New platform created to identify educational capabilities and specialized talent for new investments in South Texas and Northern Tamaulipas

The availability of talent has become one of the determining factors for companies evaluating where to establish a new operation. In response to this reality, South Texas and northern Tamaulipas are moving forward with the development of a binational strategy aimed at creating a more direct connection between education, industry needs, and the region’s economic development efforts.

Through the Binational Higher Education Advisory Council (BEHAC), an initiative promoted by the Council for South Texas Economic Progress (COSTEP), educational institutions on both sides of the border have begun integrating into a single system information that had previously been dispersed: degree programs and academic offerings, enrollment, areas of specialization, certifications, laboratories, workshops, research centers, infrastructure, industry collaboration projects, and installed capacity.

The goal is to create a regional information tool capable of answering one of the most important questions companies ask before making an investment decision: Does this region have enough talent to launch an operation, support its growth, and keep pace with its technological evolution?

Talent development as strategic infrastructure

The relocation of supply chains to North America has intensified competition among regions seeking to attract new manufacturing projects. In this environment, industrial infrastructure remains essential, but increasingly, it is no longer sufficient on its own.

A region may have industrial parks, highways, international border crossings, and energy infrastructure, but a company will struggle to grow if it cannot find the human capital required for its operations.

For this reason, talent development is increasingly being viewed as strategic infrastructure, with the same level of importance as other assets traditionally used to promote a region.

BEHAC’s proposal is precisely to present South Texas and northern Tamaulipas as an integrated ecosystem in which educational capabilities do not end at the political border.

From this perspective, a company interested in establishing operations within the corridor will be able to identify the availability of talent, educational infrastructure, research centers, and training capabilities across both territories.

The region would thus move away from promoting only individual cities or municipalities and begin showcasing the scale of a binational ecosystem of education, industry, and talent.

The information collected will also serve another purpose: identifying gaps between what educational institutions currently teach and the skills industry will require in the coming years.

During the presentation of the project’s progress, Adam González, CEO of COSTEP, explained that the initiative began several months ago with the goal of identifying, organizing, and making visible the educational capabilities available across the binational region.

Data has been collected from institutions in South Texas and northern Tamaulipas, making it possible to begin assessing not only how many students are enrolled in specific fields, but also the capacity of educational institutions to respond to the needs of a new industrial investment.

The region includes the Texas cities of Laredo, McAllen, Brownsville, Harlingen, Mission, Edinburg, Pharr, Donna, Weslaco, Mercedes, San Benito, Rio Grande City, Roma, Zapata, Hebbronville, and Raymondville, as well as the Tamaulipas municipalities of Nuevo Laredo, Mier, Miguel Alemán, Reynosa, Río Bravo, Valle Hermoso, and Matamoros.

Among the South Texas academic institutions participating in the initiative are Laredo College, Texas A&M International University, South Texas College, Texas Southmost College, Texas State Technical College, Valley Grande Institute, South Texas Vo-Tech, and Texas A&M McAllen.

From scattered information to intelligence for attracting investment

One of the region’s main challenges has been that much of its educational capacity already exists but is distributed among numerous universities, institutes, training centers, and organizations.

Individually, each institution knows its programs, laboratories, specialties, and enrollment figures. However, when an international company or site selector evaluates the region as a potential investment destination, that information has not necessarily been integrated under a single regional vision. BEHAC seeks to change that dynamic.

The system will make it possible to identify where engineers, technicians, and professionals are being trained; which institutions have specific laboratories or certifications; how many students are preparing in strategic fields; and what capacity exists to develop new training programs linked to a specific industrial project.

For Adam González, having this information represents a competitive advantage. When a company evaluates a new location, factors such as available land, highway infrastructure, energy, and connectivity are fundamental, but another variable can ultimately determine the final decision: the availability of a specialized workforce.

Companies want to know where the technicians, engineers, and professionals they need will come from, how quickly they can be trained, and whether the region’s educational institutions have the capacity to adapt their programs as production processes evolve.

For this reason, the platform is intended to enable economic development organizations, municipalities, industrial developers, and investment promotion representatives to answer these questions with concrete and up-to-date information, making it easier to provide decision-makers considering the region with the data they need.

The region will be able to move from simply stating that it has talent to demonstrating it with data.

Universities in northern Tamaulipas join the strategy

As part of this effort, COSTEP established a partnership with the Consejo de Instituciones de Educación Superior de Reynosa (CCIES), an organization that brings together educational institutions in the city and will significantly expand the information incorporated into the system through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Among the universities and institutes that are part of the educational ecosystem considered in this strategy are Universidad Tamaulipeca, Instituto Tecnológico de Ciudad Cuauhtémoc (ITCC), UMAN, Universidad Valle del Bravo, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Universidad Interamericana del Norte, Escuela de Enfermería José Ángel Cadena, Universidad ISIMA, UAT Unidad Aztlán, UAT Unidad Reynosa Rodhe, Centro Universitario José Vasconcelos, ICEST, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, IESS, and Universidad Miguel Alemán, among other institutions.

Upper-secondary education institutions such as COBAT 17, COBAT 22, ITACE, and CETis 71 are also participating. Their involvement is relevant for identifying technical capabilities and profiles at an early stage that may later enter the region’s productive sectors.

The addition of more institutions will progressively broaden the overview of academic offerings and educational infrastructure available in northern Tamaulipas and complement the capabilities already present in South Texas.

Industry and universities: a relationship that needs to begin earlier

This platform makes it possible to identify areas where new academic programs, certifications, specialties, technical training, applied research projects, internships, dual education programs, and student mobility initiatives can be developed.

This represents an important shift in the relationship between education and industry. Instead of universities reacting after a company has already established operations and begins requesting specific profiles, the intention is for them to anticipate demand, understand where strategic sectors are headed, and begin preparing talent before the need becomes a skills gap.

CCIES President Dr. Oscar Aguilera emphasized that the development of cities is directly linked to education and to their ability to prepare young people for the sectors that are growing in the region.

The expansion of industries such as automotive, electronics, advanced manufacturing, and aerospace is creating new specialization needs on both sides of the border.

For this reason, one of the project’s first partnerships will be with the Clúster Eléctrico-Electrónico de Tamaulipas, with the goal of identifying the skills currently required by companies in the sector and beginning to develop collaboration mechanisms with educational institutions. This methodology could later be replicated across other industrial sectors.

A bridge between education, talent, and investment

The significance of the initiative lies in what can happen once the information has been integrated.

The data will make it possible to identify:

Which programs need to be strengthened

Where opportunities for academic collaboration exist

Which professional profiles industry demands

Which institutions have infrastructure that could be used for training, research, or technological development

Opportunities to facilitate new internship agreements

Opportunities to promote specialized certifications, applied research projects, and technology transfer

Ways to promote student mobility and academic recognition mechanisms among institutions in both countries

In the long term, the goal is to build an ecosystem in which universities have a clearer understanding of where industry is headed, while companies can more quickly identify the academic and technical capabilities they need.

For economic development organizations, the tool will also make it possible to present stronger arguments to international investors.

The educational capacity already exists. The challenge is to integrate it, measure it, and turn it into a competitive advantage.

That is the shift beginning to take shape through BEHAC: moving from institutions operating independently toward a shared vision of the capabilities of a binational region.

Above all, it means moving beyond simply discussing the potential of the Texas-Tamaulipas corridor and being able to demonstrate, with concrete information, that behind its infrastructure, geographic location, and industrial base, the region also has the talent needed to support the next generation of manufacturing investments.