Alabama’s largest county looks to continue economic development momentum
With the recent announcements of thousands of jobs coming into Jefferson County in connection with Amazon’s advanced robotics fulfillment center, DC BLOX’s data center and Shipt’s decision to keep its corporate headquarters in Birmingham, local officials are working from a playbook that has four steps, they say. It all begins with Alabama’s business climate that has been ranked as best in the United States for growth potential and workforce training by Business Facilities magazine, said Commissioner David Carrington, chair of the county’s Finance, Information Technology and Business Development Committee. The second is that Jefferson County is the economic center of the state, with the largest population and number of jobs. In 2016, companies announced they were going to create 14,500 jobs and invest $5.1 billion in Alabama. The Birmingham-Hoover metro area accounted for about 20 percent of those jobs and 25 percent of the capital investment. Jefferson County alone was responsible for 1,436 announced jobs and $506 million in capital investment. “In fact, the metro area’s gross domestic product is greater than Mobile, Montgomery and Huntsville combined,” Carrington said. “In 2017, according to the Alabama Department of Commerce, Jefferson County led the state with 2,200 new announced jobs in targeted industries.” The next step is collaboration among partners that often include the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA), University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and, if a proposed site is in a city, the city. “As in most successful projects, it was a well-coordinated community effort that led to a successful conclusion, and we’re very grateful to our partners and allies for their great work on this project,” said Lee Smith, East Region CEO for BBVA Compass and 2018 chairman of the BBA, after the area secured Amazon’s $325 million investment. “The county actively listens to the prospect’s needs and then participates in the development of an aggressive marketing plan with (those) partners,” Carrington said. Fourth, a project team is in place that “leverages our community’s assets,” Carrington said. “. . . We will talk about our enviable road and rail transportation network when talking to a distribution company; or UAB, Southern Research and Innovation Depot when talking to a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) company; or our central, geographic proximity to Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Kia and the soon to be open Toyota/Mazda plants when talking to an automotive supplier.” All of those steps are done under a positioning umbrella, he said. “Even if we don’t win a project, we want the company and their consultants to ‘have a good feeling’ about the community so we will be considered for a future project,” he said. Carrington pointed to the community’s Amazon HQ2 “BringAtoB” campaign. “The primary project team knew that Birmingham was at best a long shot, but, despite the odds, we put together an innovative vision and proposal for the company to consider,” he said. “While we didn’t win the headquarters, we caught Amazon’s attention and less than a year later announced an 855,000-square-foot advanced robotics fulfillment center in Bessemer.” Republished with the permission of the Alabama Newscenter.
Innovate Birmingham prepares students for tech jobs
The 28 graduates of an Innovate Birmingham program are “the full definition of getting it right” according to Birmingham’s mayor and “how workforce development is supposed to work” according to an Alabama Power executive. The graduates were feted at a commencement ceremony at Alabama Power corporate headquarters on April 13 where UAB President Ray Watts presented them with their certificates. Each quarter, the Innovate Birmingham Development Program prepares students for careers in Birmingham’s growing tech sector through training via the I AM BHAM coding bootcamp and Generation IT bootcamp. Friday’s class was the fourth graduating class in the program. Innovate Birmingham holds graduation for tech students from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo. I AM BHAM, a 14-week program, offers short-term, fast-track, intensive training for full stack and front-end web development. The 12-week Generation IT program offers an IT specialist training program for students to receive their CompTIA A+ certification. Both programs, held onsite at Innovation Depot in Birmingham, allow students to interact daily with potential employers. More than 25 employers – including corporations such as Alabama Power, BBVA Compass, Regions Financial and Protective Life – support the program and offer graduates jobs. John Hudson, senior vice president of Marketing and Business Development at Alabama Power, said a program that can take someone who was unemployed, train them in a new skill and promise them a job upon graduation “is how workforce development is supposed to work.” “All of us who work on economic development in Birmingham are trying to move this community and this city toward a more technology-based economy,” Hudson said. “If we’re going to do that, workforce is going to continue to be prominent in us getting there.” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said the Magic City’s economy is hitched to growing the technology industry. “As we look at what our strengths are and what our strengths can be, IT technology and innovation is something we need to triple down on and have a full investment in,” Woodfin said. He said economic development is ultimately an investment in people and the Innovate Birmingham program epitomizes that idea. “This is a full definition of getting it right,” Woodfin said. Watts said the program is an extension of UAB’s mission. “As we looked at the needs in Birmingham, we realized there was a subset of our young people who have not had the opportunity yet to be in the right place at the right time to develop those educational skills,” he said. The program was made possible, in large part, by a $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. Josh Carpenter, director of the Birmingham Office of Economic Development, was instrumental in constructing the partnership that pursued that grant when he was at UAB. He was at the commencement. “Sustaining the economy through a qualified and diverse workforce is absolutely fundamental to our success in creating the innovation of the future,” Carpenter said. “This is laying a pipeline for us to be able to showcase around the country that we have a best-in-class program that can train people and equip them with the skills they need to succeed very quickly in a workforce that demands more nimble and qualified talent.” Watts said he was doing more than handing graduates their certifications: He was handing them a better Birmingham. “It’s a great opportunity to give our young people skills and knowledge that will allow them to get a really good job and provide for their families, and help their neighborhoods and the entire city be successful,” Watts said. Republished with the permission of Alabama Newscenter.
