By Krysten Brenlla
Did you know that Florida ranks third in the nation for job growth in technology? Or, that Florida’s tech workforce size ranks fourth in the nation? With tech employers’ rising need for innovative skills, South Florida universities are taking hands-on learning to the next level, propelling undergraduate students to the forefront of our rapidly evolving digital landscape through critical enterprise partnerships.
Florida Atlantic University and the University of Miami – alongside the University of South Florida and Jacksonville University – have collaborated with Austin-based Podium Education, an experiential education company, to provide a new and unique digital curriculum, dubbed The Global Tech Experience, or GTX, for undergraduate students. The digital program will focus on building students’ skills in data, digital marketing, and coding.
“When we first launched Podium, we saw that, if students were lucky to land a good internship or study abroad, they tend to do better than those students who do not. The problem with that is that those experiences are not built for access or scale in mind,” said Chris Parrish, co-founder and president of partnerships for Podium. “With GTX, every student can have a trajectory-changing moment by working with global organizations on real-world projects that mimics an internship.”
All majors are invited to participate in GTX, where students will collaborate with Intel or charity: water to solve real-world business challenges. This includes a data analysis project centered on Intel’s sustainability initiatives, and a project to engage new global audiences in water rights through digital marketing and brand strategies for charity: water.
Participants will choose between three tracks; developing skills in digital ads and e-commerce website building with the digital marketing track; using and developing design visualization tools with Tableau and Microsoft Excel in the data track; and learning Python’s coding platform for website and app development in the coding track. Additionally, throughout the program, students will work hand-in-hand with peers in GTX across the globe, and will earn between 1-6 credits, micro-credentials, and certificates that can be displayed on their resumes and LinkedIn pages.
“Every week starts with a real-world project where students can hear from and work directly with our enterprise partners,” Parrish continued. “We fly a camera and production crew onsite and film from the perspective of a new intern and new employee – sitting down with management, wrestling with a new challenge, and solving it – which really puts it into context for students, and allows them to have a seat at the table.”
For students participating in GTX, they can expect weekly video lessons, LiveLab sessions with their peers and employer partners, a milestone project to complete the course, and 24/7 support on their projects.
Upon completion of the course, students in the University of Miami will earn three credits, the equivalency of an elective. Students in Florida Atlantic University will earn six credits, which are financial aid and scholarship eligible, and can also choose to participate in a GTX course working alongside publicis sapient, a global digital business consulting firm.
Students who have already participated in GTX say it really changed their trajectories in skills for new jobs. In a press release by Podium, Matthew Feinstein, a senior at FAU and a pricing analyst intern at Walt Disney World, said “GTX was hands down the best thing I did during college. Before the program, I had very little experience with Excel, and zero exposure to Tableau. Now, I use them daily in my work at Disney.”
So, if you’re a student in South Florida looking to get your foot in the door with global internships and companies – your university has you covered.
Enrollment for GTX at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Miami are now open for the spring 2024 semester. For more information on programming per university, visit FAU’s GTX landing page at https://www.globaltech.fau.edu/, or UM’s GTX landing page at https://www.globaltech.miami.edu/.
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