The calendar may still say its summer, but there has been no slowdown for Miami Tech Works and its mission to create more career pathways for emerging local talent in tech. Miami Tech Works’ Miami Tech Talent Coalition brings together employers, training partners and community leaders to create a sustainable talent pipeline. The group convened last week at Miami Dade College North Campus, and it was an opportunity to showcase work-based learning opportunities as students build the skills needed to acquire internships and full-time jobs.
Miami Tech Works Director Terri-Ann Brown [pictured above] highlighted that 3,065 students and South Florida residents have completed or are now enrolled in training programs supported by Miami Tech Works, which itself is supported by a $10 million 3-year grant from the US Economic Development Administration (EDA). They are being trained for in-demand tech jobs in fields such as business administration, accounting and supply chain and logistics, among others. So far, 472 students and South Florida residents – many of them career changers – have been placed in good tech jobs since the program started almost 3 years ago. The goal by the end of year 3 (which is the end of this month) is to reach 500 jobs. “But don’t worry, we’re in good shape because we can continue to do the work that we are doing,” Brown told more than 100 employers, educators and community leaders gathered for the meeting, including Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo.
Indeed, the Miami Tech Works program will continue past the three-year mark, with the EDA’s blessing. That’s validation that the EDA is quite happy with the progress and the impact Miami Tech Works is already having in South Florida, shared Antonio Delgado, Miami Dade College’s VP of Innovation and Tech Partnerships, before the meeting kicked off Wednesday morning.
A FOCUS ON AI
At the gathering, AI took much of the spotlight. And no wonder: AI skills are in top demand across sectors, not only for software developers. For instance, Brown said, in the first half of 2024, AI was not listed as a specialized skill in any South Florida job postings. In the same period in 2025, about 1,000 job postings listed AI as a core skill needed – and it’s across all job sectors, including for data science, HR and support jobs, and design and content jobs in fields including marketing, finance, logistics, etc. “AI went from a nonentity to a core requirement in hundreds of jobs, marking the single most significant shift in the market,” Brown said. “And I’m sure if we do this data analysis again in 2026, we’re going to see that increase even more.”
What’s also on the upswing? In that same one-year time period, tech jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree went from 47% to 59% percent – and they require continuous learning. “Get the degree and the stackable credentials,” Brown said. The top occupations continue to be software developers, other computer operations, data scientists, computer user support specialists and computer systems analysts.
WORK-BASED LEARNING OPPORTUNTIES
A key piece of the training offered through Miami Tech Works and its partners is work-based learning opportunities, said Jonathan Adell, Miami Tech Works grant project manager. “We are bringing the classroom directly to the employer,” Adell said [pictured above]. “We want to be building the roadway to these jobs.”
These work-based learning opportunities, such as sprinternships and other short-term tech related projects, can make the difference between landing a competitive internship – or not, Adell said. One Miami Tech Works success has been the EPIC Challenge in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, where a Miami cohort of 20 students completed four 5-week projects in AI for local companies Spark Founders, Syneurgy, Hakim AI and AllPeeP . The program ended with a student showcase.
The good news: The EPIC program has been continued – and Adell hopes to double the size of the program. The deadline for interested employers to apply is Oct 1; there is no cost to them. Learn more and apply here.
There are also other opportunities for students to hear about opportunities and for employers to be able to upskill their employees. Miami Tech Works’ Lucy Moscoso shared that the Employer Sponsored AI Training Program provides 100 scholarships (up to 10 per employer) for AI upskilling provided by MDC at no cost to the employer. Florida International University is holding a GovTech Forum Oct. 1, and it’s open to MDC students too. For employers ready to hire this year Tena Palomino, co-founder of JSCareers, introduced a 4-week program called Impact Hiring designed for employers who are looking to hire immediately. The program takes place in October and is free to employers. Interested founders can contact Palomino .
Finally, ShellHacks, the largest student-run hackathon, is coming back to FIU’s campus Sept. 26-28 and it is an amazing opportunity for students and recent graduates from any local university to learn new tech, meet top companies, and build innovative projects, said Jose Maldonado, co-founder of INIT, the student organization producing the hackathon. He and INIT see the hackathon as a way to showcase the talent to local small businesses and companies.
What’s more, the hackathon and INIT’s work could also help the South Florida ecosystem retain tech students after they graduate. Maldonado [pictured below] recently returned to Miami after working for six years in Seattle for Microsoft. He’s still working as a software engineer for Microsoft but now remotely. “A lot of us actually do want to stay here. I know when I graduated FIU, I did want to stay in Miami,” he said. Find out more about the event at Shellhacks.net.
WORKING GROUPS REPORT BACK
The in-person meeting also included time for the Tech Talent Coalition’s employer working groups to convene. After the working groups met for about 45 minutes, they reported back to the group.
In the Tech Skills Gap Working Group, chaired by Olga Naumovich and Selenis Leguisamon, members of the group said there is also a branding gap – we aren’t doing a good enough job of branding ourselves as a community that has great talent. This working group also flagged soft skills as an area of importance and applauded groups like Break Through Tech that prepare students for what they can expect in the internship. Another topic of conversation was the difficulty in collecting good data on impact and ways to improve the programs because students often don’t report back on their work-based learning experiences or internships and often neither do the employers. The group thought that a team of student ambassadors might help in this area.
The Small Business Capacity Building Working Group, chaired by Heradio Luces, uncovered an issue small businesses often have: They may not have the capacity to hire a full time employee for tech projects but they also don’t know how best to hire tech service vendors. To that end, this working group plans to hold a workshop on how to hire tech vendors in Miami, including how to develop the scope of work, project deadlines, etc. Luces, the founder of Hakim AI who was named the new chair this year, also will be meeting with the MDC Idea Center and StartUp FIU about more ways to connect students with small businesses, which represent more than 90% of all businesses in Miami-Dade County.
Ken Finneran [pictured below], chair of the Emerging Tech Talent Working Group, explained that one of the big takeaways in their group was the need to shift some focus from ‘what we need to train the talent’ to ‘how can we train them on asking the right questions,’ such as technical program management, and on developing soft skills. Another topic was about getting more local employers involved in hiring tech talent with a structured program that creates FOMO so that they will want to step forward with hiring opportunities and receive the help they need to do so. “We have to get employers future ready by partnering the tech stacks with their business needs. Audits can be conducted to see what kind of technology can be implemented. More structure is needed for small businesses because certain processes are not in place for them to understand why tech is important, especially AI implementation,” Finneran said.
AI AT MIAMI DADE COLLEGE
The meeting was also an opportunity to showcase the MDC North Campus, which was the first campus to open a state-of-the-art AI Center in 2022. MDC North Campus Dean of Faculty Efrain Venezuela said that the planning and subsequent AI integration at MDC started long before the ribbon-cutting of the center, however. Indeed, it started in 2018 when one faculty member brought up that AI would be the future and the college needed to prepare students for that. They began having strategy meetings and involved their partnership with IBM, which came up with AI badge program offerings. In 2023, MDC opened a second AI Center on the Wolfson campus, AI-related AI degree programs followed and the offerings have continued to build.
“Our faculty is simply amazing – every single department is somehow infusing AI into the curriculum,” Venezuela said. “It’s all about making sure that our students get the AI skills they need.”
SAVE THE DATE: Feb. 4 will be the Miami Tech Talent Coalition’s next annual meeting.
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
- The future of tech came together at Miami Dade College’s first AI Student Showcase, with talent shining all night
- Miami Dade College leads global accessibility conversation at Ability Innovations Workshop
- The people behind the pipeline: How Miami Tech Works partners are helping to grow and keep talent here
- How a local company is building connections and talent with help from Miami Tech Works, BrainStation and MDC
- At the Tech Talent Summits and Fest, smart job-hunting advice was in abundance. Here’s some of the best
- And much more here.
Refresh Miami is a proud partner of Miami Tech Works
