TALENT
The State of Georgia is unique with regards to the youth, diversity, and productivity of its work force. Atlanta leads the pack in attracting highly educated--and highly coveted--25-34 year olds, according to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Young and Restless Report. This demographic is highly sought-after--and it's the gold standard for predicting an area's prosperity, according to Chamber President Sam A. Williams. "Smart people want to be around other smart people, and 200,000 students, faculty, and researchers raise the IQ of the Atlanta region, says Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education (ARCHE) president Michael Gerber.
Atlanta is a national leader in higher education:
On average young adults in Atlanta are better educated than those in other metropolitan areas--36% compared to 30% with 4-year college degrees.
Atlanta has been a mecca for college-educated African Americans. While the population declined nationally in the 1990's by about 6%, it increased more than 36% in Atlanta.
Georgia recorded a 233% increase in its foreign-born population during the 1990’s
7th in academic degrees awarded
5th in university research
For the full ARCHE Report click here.
This is significant because these long-term, foreign-born residents are choosing to move to Georgia from their initial points of entry into the US. This trend has continued into the 2000’s.
The diverse skill sets of Georgia’s workforce benefit companies from a wide range of industries. Fortune 500 companies that have headquarters in Georgia include:
Coca-Cola
Home Depot
UPS
Delta Air Lines
Aflac
Education and Workforce Development
Georgia is committed to educating its people and training its workforce. This commitment ensures a continuous flow of highly qualified employees to companies located in the state. Georgia dedicates around 50% of state tax revenues to education each year. It is one of only a couple U.S. states to offer academically qualified high school graduates a free technical education or a free college education through the “HOPE Scholarship” program.
The state’s university system, the fourth largest in the country, oversees 13 state universities, four research universities including the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Medical College of Georgia, seven state colleges, two regional universities and nine two-year universities.
In addition to Georgia’s extensive state university system, the state is also home to a number of excellent private colleges and universities, including Emory University, Morehouse College, and the Savannah College of Art and Design. In total, Georgia’s university system is comprised of over 250,000 students enrolled in over 70 colleges and universities. Each year, 44,000 graduates of these four-year, two-year and technical colleges and universities enter the Georgia labor force.
Quick Start
Quick Start, a state-financed program provides job-specific training tailored to the needs of new and expanding companies at no cost. Since 1967, the program has trained 516,000 employees for 4,600 firms in numerous industry sectors. According to Expansion Management Magazine, Georgia’s “Quick Start” is the # 1 workforce training program in the U.S.
Work-Ready Program
Georgia's Work Ready Program, a partnership with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, is based upon a skills assessment and certification for job seekers and a job profiling system for businesses. By identifying both the needs of the businesses and the available skills of Georgia's workforce, the state can effectively develop the employee's skills and match them with the right jobs.
Georgia Bio (GaBio) and several partner organizations are part of an effort to accelerate development of the bioscience workforce in Georgia with funding from a $500,000 Work Ready Program grant awarded by Governor Sonny Perdue through his Office of Workforce Development in January 2008.
Georgia's Innovation Cresent
The workforce development effort focuses on a 13-county region, called the Innovation Crescent, ranging from Cobb County east to Oglethorpe County and including Atlanta and Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, Gwinnett, Barrow, Jackson, Walton, Morgan, Oconee, Athens-Clarke, and Madison Counties.
