Brain Drain: Talent leaving Nashville

New initiative seeks to 'turn the tide' on a shrinking pool of scarce workers

Email | Print By Milt Capps

Dan Fleetwood

Only one person among Vanderbilt University's most recent crop of 25 graduates with bachelors degrees in computer science and computer engineering accepted a job in Tennessee, with the remainder heading to more attractive job markets, according to a Vanderbilt representative interviewed this morning by NashvillePost.com.

That's a problem for Nashville, which has been known to post more than 1,200 job vacancies in a single month in information-technology fields, alone, according to Jeff Costantine, president of the Nashville Technology Council.

Costantine noted that local universities may produce this year as few as 215 four-year degree-holders in tech-oriented fields — and fully 69 percent of those are destined to leave the state upon graduation.

The problem isn't isolated to Vandy: Costantine told NashvillePost.com this morning that NTC's recent survey of local four-year universities shows some retained as few as 10 percent graduates who are tech-oriented, broadly defined. To make matters worse, only 4 to 10 percent of the four-year schools' student bodies are working toward tech degrees, Costantine said.

Nashville Technology Council is attempting to forge a new alliance of colleges, universities and employers who are interested in addressing the shortage of tech-skilled workers. Last week, NTC convened its first "Turning the Tide" meeting at Belmont University. A dozen universities and 30 employers participated.

"The competition for talent in this area is fierce," said Vanderbilt School of Engineering Professor Dan Fleetwood, during an interview this morning.

Fleetwood said that, in addition to the out-migration of undergraduates, most engineers who receive master's degrees leave the Nashville area. It is also common for Ph.D. candidates to be recruited-away from Vanderbilt to excellent jobs in industry elsewhere, before they complete their doctoral studies.

Fleetwood, who is chairman of VU's electrical engineering and computer science department, said the outflow of doctoral students robs the region of talent, and makes it harder for campus scientists to recruit research assistants.

He stressed that students who have had good corporate engineering internships while undergrads are more likely to stay in Middle Tennessee.