TAMPA BAY WORKS IN ACTION

Healthcare Collaborative members focus on increasing the capacity of educational institutions that serve our most critical workforce shortages such as surgical technologists and medical laboratory scientists.  Their efforts have resulted in the new Hillsborough Community College Surgical Technology Program, joint activities to help USF launch a new Medical Laboratory Science Program, and an Employer-Educator Summit on Clinical Rotations (see below).  The Healthcare Collaborative consists of the leading organizations in our region, representing more than 70,000 employees across Tampa Bay.

The Workforce Stakeholder Group consists of over 160 members from organizations engaging in talent supply or demand in our four-county region.   Quarterly meetings are held to inform the group on Tampa Bay Works activities and to discuss innovative practices or other topics relevant to strengthening talent pipelines in Tampa Bay.

Responding to the critical shortage of machine operators, production assemblers and other entry-level workers in manufacturing, the Manufacturing Collaborative, Tampa Bay Works and AmSkills co-designed one-day workshops and two-week bootcamps to attract, train and vet unemployed people for in-demand positions.  AmSkills conducts each one-day Career Discovery Workshop and two-week Manufacturing Bootcamp in different locations throughout Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando Counties.  Manufacturers expand their qualified candidate pool while job seekers find career opportunities.  Click videos below to find out more.

In 2019, the Healthcare Collaborative identified a critical shortage of surgical technologists in the Tampa Bay region.  They defined and communicated their needs to six educational institutions that provide relevant instruction.  All six institutions committed to pursue expanding their existing programs or creating new ones.  Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic significantly impacted short-term planning of the educational institutions and the hospital systems they serve.   Not to be deterred, Hillsborough Community College, a leading educator in the Tampa Bay region, stayed committed and launched their new Associate of Science Degree Program in Surgical Technology in August 2020 targeting a December 2021 graduation.  The Healthcare Collaborative supported their effort by donating medical equipment to the program and providing clinical rotations for their students.  Tampa Bay Works serves on their Program Advisory Committee.

In 2019, the Healthcare Collaborative identified a critical shortage of medical laboratory scientists in the Tampa Bay region.  Collaborative members estimated a need of over 600 scientists over the next 5 years, yet our local educational institutions were on pace to graduate 130 over the same time period.  The University of South Florida responded to this need by proposing a change to their Medical Laboratory Science program that would increase their graduate output by 2.5 times.  Five organizations from the Healthcare Collaborative are working with USF to support the launch of the new program.

The number of clinical rotations available to healthcare students is often a bottleneck, reducing the graduate capacity of schools and regions.  Increased workloads for hospital and lab staffs due to the COVID pandemic significantly reduced clinical rotations even further.  The Healthcare Collaborative recognized this as a top priority and in October 2020, Tampa Bay Works hosted the region’s first Employer-Educator Summit on Clinical Rotations.  The virtual summit provided the opportunity for stakeholders to discuss common challenges and collectively determine the best path forward to address clinical rotation shortages.

The Manufacturing Collaborative identified three critical talent shortages that consistently impact their business performance and profitability:  Quality Control Inspectors, CNC Programmers/Machinists and Industrial Maintenance Technicians.  The Collaborative members are using Hire-for-Potential practices to detail the skills, abilities and behaviors qualified candidates need to excel in the target positions.   These are called Qualified Candidate Profiles.  Hire-for-Potential practices are also being used to communicate the QCPs to local talent providers to find candidates and to evaluate each candidate’s skills, abilities and behaviors per the desired QCP.  Additional skilled talent positions will be pursued.

Upskill Tampa Bay is led by the Tampa Bay Partnership with funding from JPMorgan Chase.  The Partnership will produce data and research to identify new career pathways best suited for those in occupations hardest hit by COVID.  The findings will be based on matching transferrable skills of COVID-displaced workers to those required by in-demand occupations in the Tampa Bay region.  Tampa Bay Works will convene, educate and assist regional employers on Skills-Based Hiring practices to recruit COVID-impacted workers for job openings in these in-demand occupations.