BROWNSVILLE, Texas - The Council for South Texas Economic Progress brought the Binational Higher Education Advisory Council to the Port of Brownsville to learn about the big projects happening there. COSTEP is aiming to bring higher education and industry closer together.
The group has created a database of all the higher education courses available in the Rio South Texas and Northern Tamaulipas region. COSTEP believes the database will help companies choose the region when evaluating where to expand.
Four presentations were given to an audience of higher education, workforce development, economic development, and industry from the Rio South Texas Region and Northern Tamaulipas.
This video features a presentation of Alma L. Saldana Cruz, assistant director of economic development for COSTEP, with an introduction by COSTEP CEO Adam Gonzalez. Audience participation in the discussion was strong.
Gonzalez kicked off the discussion this way:
"We created the Binational Higher Education Advisory Council, and our focus here is to try to pick up an inventory of the schools that are in our region, the programs that are offered in our region, and the certifications and degrees that are in our region, in tandem with the manufacturing operations that we have on both sides of the border. The idea here is to make sure that we work closer with industry; that industry gets closer to the academic side, so that we can create the programs necessary for all these companies that are coming, the new technologies that are coming to this area, and be able to keep our talent.
"For many years, for our region, our biggest export has been talent, and that's sad to say. You know, our best, our brightest end up leaving because we don't have the opportunities for them here. I think you know because of the geopolitical… and everything that's going on in the world and in our region and in Mexico and in the U.S., I think it's created an opportunity for companies to start manufacturing more of their product here, maybe not the whole assembly, but part of their product.
"So I think as the Rio South Texas region, which is the RGV region, the Laredo region, and the Northern Tamaulipas region… I think we need begin thinking a little bit bigger and a little bit broader in the future. And how are we going to retain our talent here to work in these companies? I think the worst thing that can happen is that we have to import talent from the outside to our region when we know that we have the capacity, we have the the numbers, and we have the talent that it would take to to fill those positions in the region.
"So today, again, we are finally are able, thanks to our partners and vendors, Mexico industry, that helped us develop the system, both the manufacturing system and the high education system. We're going to show you a brief presentation of what it's looking like. One of the things that we have identified is that there is no standard across all the schools. There's really not a standard of the types of degrees and the types of programs and things like that. So a lot of the 33 institutions right now… some of them left areas blank, and my team is going to later on give you guys some forms and work with each and every one of you at a later time to try to make sure that every item is filled. We also want to get suggestions from you as to what else is needed. This really needs to come from the higher ed system, not necessarily COSTEP to say what goes into the system. It really needs to be you because you guys are the ones that are on the ground floor working with us day in and day out."
Editor's Note: Here is a video recording of COSTEP's presentation:
