High-Skilled/High-Wage Jobs

GOAL:
Increase regional prosperity by focusing resources on growing industry sectors with high-paying jobs while developing a world-class workforce.

STRATEGIES:
1) Develop Opportunities In Target Industries
Focus on increasing jobs in targeted industry sectors with the highest growth potential. Create a well-defined business and job development effort aimed at maximizing new opportunities in these sectors.

2) Increase Regional Workforce Readiness
Create an employer-driven, demand-side workforce development initiative that identifies skill gaps and specific employer needs, then aligns necessary educational and training resources to fill those gaps.

Attract young talent from outside the region.

Tap potential workforce resources in the Tucson region in the following three areas:
    * Recent graduates from The University of Arizona
    * New military retirees and military spouses from Ft. Huachuca
      and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
    * Retired executives and other experienced workers who have 
      located in the region

3) Advance Higher Education/Economic Development Partnerships
Create a collaborative venture between The University of Arizona, TREO and others to weave the UA deeply into the fabric of every economic development aspect of the community, including (but not limited to) the following:
    * Enhancing downtown development
    * Strengthening the 21st century workforce
    * Expanding entrepreneurial growth
    * Creating and transferring new technologies to the private sector
    * Fortifying university-industry research collaboration
    * Promoting technology-based economic development
    * Building public policy and planning capacity
    * Creating globally competitive businesses
    * Expanding opportunities for university graduates to pursue their
      careers in the Tucson region
    * Developing world-class infrastructure
    * Building leadership and civic capacity

4) Strengthen the Regional Science and Technology Base
Leverage efforts and resources -- like Science Foundation Arizona, the state and regional roadmaps for bioscience, advanced communications/IT, sustainable systems, solar electricity and aerospace, plus technology development programs offered by the Arizona Department of Commerce -- to help build a highly-skilled workforce and increase technology excellence.

5) Strengthen Entrepreneurship
Spark the formation of new companies in the identified industry clusters through intensive business development assistance, and by making these new startups competitive in obtaining risk and venture capital, government grants (SBIRs and STTRs) and other vital resources.

6) Expand and Coordinate International Foreign Direct Investment and Trade Opportunities
Consolidate international economic development programs in the Tucson region to provide a one-stop shop for Foreign Direct Investment and trade.

Partner with Phoenix, Flagstaff, Yuma and the Arizona Department of Commerce to collectively promote Arizona as a competitive location for Foreign Direct Investment.

7) Market the Region
Launch a focused image enhancement effort to change the perception of the Tucson region as a low-wage community, and to promote the Tucson brand locally, nationally and globally.