Community Assessment, Labor, and Educational Institution Analysis
Base mapping implemented through ArcGIS integration with City of Cape Coral GIS resources. Map applications will include:
Review of Goals, Objectives, and Policies from six foundational strategic analyses lays the groundwork for determining commonality of factors for the Cape Coral Economic Development Strategic Plan. The Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council's Six Pillars hierachy for economic development presents the optimal means of aggregating the various recommended strategies from the preceding studies:
In total, 94 strategic Goals were identified through review of the preceding studies, all accompanied by Objectives and Policy recommendations. In summary, the six pillar groups are ranked as follows by number of common occurrences:
From the above analysis, it seems that not enough emphasis is being placed on Talent, Infrastructure, and Business Competitiveness. Future efforts are needed to correct this imbalance in strategic approach.
Refer to the Task 2 Appendices for summaries of the six preceding studies.
Note: Non-reporting of 2022 graduation data by Keiser University-Fort Myers and Rasmussen University-Fort Myers.
In total, 12,891 degrees or certificates were conferred in the 50-mile area in 2022. In terms of higher education performance, deduction of certificate-holders results in the figure of 9,933 degrees awarded in the last year. Leading fields of study by type of institution were as follows:
To better understand if the Cape Coral area higher educational attainment is in keeping with national or state norms, the University of Florida (Gainesville) was selected as a benchmark. Program majors for this large college likely represent what business fields are seeking in terms of new talent.
Percieved weaknesses in major program matriculation in the Cape Coral area versus the University of Florida are indcated below, as well as some areas of dominance:
SWOT designations are as follows:
Strengths (S): performance worthy of continued promotion
Weaknesses (W): deteriorated performance, with unlikely capability of correction
Opportunities (O): emerging performance deserving of promotional development
Threats (T): weakening performance in danger of falling into deteriorated category and requiring immediate attention
The six competing cities to Cape Coral identified in the Task 2.d section have been compared to Cape Coral. Ranked results in each of the same 32 Econographics categories indicate how Cape Coral fares against the competition.
Basic Location Qualifiers provides a summary of key components as developed in the Econographics Market Profiles:
The four SWOT categories from the Econographics analysis indicate competitive advantages and constraints vis-à-vis specific competing markets. Utilizing this information combined with the Public Survey comments and observed conditions by DCG Corplan Team personnel, the SWOT review results in the following critical assessments for the City of Cape Coral.
Strengths (S)
The analyses can be summarized through the SWOT Matrix. The two internal values of Strengths (S) and Weaknesses (W) are compared against the two external drivers of Opportunities (O) and Threats (T):
The outcome of the matrix is organized into four strategic groupings: