Powerful Partnerships
National Leaders Praise MDC’s Job Creation
 U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, second from right, recently met with Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus President Madeline Pumariega, South Florida Workforce Executive Director Rick Beasley and University of Miami Miller Medical School Senior Associate Dean Dr. Norma S. Kenyon. |
Showing her support for a collaborative jobs-creation effort, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recently met with Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus President Madeline Pumariega and officals from the University of Miami Miller Medical School and South Florida Workforce to discuss an exciting new initiative.
In Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, these three regional institutions have teamed up on an innovative career-training partnership to help bolster the community surrounding the new University of Miami Life Science & Technology Park.
The partnership was made possible by a $400,000 grant from the South Florida Workforce Investment Board that was designed to ensure the community has sufficient talent for the growing life sciences sector. South Florida Workforce said it recognized that a skilled workforce attracts businesses to the region.
The state-of-the-art park, which was officially dedicated last September and is close to the region’s most important hospitals, medical facilities and MDC’s Medical Campus, has the potential to make Miami a bioscience hub. This important MDC/UM partnership also holds the promise of providing new jobs and transforming lives in one of Miami’s poorest neighborhoods.
The schools will create a center to identify adults and high school students from the surrounding areas who might be interested in health care or bioscience careers. The center will help provide access to existing programs and offer academic and career advice as well as job training. Students also will be able to map out studies in fields ranging from health science to biotechnology that lead to degrees such as Miami Dade College’s new bachelor’s degree in biological sciences.
The new Life Science & Technology Park coupled with MDC/UM’s growing partnership also will create job opportunities in a wide range of areas such as hospitality management, business administration and information technology – fields in which Miami Dade College has highly respected programs.
— Staff Report