Residents of Tampa Bay want to be proud of their schools and recognize that a sense of community is tied to lifelong learning.

The Tampa Bay Partnership Regional Research & Education Foundation recognizes education as growing concern and a complex issue. While many worthy programs, foundations, and coalitions surround the school systems, the region lacks a long-term vision in seamlessly achieving lifelong learning opportunities for its citizens.

The Foundation recognizes that the quality of a region’s educational system:
 

1) is a critical factor in the site selection process for relocating and expanding companies;

2) is a catalyst for research & commercialization;

3) influences the skills of the region’s workforce and quantity of available knowledge workers; and

4) can contribute to increasing the income of the region’s residents.

Talent Dividend Prize
$1 Million Opportunity for Tampa Bay

Educational attainment is the biggest predictor of success for cities and metro areas today. The more educated the region’s population, the more robust its economy will be. CEOs for Cities research indicates that 58 percent of a city’s success, as measured by per capita income, can be attributed to the percentage of the adult population with a college degree.

In Tampa Bay, increasing college attainment by one percentage point will produce an annual Talent Dividend of $3.06 billion. We learned that for Tampa Bay, this one percentage point increase equals approximately 28,086 new graduates. We also learned that we have a significant pool of residents with “some college” (nearly 800,000) that are ripe for encouraging completion. Small improvements in performance can equal big financial impact gains.

The Talent Dividend Prize is a $1 million prize to be awarded to the city that exhibits the greatest increase in the number of post secondary degrees granted per one thousand population through 2013 and achieves its Talent Dividend. This $1 million prize will be used to launch a national promotional campaign centered around talent development for the winning city.

The ONE BAY: Lifelong Learning initiative is working to coordinate all three MSAs to compete. Ken Atwater, President of Hillsborough Community College has accepted the challenge to lead the initiative for the Tampa Bay area.

For More Information on the Talent Dividend - visit www.ceosforcities.org/talent

To Get Involved in the Talent Dividend Initiative in Tampa Bay, email: Elisa DeGregorio, Tampa Bay Partnership - edegregorio@tampabay.org