Gov. Rick Scott spent Monday on the Space Coast touting his proposal to pair teachers with high-tech companies. The reason: To prepare them to teach their students what it takes to land the jobs of the future.
Harris Corp. employees gathered to hear Gov. Scott and their CEO, Bill Brown, talk about their participation in the STEM Residency Program.
The goal is to create a summer residency program for science, technology, engineering and math teachers in grades K–12 who can bring back the trends of the future to their classrooms.
"They can go back and make sure our kids know what they should be learning to get great jobs here at Harris, and some of these other companies," Scott explained.
Harris, based in Melbourne, is one of 44 companies statewide confirming their participation in the STEM Residency Program. Three others are also based on the Space Coast: Embraer, Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman.
Brown said Harris hires an average of 150 new employees each year, mostly from Florida-based schools, and getting qualified candidates to vie for the engineering and science positions is always a challenge.
"Feeding that pool of talent is going to be very, very important, so we are strongly endorsing Gov. Scott's STEM initiative," Brown said.
The governor said he wants to invest $1 million into the program to place teachers with these high-tech companies during the summer months, and then formulate a curriculum based on the innovated ideas learned in the workplaces.
Brown said they always have ideas to pass along, but getting the employees to match the jobs is the challenge.
"It's the lifeblood of Harris Corporation. It's a technology-based organization," Brown said.
The new STEM Residency Program is part of the governor's upcoming budget Florida legislators will vote on in January.