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February 6 is Microsoft YouthSpark Day in Miami

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It’s rare that a program has a large enough impact on a local community to have a day named after it, but that’s exactly what will happen on Thursday, February 6 when “YouthSpark Day” is declared in Miami and Miami-Dade County.

Miami Mayor Tomas Rigaldo and an executive from Miami-Dade County are joining forces to proclaim YouthSpark Day in preparation for the local YouthSpark Connections event. The event will bring together local business leaders, government officials, school board members, Microsoft executives and students to discuss the current state of local education and what can be done to improve it.  

Currently, an overwhelming majority of Miami’s highly educated residents are from outside of Florida. Although that proves the city is attractive to educated workers, it is not necessarily good at growing such workers from within, according to research from the Brookings Institution. Only one in every seven of the Miami region’s bachelor’s-educated residents were born in the state of Florida and Miami-area residents born outside of Florida are more likely (37%) than their home-grown counterparts (27%) to possess a college degree.

Along with a panel discussion on ways to bridge the education divide through Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), Microsoft and Miami will also announce a Digital Alliance that will seek to improve education outcomes, jump-start new businesses and stimulate the economy. The program centers around three essential elements:

  • Innovation, through increased awareness and utilization of resources that benefit entrepreneurs.

  • Jobs/workforce, through technology training and economic development to gain ground against unemployment and the opportunity divide.

  • Education, through the adoption of systems that foster employability and lifelong learning.

Nearly 20 percent of Miami’s jobs are in STEM-focused fields and events like these help level the playing field for local students and job seekers. For more information on YouthSpark, click here.