TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — This year marks the 3rd Annual North Florida Worlds of Work career exploration event, presented by the Talent Development Council, which will take place Thursday, Oct. 23 – Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, on the campuses of Tallahassee State College and Lively Technical College. For two days, Worlds of Work (WOW) transforms Lively and TSC into an interactive career expo with 11 worlds, 18 industries, and 100+ employers. More than 3,000 students will participate in hands-on activities to spark career interests and guide future choices.

Traditionally, Worlds of Work is open to 9th-grade students from Leon, Gadsden, Wakulla, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Taylor, and Liberty counties. This year, the TDC is expanding its impact by introducing Community WOW, a window on Thursday, Oct. 23, from 2–5 p.m., where job seekers and members of the public are encouraged to attend and explore in-demand career opportunities.

Community WOW will give community members a chance to participate in on-site interviews for part-time, full-time, and internship positions—all without the hassle of traditional hiring processes. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact directly with hiring contacts and potentially leave with a job offer in hand.

“WOW isn’t just a career fair, it’s a movement for economic mobility and a rare chance to meet employers face-to-face, have real conversations, and in many cases walk away with a job offer the very same day,” said Corrie Melton, Vice President of Membership & Talent Development for the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and member of the Talent Development Council. “Whether you’re a student just beginning to imagine your path, a parent exploring opportunities alongside your child, or an employer looking to fill critical roles, WOW proves that when schools, businesses, and the community work together, everyone benefits.”

A new data report from Lightcast shows the U.S. is projected to face a shortage of nearly six million workers by 2032. With an impending labor shortage on the horizon, initiatives like WOW are more critical than ever.

“Worlds of Work is all about opening eyes to new possibilities — helping students discover careers they may never have considered and start envisioning a future they’re excited about,” said Dr. Jim Murdaugh, President of Tallahassee State College. ”By welcoming the broader community, we’re also creating real opportunities for people to explore in-demand jobs available today.”

For more information about participating employers and details about the Community WOW event, visit www.northfloridaworldsofwork.com.

WHEN
Thursday, October 23, 2025 – Friday, October 24, 2025
8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Daily

Community WOW
Thursday, October 23, 2025
2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

WHERE
Tallahassee State College
444 Appleyard Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32304

Lively Technical College
500 Appleyard Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32304

WHO

WOW: 9th Grade Students from Leon, Gadsden, Wakulla, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Taylor, and Liberty counties

Community WOW: ALL Members of the Community

List of participating employers here.

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About the Tallahassee Talent Development Council

In 2021, the Talent Development Council (TDC) was established with representatives from leading workforce and education entities in the Capital Region. The TDC developed a strategic plan to guide the process. The One Vision strategic planning process included input from nearly 50 stakeholders and qualitative research. From this engagement, the TDC developed and executed a comprehensive three-year plan. This plan continues to evolve in response to community, education, and workforce development needs, ensuring strong collaboration as we work to build a successful talent pipeline for local businesses and organizations.

For more information, contact:
Katie Harwood, Manager of Talent Development
Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce
kharwood@talchamber.com

(850) 521-3109

Media Contact:
Maria Elsbernd, Public Relations Manager

Revell Media

maria@revellmedia.com

(850) 445-7219

photo by lawrence davidson  The Tech Expo is hosted by the TalTech Alliance, a nonprofit organization focused on uniting the community’s technology-oriented corporations, small businesses, entrepreneurs, service providers, investors, civic lenders, individuals and students.

Students, business owners and vendors alike gathered on April 18 for the Tech Expo at the Florida State Turnbull Conference Center to witness the varied ways that technology is revolutionizing the way we do local business.

The Tech Expo is hosted by the TalTech Alliance, a nonprofit organization focused on uniting the community’s technology-oriented corporations, small businesses, entrepreneurs, service providers, investors, civic lenders, individuals and students. TalTech has emerged as a vibrant organization of 250-plus members representing more than 75 businesses.

TalTech’s vision is to have strong and fully integrated technology, education and business sectors so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of a more diverse, stable and competitive economy. 

The conference included a mix of state agencies, local companies and student showcases. Some notable speakers included: Chris Snow, director of Space Florida, discussing the future of the state’s aerospace industry; Richard Butgereit, a bureau chief from the Division of Emergency Management Emergency Operations, discussing the many ways that technology plays a role in disaster relief; and Ryan Kopinsky, software developer and director at I/O Avenue, who spoke on augmented reality and the merging of the physical and digital worlds. 

WCTV anchor and reporter Julie Montanaro was the keynote speaker. She discussed how the news business has changed with the technological developments of the past few decades — from electric typewriters to phone cameras that can transmit live video from any location. 

Discussing the expo’s theme — “Technology Transcends Industries” — Montanaro said: “My challenge, perhaps as well as yours, in this age of rapidly changing technology is to be fully present with the people that I’m speaking to, truly sharing the stories of people’s lives and letting technology be the vehicle that helps us stay focused on the business we’re really in.”

The expo also included sessions on chatbots, mobile application innovation, social media, environmental uses of technology, banking and security and more. 

The conference concluded with an awards presentation by Marc F. Paul, TalTech’s chairman. The awards recognized the achievements of the showcases presented by both Florida State University students and Florida A&M University students. Afterwards, attendees took part in a cocktail party at The Gathering above Madison Social which featured music from the Tobacco Rd Band.

See the highlights of the 2018 Tech Expo below.

photo by istock/gettyimages plus/ jorge ferreira

TALLAHASSEE — As Florida continues to deal with an opioid crisis, state corrections officials are moving ahead on a plan to cut substance-abuse services to make up a shortfall in health-care funding for the prison system.

“We’re in the worst drug epidemic that this country and Florida have ever seen and we’re talking now about reducing programs at the same exact time we’re trying to turn the corner on this epidemic. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me,” Mark Fontaine, executive director of the Florida Alcohol & Drug Abuse Association, said Wednesday.

The state Department of Corrections announced the plan Tuesday evening, saying services had to be cut to shift money to the health care program, where there is a $55 million shortfall.

Corrections Secretary Julie Jones said although lawmakers increased health-care funding for the prison system, the department does not have enough money to cover a new contract for medical, dental, mental-health and hospital services in the budget year that begins July 1. The current contract expires at the end of June.

The agency projects it will need an additional $28 million in 2018-2019 to fund the new contract and will have to offset $26.8 million in rising costs for pharmaceuticals.

“In order to secure a health services contractor, fund the increased pharmaceutical budget, and adjust for reductions, we’ve unfortunately had to make some very difficult decisions. At the start of the next fiscal year, we will be reducing some of our current contracts with community providers,” Jones said in a statement.

The reductions will be felt across the state, impacting some 33 community providers that offer substance-abuse services and other programs, ranging from life-skills development to job placement, designed to help prisoners successfully return to society once they have served sentences.

“They are reducing or eliminating contracts that they have with community providers that are providing very valuable, evidence-based and effective programs in order to get to that goal,” Fontaine said.

The cuts include a 40 percent reduction in funding for substance-abuse and mental-health treatment for prisoners returning to their communities, representing a $9.1 million reduction. Another $1.6 million will be cut in transitional housing services.

In the prisons, another $7.6 million in substance-abuse services will be eliminated, and the plan will shift prisoners receiving more intensive “therapeutic” treatment to “more cost-effective” work-release programs, providing another $6 million in savings, according to the plan.

Another $2.3 million will be cut from basic-education re-entry centers, while smaller cuts include $500,000 used to fund chaplains and librarians.

Fontaine said cuts in substance-abuse treatment are particularly troubling.

“Seventy percent of the people in prison have a drug problem, and these are the few critical services we have providing drug treatment and they’re talking about reducing those,” he said.

He also said effective drug treatment can help reduce the rate of prisoners returning to the system, reduce costs and protect communities.

“We’ve seen that over and over again. Research-based drug treatment makes a difference,” Fontaine said.

In an interview Tuesday night with The News Service of Florida, Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Chairman Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, said the prison system funding crisis had “been festering for years” and that lawmakers failed to adequately respond to the issue.

Brandes said health-care funding shortfalls have to be addressed, but he lamented the impact on the substance-abuse services.

“You can’t have an opioid crisis and cut opioid funding. You can’t just let people out of prison without some type of transition back into society. These are the types of programs that the research shows provide the best outcomes,” he said.

Fontaine, who said he is talking with lawmakers, legislative staff and Gov. Rick Scott’s aides, suggested one way to address the crisis would be to shift some of the state’s reserve funds into the prison budget, although lawmakers have been reluctant to spend down reserves.

“It’s not like we have to take this (budget-cutting) action. There are other actions that can be done. It just takes the political will to do it,” he said.

The privatization of prison health care has been an ongoing problem for the state, with the Department of Corrections going through a series of companies in an attempt to provide the services. Jones is negotiating a new contract with Centurion of Florida LLC, which provides the current services for about 87,000 inmates. The new contract is expected to be a five-year, $2 billion agreement.