is the Initiative Manager for the Talent4Tomorrow Partnership at The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce

Despite recent hype to the contrary, it’s a documented fact that “the more you learn, the more you earn.” Scarborough Research and the U.S. Dept of Labor independently agree that this is the case. Here are a few more salient facts as we outline a formula for a more successful community:

• The average cost of a high school dropout is estimated to drain a community of $295,000 over that person’s lifetime (Mindtrust). As such,  those who dropped out just this past year alone will cost us nearly $20 million. Staggering, right?
• Sarasota/Manatee is below average - #56 of 100 – amongst metro markets in educational attainment and household earnings. (Scarborough) Not bad, but not great either.
• Increasing attainment of high quality degrees, certificates and other credentials by just 1% will produce an additional $350 million each year for our Sarasota-Manatee region. Now, that’s a huge positive impact.

So, it’s a natural, then, that the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce would join with others to create and support a business-education initiative called Talent4Tomorrow. And it’s not surprising that funders have supported this effort to combine and align community efforts to create a system to focus on encouraging career preparation and creation of jobs in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) related fields. These are the high-demand, high-wage, high skills occupations needed the most in our 21^st century workplace.

Special thanks to Gulf Coast Community Foundation for its start-up and continued funding and another round of applause to the Lumina Foundation for most-recently awarding the Chamber monies to support its efforts to increase educational attainment in our community.

Our list of business and education partners in this cause is strong and growing. Here are just a few of our major partners who are actively engaged: Sun Hydraulics, PGT Industries, Sarasota-Memorial Healthcare System, Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County,  Shumaker Loop and Kendrick, Lucid Global, AtLarge, Voalte, Star2Star Communications, CareerEdge, Sarasota County Schools, State College of Florida, Ringling College of Art & Design and USF Sarasota-Manatee. Our work, to date, is focused on the critical areas of Computer/Information Technology, Health Care, Manufacturing and Construction where there are pronounced shortages locally.

Building a world-class regional workforce is imperative as we compete in a global marketplace where talent is scarce. Creating a career pathways system to inspire students to imagine, explore, prepare for and create high-paying jobs is our combined responsibility. Providing new ways and more opportunities for success via mentoring, job shadowing, internships and externships is a must. Our work has just begun. We are still at the early stages of broadening our business and community base. More will be invited to join the cause… and we hope even more will step forward to offer to make a difference. 

SRQ Daily Columnist Vicki Vega is the Initiative Manager for the Talent4Tomorrow Partnership at The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce