Many small towns and small cities have a terrible shortage of skilled workforce, especially in today’s high-tech skills. The reasons why are complex: some places lack local training, some have high out-migration rates, some places just have no history of high tech work.
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| Lindsey and Cory Miller |
A few Oklahomans decided to do something about the lack of high tech workforce in their area. I heard about it from Cory Miller. He and his partners in DigiMedia, Scott Day and Jay Chapman, founded the Div. They needed a better workforce and decided to build it themselves. Cory’s wife Lindsey is the executive director. The partners are funding part themselves, raising funds from other sources, and planning to seek grant or government funding sometime.
- To foster and promote web tech innovation, creativity and community in Oklahoma
- To champion Oklahoma as a web tech hub
- To be a launching pad for projects and startups in the web tech industry in Oklahoma
- To help develop and train a strong, skilled and dynamic workforce for the web tech industry in Oklahoma
They’re busy providing training courses online and offline, building awareness of the local tech scene, and generally changing the whole paradigm by jumping in and doing.
Edmond, Oklahoma, isn’t a small town, exactly. It is a suburb in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. But it’s an idea all of us can grab on to:
If you want a better workforce, get involved in building it.
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