Southwest Florida's Labor Force

Southwest Florida's labor force has gone back to school. But the classroom

has changed. Today's workers are students

Today's local college students are older and a bit wiser. Typically they are in their mid-20s to mid-30s with 10 or more years' work experience, employed full or part-time in their former or future field and training for a career change. At 40, they are hard at work, upgrading their computer skills or pursuing advanced degrees.

Even 18-year-old drop-outs are earning GEDs in record numbers, according to Marilyn Horvath, principal on assignment for Lee County Public Schools Adult & Community Education & Dropout Prevention. And state statistics for our area show a 5 percent rise in 1997 high school graduates headed to four-year universities in Florida. Many have part-time jobs and internships on their resumes.

Thousands are reinventing their work life by completing nuts-and-bolts programs in Southwest Florida's community of school-to-work educational institutions. Here, real-life curricula are led by work-wise teachers and involved business people who show students exactly what it takes to get a job in their chosen field. For example, the job placement rate at the Lee County High Tech Centers and Collier County's Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology, whose funding pivots on performance, averages 85 to 89 percent. Starting in 1997-1998, the State of Florida began financially rewarding career-oriented curricula in high schools and job placement/retention performance in post-secondary schools.

Currently at Edison Community College (ECC) and the year-old Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), adults 25 years and older comprise a surprising 45 and 80 percent of the student population, respectively. But researchers see that changing. Pat Gordin, coordinator of institutional research at ECC, has seen an increase in full-time enrollment this year. John Huffman, director of institutional research at FGCU, reports that the size of the university's freshman class doubled this year.

"Regional demographics are growing on both ends, under 25 and over 45," says Huffman, "so that the uptrend in high school graduates continuing their education here is projected to continue through the year 2010."

The number of American high school graduates is expected to rise 15 percent in the country and 30 percent in Florida by 2010. In the five-county Southwest Florida region, it is expected to grow 50 percent. Accordingly, both ECC and FGCU are gearing up with expanded educational programs focused on growth occupations.

Local Business People Serve as Teachers

"It takes a community to produce good students, good job applicants and good citizens," says Lana Hensley Hoffman, a career specialist teaching job-hunting skills at ECC. "There's no question that students today are being better trained for the workforce."

John Heinis, chair of the School to Careers Consortia for the state's Enterprise Florida development office, underscores the tremendous collaboration underway by Florida businesses, teachers and students to create jobs and the skilled workforce to populate those jobs. "We go all the way to the elementary school level to reach students and parents to communicate how they might track educational activities for effective entry into the workforce," he says.

Private/public initiatives are permeating local schoolrooms:

* Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida has been bringing local business volunteers to K through 12 classrooms for the past decade to share first-hand experiences.

* The Foundation of Lee County Public Schools' Work Skills program has business people rolling up their work sleeves, exposing high school students to technical trades.

* Diversified co-op programs in high schools teach basic job and employability skills applicable to a broad range of occupations.

* Gulf Coast High School in Naples is leading the way in organizing classes according to Career Academies, which give a structure to career electives starting in 10th grade. Learning includes real-world job shadowing and internships.

Computers are part of everyday life at the new Gulf Coast High School in Collier County.

* Externships put teachers and guidance counselors in the field with corporate mentors. These periodic, on-the-job experiences add depth to academics' understanding of current business environments and broaden their network of contacts with area employers.

* Collier County's Economic Development Council tours teachers, guidance counselors and students to local high-tech companies to update awareness of changing employment opportunities and required academic preparation.

* Business Advisory Committees are standard at Lee County's High Tech Centers and Collier County's Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology. Business people from dozens of disciplines evaluate curricula, provide technical assistance and participate in apprenticeship programs. These companies routinely hire students upon certification.

* Large-scale Public School Career Academies and Continuing Education Programs train and cross-train employed and underemployed adults for newly evolving positions. Hundreds are trained for specific openings with area employers. Some companies, like Sony Electronics, which hired 30 percent of its workforce from the local high school graduate pool, go on to offer employees regular refresher training.

* Florida Gulf Coast University encourages the exchange of professors and private business tutors teaching university classes and corporate employee education programs.

"Across the board, people are stepping up to the plate, putting forward an effort to have a progressive, active workforce development program," says Heinis.

Why? "We want the ability to keep our most talented youth at home," says Susan Pareigis, director of Collier County's Economic Development Council. "We must stop the brain drain of losing educated workers to strongly diversified, high-paying markets."

Computers Changed Everything

With a low national unemployment rate and the unemployment rate for college graduates even lower at about 1.9 percent, companies are scrambling to attract qualified hires, especially those with technical skills.

"It's tough to keep technical folks at home," says Ken Ramberg, co-founder of Jobtrak, a computerized clearinghouse posting 3,000 new job listings a day at colleges across the country. "Employers are coming to college campuses in October and putting pressure on students to make a fast decision. Computer science and engineering graduates are being snapped up. Demand for MBAs, too, has gone through the roof. Companies are having to rethink their entire salary structure to attract today's college graduates."

While familiarity with computers is second nature to Generation X'ers who grew up in the information