MARCH 2022
Southwest Florida BUSINESS TODAY ®
The workforce dilemma: A SWFL update in one day Special to SWFBT Submitted by Karen P. Moore, Publisher Breakfast with the Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce “If Southwest Florida employers continue to say that the education system and employment agencies are not delivering what local employers need, it’s kinda their own fault. We put on this event and if they are not here today, then I put that on them:” — Colleen De Pasquale, Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce Executive Director The Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce presented its first workforce event last month, with 80 attendees. The event featured trade show participants from local organizations who have a role in developing both short and long-term workforce initiatives. The event was keynoted by Dr. Henry Mack, chancellor at the Florida Department of Education. As chancellor, he leads the Division of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, overseeing all workforce education programs and economic development initiatives for the Department. “Gov. (Ron) DeSantis has invested $3.5 billion in workforce education since he entered office: that’s an unprecedented investment in our state,” he said. “The Florida school system is ripe to meet the demands of industry needs. Our main focus is adult learners. Currently, 3 million adults either do not have a high school diploma or can even read or write English. Educating this segment of our population may ‘save the day’ for our current workforce issues.” Of the most recent state investment of $90 million, which came about because of the second CARES Act, Mack noted $20 million was set aside for development of cybersecurity careers with $11-12 million earmarked for apprenticeship programs. “Employers can use these dollars to attract employees. These no-strings-attached dollars are not strictly construction or tradebased, as was the case in the past: they are intended for use in healthcare, information technology and manufacturing workforce development.” He also noted schools can now offer a registered nurse program with a specialty that includes more training because the state pays for the additional training. “So,” he shared, “a medical career employer can now develop its own talent supply because the school system will be training their current and future employees.” An additional $2 million is set aside specifically for business incubation/acceleration programs. Mack added, “If it wasn’t for the business community sharing what it needs from the school system, we wouldn’t have come this far: we need to keep that communication going.” He continued, “Education is not a silo, we need local businesses at the table to remove the barriers, including the Chambers and the local economic development and workforce agencies.”
Lunch with local manufacturers “No one knows how much manufacturing is in Collier County. How do we get students to understand the great career options available to them in this sector?” — Aaron Paquette, Assistant Director, Immokalee Technical College (iTECH), Center For Manufacturing Excellence The second part of the day was a tour and luncheon to bring together local manufacturers with the manufacturing education facility, iTECH, at its Naples campus. Paquette shared, “This center was set up based on the stated needs of local manufacturers: unfortunately, now this facility is underutilized. With the current workforce needs, however, job replacements aren’t there, so we can help manufacturers upskill their current workforce. So instead of simply offering the traditional on-the-job training, manufacturing employers can give them a true career path.” He continued, “We need to help high school students realize we can help them get a certification in high school and then help them get postsecondary education credentialing with transferrable skills.” Moreover, he shared, “We offer certification and credentialing programs, as well as internship and shadowing opportunities with our business partners.” Machining Instructor Ross Porter shared, “What we do here is based on this premise — to help unskilled people get skilled, skilled workers then get paid more and are also more efficient.” He continued, “Ultimately, these employees can be upskilled to program a robot to do a job.” He noted, however, “robots don’t replace people, they simply make things more efficient.” Then, he added, as the company grows, the upskilled employee continues to grow with the company. Paquette noted, “What we need to promote is that we’re here at this campus to fill the need for accessible manufacturing training—and it’s free. We have trained 270 people since we opened this facility in January 2020, despite COVID-19. “We also want to increase the number of students going through the full credentialing program. We want to make sure that local manufacturers know we are here to grow the local workforce with the skills they need.” Workforce events like both of these are popping up across the region to address this critical local labor issue. It is crucial, as Dr. Mack noted, that educators and business and industry leaders continue to come together to both participate and contribute to the solutions, and that these workforce events continue to pop up across Southwest Florida and across industries to increase awareness while creating the Southwest Florida labor force of tomorrow.
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UF ag engineer develops smart-spray technology Growers need to spray efficiently so they can apply pesticides and fertilizer only to crops – and minimize the chemicals that may contaminate natural resources. As they battle the economically devastating citrus greening disease, farmers must look to control costs wherever possible. With that in mind, Yiannis Ampatzidis is engaging artificial intelligence to develop a low-cost, smart tree-crop sprayer that can automatically detect citrus trees, calculate their height and leaf density and count fruit. That way, the farmers target their spray more efficiently, so it lands on trees and leaves – and reduces chemical use by about 30%, compared to traditional spray methods. “These smart technologies can save the fruit tree industry millions of dollars per year by optimizing chemical applications,” said Ampatzidis, a UF/IFAS associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee. Smart-spray technology lets the grower vary the amount applied based on tree size and leaf density, and it will not spray if there is no tree or if a tree appears dead. It also does not spray if it finds other objects, such as a water pump, a pole or a person. “This new technology will further enhance the tree-profiling systems we have in place today, with the ability to detect and only spray the target foliage,” Ampatzidis said. “Our data, collected by smart sensors, can control the amount of spray applied to the tree, in real time, and is stored in the controller to be downloaded for further processing.” The system utilizes machine vision, GPS and LiDAR — a light detection and ranging remote sensing system. Ampatzidis also developed algorithms to process the data
The smart tree-crop sprayer can automatically detect citrus trees, calculate their height and leaf density and count fruit. as well as software to control the sensors. The technology, cited in new research published by Ampatzidis, can also help farmers predict their crop yields. To test the system, Ampatzidis conducted several experiments in citrus orchards at the center and in commercial farms and found they used less pesticide and fertilizer. Protecting citrus trees and their fruit makes up a significant chunk of any grower’s budget. In Southwest Florida orange orchards alone, plant protection product applications cost about 34% of the total production costs. An industry partner, Chemical Containers has evaluated the technology and entered an agreement with UF Innovate Tech Licensing to license and commercialize the smart-spray technology. As they continue to evaluate the system’s efficiency, Ampatzidis and his team will study how well it detects and sprays trees in fields with tall weeds in more commercial groves. He and his team are also going to evaluate the system on other fruits, including peaches, apples and pecans to see how well it works on those tree crop systems. “We also plan to develop smart fertilizer spreader applicators to improve nutrient management,” he said. “Target-based management can help farmers apply nutrients as needed within the field, rather than applying fertilizers uniformly.”
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