Here is more details about the Beacon Council internship program I wrote about last week.
By Douglas Hanks
Miami-Dade County joined the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Friday in promoting a new internship program designed to keep more talented college graduates in the Miami area.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced the effort at the business group’s annual Goals Conference, where Chamber leaders map out the agenda for economic development, lobbying and other fronts. The new program aims to tackle the so-called “brain drain,” as graduates from the University of Miami and other schools head elsewhere for high-paying jobs.
“Our homegrown talent will gladly take advantage of opportunities in other cities,” Gimenez said at the meeting in the banquet facility inside Miami’s Jungle Island theme park. “How did Cleveland feel when it lost LeBron James?”
The new AIM program (which stands for Actively Investing in Miami-Dade County) seeks to pair at least 200 students in high school, college and graduate programs with local employers. It was created under the arm of One Community One Goal, the broad blueprint for economic growth released last year by the Beacon Council, the county’s tax-funded economic-development agency. One of the shortcomings cited in the report is the Miami area’s ability to produce college graduates with marketable skills, but the difficulty in them finding career paths locally.
The AIM effort’s target is to create 200 internships within two years, with roughly 20 participating employers committing $5,000 to the AIM effort. Gimenez said Miami-Dade will be providing internships in the program, but that the effort relies on the private sector.
“It is time for us to develop our local talent,” Gimenez said. “I need your buy-in.”
Information is available at miamidade.gov/aim.
His presentation came at the end of the two-day Goals event, which coincides with a transition from one volunteer leader of the Chamber to another. Phillis OetersÖ, head of governmental affairs for Baptist Health, ended her tenure and Al Dosal, owner of a Miami tech company, started his.
Dosal, chairman of the Dosal Capital, which owns Compuquip in Doral, said he would focus on building up the Chamber’s cash reserves and expanding its membership. He urged Chamber members to use their influence with suppliers and service providers to get them to join the organization — a campaign he dubbed “vendors to members.”
“How shameful is it that all of us here sit and do our civic duty,” Dosal said during the morning meeting, “and then do business with others?”