People are city’s top resource

People are city’s top resource

Written by Rachel Youens Monday, 24 March 2008

Research shows through education and cutting-edge technology, north Austin can continue to thrive

It isn’t news that Austin is booming, with transplants showing up every day and cutting-edge businesses locating in the city. But for many people the memory is still fresh in their minds of a time when layoffs were a regular occurrence, and businesses were shutting their doors, or worse, stopping mid-production such as The Domain and the Intel building. Now with the experience of surviving a crash, Austin organizations are looking over the horizon at what the city needs to do to ensure long-term success, and north Austin’s education institutions and tech industry are part of the solution.

Finding the right people

Austin’s top resource right now isn’t land or wind or oil; it’s human capital. Ideas and talent from Austin are creating products making a global impact in electronics, health and other industries. Talent was one of the chief elements that brought companies like Samsung to the city, but like any natural resource, without healthy cultivation, it will eventually run dry.

“Samsung chose to make a capital investment in this community,” said Texas Sen. Kirk Watson, an advocate of Austin’s role in the global economy. “But in 10 years, if the talent is not available no amount of tax rebate can keep them here.”

Although Austin has one of the best-educated workforces in the world – more than two-thirds of the population has some college education – projections show that the workforce will not be able to keep up with demand.

A study by the Austin Chamber of Commerce showed that the workforce growth is only half of what it should be, and that by 2015 the city will need to increase its higher education enrollment by 33,000. Texas only features two flagship universities, University of Texas and A&M, while competing states such as California have 10.

“The issue isn’t whether the local colleges are teaching the right thing, it’s if we have enough of it,” said Drew Scheberle, senior vice president for education and talent development for the Austin Chamber of Commerce. “For example, right now one of our main needs is medical. We’ve opened four hospitals in 12 months, and that’s just a big startup.”

The Education and Talent Development branch of the chamber looks at the Austin workforce and the education and training available to them from the ground up, working with local grade schools and colleges. Scheberle said the branch is also reaching out to talent in other cities, trying to lure them to Austin.

Currently, a substantial part of the employment need is being filled by transplants from other states. Scheberle points out that while these people are sufficiently talented, there are good reasons for hiring locally.

“Get it where you get it, but people with roots and family structure in Austin are more likely to stay in Austin if mom gets sick. Or if they meet some Oklahoman, they’re less likely to move,” Scheberle said. “People from the home market are more stable, have deeper roots and are more likely to stay.”

One of the branch’s current projects is the 20,010 by 2010 Initiative. Launched in November 2006, the project is aimed at increasing students enrolled in higher education in Austin by 20,010 in a five-year period. The chamber is accomplishing this with multiple techniques, among them helping students fill out financial aid forms and keeping an eye on educational standards to make sure they meet industry needs. However, as Scheberle points out, the businesses don’t just need employees with education. They need to have education in the right industries. So the chamber is working with Austin Community College to create courses to suit area businesses.

In 2006 Austin area employers began expressing concern about the need to attract more individuals to work in the biosciences industry. The Austin chamber responded by organizing a meeting between bioscience employers and Austin Community College. After interviews with area bioscience businesses, including north Austin businesses St.David’s North Austin Medical Center, Seton Northwest and Luminex, ACC was able to develop an 11-week course that would prepare students for entry-level bioscience positions.

What’s next

For Skyleen Mabry, it’s not so important what types of business are hot right now, as what will be hot 20 years down the road. As the director of business retention and expansion for the Central Texas region’s Emerging Technology Fund, Mabry plays a part in identifying the industries and technologies of the future and encouraging their success here in Texas.

Created in the 2005 Texas legislative session, the Emerging Technology Fund invests about $100 million of state funds each year in high-tech startups using technology reaped from Texas universities. In Central Texas the fund is administered by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.

“The legislation was basically created with the intent to draw out technology developed within the universities to create these spin off companies to commercialize them and keep original intellectual property that was created in the state of Texas here in Texas,” Mabry said. “What we were finding out is that companies were creating their intellectual property here in the state of Texas but they weren’t staying here, they were having to get funding from outside resources, like venture capitalists, and those were predominantly from the East and West Coasts. Generally when venture capitalists invest in these young startups they like to have them close to their area, so companies were being lured out to the east and west and weren’t staying here in Texas.”

Some of the desired industries for the Emerging Technology Fund include aerospace, nanotechnology, software technology and semiconductors.

In 2006 Northwest Austin business Molecular Imprints became one of the first four businesses to receive $3 million in funding through the program. Specializing in the semiconductor capital equipment business and disc storage industry, Chief Marketing Officer Ken Rygler says Molecular Imprints is the only business of its kind in the U.S.

“The company has to raise a considerable amount of money to succeed in its mission,” Rygler said, “This was a market that 25 years ago was dominated by the U.S. Today the U.S. has lost the market, and it is now dominated by Nikon, Canon and ASML. The U.S. and the rest of world have to buy these critical tools from these three suppliers.”

Much of the $3 million went toward the company’s application capabilities, the ability to teach customers how to use the equipment and what to do when they have problems. Today Rygler says the company is healthy with 90 employees, is likely to grow to 100 and has sold equipment to local company Sematech, which represents 50 percent of semiconductor revenues.

“If we are successful,” Rygler said, “it will reclaim a significant financial and job market, but also a strategic market for the U.S.”

North Austin economic longevity

Bachelor’s, Associate’s and Certificates awarded since 2000

Change in Higher Education Institutions’ Enrollment from Fall 2000

Targeting emerging industry

The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce is using multiple approaches to target emerging technology and recruit employees. As the head of the Central Texas division of the state’s Emerging Technology Fund, the chamber has identified the following as emerging technologies to cultivate:

• Aerospace
• Biotechnology
• Computer and software technology
• Defense
• Energy
• Information
• Life sciences
• Manufactured energy systems
• Medicine
• Nanotechnology
• Petroleum refining and chemical processes
• Semiconductors

The chamber launched the website for their BioAustin Chamber of Commerce May 20. This special division of the chamber has the goal of making Austin a major player in the bio industry by helping to increase funding for young bio companies and urging the development of specialized biotechnology business parks.

Find out more at www.bioaustin.com.

Educating the workforce

Although higher education enrollment has met targets since 2000, enrollment numbers are now slowing. From 2000 to 2006, the enrollment level rose from 5.0 to 5.6 percent, bumping Texas up past the national average. To meet the goals set in 2000’s Closing The Gap plan, enrollment must increase 15.1 percent by 2010.

North Austin gaming companies consulted for ACC program

One of ACC’s showcase programs is the Video Game Development Program. Designed and developed by leaders in the Austin video game industry, the two-year program will earn students a certificate in video game development with training in art, design and programming. Most of the gaming classes take place at the Highland Business Center, located in Central Austin, not far from where many of Austin’s video game companies are housed.

1 - Austin Community College, Highland Business Center, 5930 Middle Fiskville Road, http://www.austincc.edu/hbc

2 - NCSoft, 6801 N. Capital of Texas Hwy., www.ncsoft.com, Game: Guild Wars

3 - Bioware, 8300 N. MoPac, www.bioware.com, Game: Mass Effect

4 - Junction Point Studios, 7800 Shoal Creek Blvd., www.junctionpoint.com

5 - Midway Studios, 11400 Burnet Road, www.midway.com, Game: MLB Slugfest 2006

6 - Critical Mass Interactive, 7427 North Lamar Blvd., www.criticalmassinteractive.com, Game: Tabula Rasa

ACC Executive Director of Marketing Brette Lea hopes that you will think of the charge you see in your taxes each year for Austin Community College as more of an investment than a tax. ACC is considered the gateway to higher education and workforce training in Central Texas, and is the eighth largest community college in the nation. With projections showing that Austin is not producing enough graduates to supply the workforce, ACC bears a large part of the burden in educating future employees.

“The fastest-growing segment of the population is also the part least likely to consider higher education important,” Lea said. “If we don’t fix it, the state is going to be in dire crisis.”

The college responds directly to workforce needs and emerging industries through their workforce education and business development department. Thus far the college has been able to train 200 workers for Austin Energy, many of Capital Metro’s bus drivers and boat drivers for the city’s river and lake tours.