St. Petersburg College (SPC) is part of a national network that is leading the charge in ensuring that community colleges are major drivers of the U.S. workforce. Its “Better Jobs, Better Lives” movement recognizes the importance of strengthening its relationships with industry to deliver academic programs that provide the talent to fill in demand and higher wage jobs, while developing new models for students to better connect to those jobs. An example of this transformation in action is SPC’s development of the first Future Blue Economy Workforce Conference, funded by a National Science Foundation grant. The September 2024 conference convened educators, students and faculty from regional community colleges and universities, with nonprofit organizations and industry professionals. Discussions throughout the conference helped SPC identify the technical training needs to best prepare the future blue economy workforce and foster enhanced partnerships with the blue economy industry. Goals included generating a focus on curriculum to engage students in ocean-related studies, improving workforce recruitment for Ocean Sciences and building public awareness of the importance of the blue economy. SPC prepared a public report on issues unveiled such as current hiring trends, necessary workforce skills, competencies, credentialing and recommendations for new blue economy curriculum. Identifying and addressing workforce needs collectively has wide-reaching impact on the greater Tampa Bay community. The growth of the blue economy impacts a cross section of industries, both directly and indirectly, thus having great potential to create jobs across a multitude of sectors.