FIU partners with the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce to survey business owners about needs, challenges

Florida International University and the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) today launched a survey of South Florida business owners and hiring decision-makers to identify and raise awareness of the challenges they face to meet current and future workforce needs.

The survey, aimed at business owners and hiring managers, will seek opinions on issues affecting South Florida businesses, as well as factors influencing decisions of where to send their children for higher education.

The effort was conceived of by the Greater Miami Chamber’s Education & Workforce Development Committee in response to queries from universities interested in hearing directly from the South Florida business community about their future workforce needs.  The survey was developed by Lisa Martinez, vice chair of The Chamber’s Education & Workforce Development Committee, Wolfgang Pinther of BDO, USA and Maria Ilcheva of FIU’s Jorge Pérez Metropolitan Center.

“The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce historically has tied the business community to higher education,” said Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Alfred Sanchez.  “This year, the Chamber has partnered with a major research institute, FIU’s Jorge M. Pérez Metropolitan Center, to roll out a community-wide workforce survey to gain insights from business leaders, CEO’s, top-level managers, human resource directors other hiring decision-makers to help guide efforts in meeting both current and future business needs in Miami-Dade County.”

“We are proud of our partnership with the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, especially on initiatives that have had a positive impact on the South Florida community,” said FIU President Kenneth A. Jessell. “Many of our alumni choose to remain in South Florida and build their careers, businesses, and families in our community. We are committed to using the responses to this survey to understand opportunities and challenges facing local business leaders and working with the Chamber to help address the survey’s findings and/or recommendations.”

“The results of the survey will give our institutes of higher learning actionable data to develop  future programs and procure resources to address those business needs and challenges,” said Maria Ilcheva, the associate director of planning and operations for the Metropolitan Center. “When the results are released, they will benefit not just the organizations that are part of GMCC but the whole community.”

By giving FIU insight on industry needs, the survey will help FIU efforts to ensure students can secure jobs after graduation. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal ranked FIU the No. 4 public university in the nation (No. 29 overall). FIU also was recently ranked a top 20 university by Washington Monthly, and is number one in the State University System, according to the Florida Board of Governors performance-based funding (PBF) metrics. Degree Choices also ranked FIU No. 8 nationally for students’ return on investment, based on the cost of attending and the earnings a student can expect.

Business owners who wish to participate in the survey can visit go.fiu.edu/EWDS2023. The survey will be available until October 31, 2023.

The survey data will be analyzed and results will be released in Spring 2024 to help Miami-Dade County educational and workforce development institutions and providers in directing their efforts towards responsive programs that address current and workforce needs.