COSTEP and CCIES strengthen binational collaboration to develop the talent demanded by industry

The Council for South Texas Economic Progress, the Reynosa Council of Higher Education Institutions and universities on both sides of the border will promote a binational strategy to connect workforce development with the needs of industry, strengthen regional competitiveness and facilitate investment attraction.

The agreement represents a new step within the Binational Higher Education Advisory Council, an initiative promoted by COSTEP to integrate academic information and the installed capacity of higher education institutions in South Texas and northern Tamaulipas into a single platform.

During the project presentation, Adam González, CEO of COSTEP, explained that the organization began an effort several months ago to identify and organize the educational capabilities available on both sides of the border. The initiative now brings together information from 24 higher education institutions, 13 of which are located in northern Tamaulipas and 11 in South Texas.

“The intention is to identify, organize and make visible the educational capabilities of our binational region. The more institutions participate, the greater our potential will be to promote the region among international investors,” he said.

One of the agreement’s main objectives is to incorporate CCIES, an organization that brings together universities in Reynosa, in order to expand the educational database and turn it into a regional intelligence tool that supports decision-making by companies and economic development organizations.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed during the regular session of the Council of Higher Education Institutions and was attended by representatives of the 21 universities that make up the organization, as well as industrial and business leaders from the border region.

Attendees included Humberto Martínez, president of the National Index Council; Sergio Treviño, president of the Tamaulipas Electrical and Electronics Cluster; Walter Rico, treasurer of the same organization; Sergio Gracia, president of Mexico Industry; and Rafael Tapia, RSTEF grants manager.

Workforce development will respond to the needs of border industry

Adam González explained that the project emerged from a need identified during the international economic promotion missions led by COSTEP, in which foreign companies assess the availability of specialized talent before moving forward with an investment.

“Many people think companies arrive looking for land or highways. That is important, but the first thing they ask is where their workforce will come from and whether there is enough capacity to train the talent they will need,” Adam González explained.

Through BIHAC, the system will begin integrating information from universities, laboratories, research centers, certifications, infrastructure and academic programs on both sides of the border.

The objective is for both platforms to make it possible to immediately identify which institutions are training the talent required by a particular industry and to detect opportunities to strengthen collaboration between companies and universities.

“The development of cities depends on education, and so does the development of young people. Many companies are relocating precisely to this region; we have the automotive industry, but we also have the aerospace industry that is developing in Brownsville,” explained Dr. Oscar Aguilera, president of CCIES.

“We have to conduct research according to the needs of industry, we have to be extremely well prepared, and I am proud to have signed this agreement,” added the CCIES president, highlighting the importance of strengthening academic preparation.

During his presentation, González emphasized that the project goes far beyond building a database, as it seeks to integrate academic programs, laboratories, certifications, research, student mobility and installed capacity into a single regional intelligence framework.

“We are building a regional intelligence tool. For the first time, we will be able to integrate academic programs, laboratories, certifications, research, student mobility and the installed capacity of institutions on both sides of the border into a single vision,” González said.

This information will make it possible to demonstrate the educational strength of the binational region to potential investors and provide concrete data on the availability of engineers, specialized technicians, scientific infrastructure and training programs.

Nearshoring drives new specialized education programs

According to COSTEP, one of the most frequent challenges is that many graduates do not find job opportunities aligned with their education because of the lack of coordination between academic programs and the economic sectors experiencing the strongest growth.

For that reason, the initiative proposes developing collaboration strategies with industrial clusters to promote specialized training programs, student mobility, dual education and curriculum updates.

The first pilot project will be developed with the Tamaulipas Electrical and Electronics Cluster, which recently began operations, as part of a strategy to strengthen the preparation of the talent required by new investments linked to nearshoring.

The Memorandum of Understanding signed by COSTEP and CCIES also opens the door to the participation of additional universities from northern Tamaulipas and South Texas.

Public and private institutions currently participate in the initiative, although the goal is to expand coverage in order to build a complete overview of the educational offering, academic capabilities and infrastructure available across the binational region.

In the medium term, the project seeks to facilitate student mobility programs, academic credit recognition and collaboration in applied research, while its long-term vision is to consolidate a binational education and innovation ecosystem.

This ecosystem is intended to strengthen the competitiveness of the industrial corridor between Tamaulipas and Texas, improve workforce preparation and respond to the needs of companies considering new investments along the border.

For COSTEP, this collaboration represents a strategic component of international economic promotion by demonstrating that the region offers not only logistics infrastructure and a strategic geographic location, but also a growing capacity to develop the human capital required by the industry of the future.