San Diego is hoping to keep its college graduates in town by offering opportunities to explore downtown startups.
Downtown San Diego Partnership (DSDP) and San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (San Diego Regional EDC) each work to support and develop business in downtown San Diego.
On Friday, the collaboration brought over 100 undergraduate computer science students from San Diego State University (SDSU) and University of California San Diego (UCSD) to tour local startups and incubators such as EvoNexus, The Control Group, Mindtouch and Red Door Interactive.
In 2014, DSDP and San Diego Regional EDC partnered for a talent retention program to educate students on local job opportunities for recent graduates in fields including cyber security, sports and active lifestyle and bio tech.
The program expanded in late 2015 and began utilizing Link2Downtown to bring students to the companies themselves.
Sarah Lubeck, Communication Manager of San Diego Regional EDC, explained San Diego schools, like UCSD, have large numbers of computer science graduates but students frequently move to San Francisco for job opportunities. However, there are a lot of local jobs for recent graduates in technology, elaborated Lubeck.
“We just want students to know San Diego is an option for young graduates,” said Lubeck. “Businesses here have really cool jobs for young people but we don’t talk about them enough.”
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The talent retention program hopes to continue showing students what opportunities lie locally and keep San Diego-educated graduates in town.
