H. Martin Lancaster, President
North Carolina Community College System
Wake County Bar Association
Raleigh, North Carolina
July 8, 2003
(Full text for Power Point presentation)
Slide one (logo)
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, fellow lawyers and friends. I am delighted to be back among members of the profession for which I trained…and which I practiced for many happy years.
Although I am no longer in practice, I will always be an attorney. I will always be proud of that identity, and grateful for the education that prepared me for the law, and the experience and contacts my work as a lawyer have given me. All of those have contributed to the work I have been able to do in my professional life.
I chose to study law in part because it answered my interests in public service, in intellectual challenge, in detail and yes, in justice.
I would be less than honest if I didn't also acknowledge that, from the perspective of hot summers in my dad's tobacco fields, it looked like a better way to earn a living that taking over the farm!
And the rest of the story is that had my small high school in Fremont, North Carolina offered calculus, I probably could have gotten into North Carolina State to study architecture…but it didn't, I didn't…and I couldn't be happier!
I have been privileged…really, blessed…with the opportunity to work hard and contribute in important areas. And I can tell you, without hesitation, that the work I do now, in your community college system, is both the most satisfying and the most challenge task I have ever had.
Slide 2 (title slide)
Today, I want to share with you what your community college system is and what we do for you -- in your roles as lawyers, business leaders, parents, and taxpayers. My focus is our commitment to building -- and now RE-building -- a knowledge-based economy for our state. Above the entrance to our headquarters building in downtown Raleigh is a huge sign that reads, "The North Carolina Community College System: Preparing North Carolina's World-Class Workforce." North Carolina’s people believe in progress. Providing good jobs for North Carolinians has always been a goal of our leaders, and a good job starts with a good education.
Slide 3 (history)
Our deep commitment to public investment in education dates back more than 200 years. North Carolina was the first state in the United States to charter a public university, the University of North Carolina. In 1958, we established Industrial Education Centers and began to provide customized training for new and expanding industry. Forty years ago, seeing the need for a comprehensive system of higher education focused on educating adults and helping North Carolinians make the transition from the farm to the factory, the state created the community college system. In this our 40th year, we are making the next great transition -- from factory to "pharma." -- that is, pharmaceuticals, biotech and other high-tech industries.
Slide 4 (history/economy)
The roots of community colleges date back to Governor Luther Hodges in the 1950s, who later became US Secretary of Commerce. He looked at North Carolina in the years after World War II and saw need and potential for change -- but a huge educational gap. As was true in many southern states, North Carolina’s economic foundation was agriculture -- first the wealth of the pine forests of the east, then cotton, then the tremendous rise of tobacco after the Civil War.
Textile mills and other industries moved south from New England in the late 19th and early 20th century, taking advantage of cheap labor, cheap energy and raw materials.
New industries, focused on technology and research, began to grow in the forties and fifties around the great universities, especially Chapel Hill, NC State and Duke.
Those universities educated the elite, but where could North Carolina's people prepare for the good jobs in those industries? For many years, the answer was nowhere.
Slide 5 (system history)
Governor Hodges envisioned a system of Industrial Education Centers to provide customized training to prepare our citizens for new jobs with textiles, furniture, and other big manufacturing employers.
Another great governor, Terry Sanford, built upon that structure to create in 1963 the North Carolina Community College System as we know it today, combining the best of technical education with solid academic preparation. Today, the North Carolina Community College System enrolls more than 800,000 students each year in 59 institutions, offering the most comprehensive community college program in the United States.
Slide 6 (maps of system)
The system puts a community college facility within easy traveling distance (in most cases less than 30 minutes) of every citizen in the state and provides comprehensive curricula that include those basic skills that may have eluded a student in the public schools all the way through the first two years of baccalaureate education.
What do those colleges do for you, and other attorneys around the state? We provide sites for CLE all across North Carolina. On the NC Bar Association website, I counted about a dozen sessions at community colleges coming up in the next six months We educate paralegals, administrative assistants, court reporters -- and those essential computer and networking folks!
We also provide a solid start for your friends, children and grandchildren who want two years toward a baccalaureate degree close to home, with small classes, good teachers, and…at last…good transfer agreements in place.
Slide 7 (distance learning)
Distance learning helps us extend these programs to just about
everybody who needs them. Our courses offered on the Internet have grown more
than 300%iIn just the last three years with more than 73,000 students taking
classes last year online or through interactive video. Colleges throughout the
state have partnered in an exciting new collaborative called the Virtual
Learning Community. Students can now earn several degrees, including
an Information Systems degree, entirely on line.
Slide 8 (economic development)
The most important thing we do for you, however, is to attract, keep and grow the businesses and industries that make up your client list! When the economy thrives, YOU thrive.
When I am asked which of our 59 institutions across the state are involved in economic and workforce development, I answer "all of them." When I am asked what portion of our budget is devoted to workforce and economic development, I say "All of it." When I am asked to define which aspects of our programs deal with workforce and economic development, I say, "All of them."
Our system's mission has always been the preparation of a world-class workforce. That was true when most of that preparation was for hands-on manufacturing jobs.
It is even truer today, when workforce preparation is all about knowledge, learning how to learn, to adapt, and to keep up with high tech and high skills in the global marketplace.
Slide 9 (customized training)
North Carolina knows what it means to meet the challenge of change. We were the first state to offer extensive job training to attract new industry. Our New and Expanding Industry Training Program, now widely copied in other states, continues to be the national model. It's not a stretch to say it ranks up there with basketball, barbecue and Krispy Kreme doughnuts as one of our most famous exports!
It has earned top national rankings for years from site selection experts, and consistently garners the highest of satisfaction rankings from employers. Those of you active in economic development know about this program -- it's a tremendous help to your clients and potential clients.
The New and Expanding Industry Training program served 155 companies and 14,771 trainees during the 2001-2002 program year. Companies benefit from tailor-made programs that support their specific needs for a skilled and knowledgeable workforce.
Services are available to companies that create 12 or more new jobs in any one community in North Carolina during a one-year period.
Companies that have taken advantage of program services are diverse - from auto parts and electronics manufacturers to biotechnology companies and data processing centers.
Slide 10 (FIT)
We also have a similar program for incumbent workers in established industries in designated critical areas. We realized early that keeping existing industries’ workforce well trained and the company profitable was as important as attracting new industry. Established in 1981, The Focused Industrial Training Program is primarily directed toward veteran workers in manufacturing industries who need to renew their skills and technical knowledge and for companies that are transitioning to new technologies and manufacturing processes. In the most recent fiscal year, Focused Industrial Training reached more than 10,488 employees in 754 companies. Though not free, these incumbent worker programs are highly subsidized and average about $50 per course.
Slide 11 (Small Business Centers)
The state recognizes the importance of homegrown prosperity, too. Our community colleges are working hard to help create the next "hot" industry through their exciting and valuable work with the state's energetic entrepreneurs. Our 58 Small Business Centers provide education and counseling to farmers or factory workers or single mothers who want to start a new business, manufacture a new product or provide a new service. Small Business Centers help aspiring entrepreneurs identify products or services that are in demand by others, develop and refine a business plan, find financing, develop marketing skills, and steer through the daunting bureaucratic maze of licenses, taxes, and environmental and worker safety regulation. In a given year, more than 50,000 people come to us for lessons in entrepreneurship, and many turn those lessons into dollars. For example, a used book dealer in Brunswick County took the knowledge he gained from the Small Business Center there and became a thriving supplier of rare publications to a world wide market.
Slide 12 (technical/vocational education)
Through our community colleges, North Carolina now produces the fifth highest number of technical and vocational graduates of any state in the nation. We offer short courses, seminars and other continuing education for hundreds of thousands of people already in the workforce, to keep their skills at the cutting edge. We continue pioneering partnerships with the North Carolina’s electronics and information technology industry, in health care, and with the bioprocessing and pharmaceuticals industry, forming strong industry-led collaboratives to ensure that we are preparing workers to compete in the new economy.
Slide 13("Pharma")
Biotechnology, biomanufacturing, bioprocessing and related bioscience industries make up the "cluster" that is truly taking North Carolina from factory to "Pharma.."…that is, pharmaceuticals and many related fields now vital to our economy.
Slide 14 (Biotech stats)
In biotechnology, North Carolina now has the largest concentration of these industries in the Southeast, ranking among the top five states in the nation.
- We are first in contract research,
- second in ag-bio research and development
- third in bioprocess manufacturing and
- fourth in pharmaceuticals,
- with seven of the top10 companies in the world with sites in North Carolina.
- Our state now has at least 32-thousand employees in 228 companies, producing $7 billion a year in revenues.
- That workforce is expected to quadruple by 2025…and a new study says that at least 60 percent of those will need more than high school but less than a university degree….that means community colleges.
Slide 15 (BioNetwork)
A collaborative program developed by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, -private industry, the University system and the community college system will take this to a new level with BioNetwork, a comprehensive approach to biotechnology workforce preparation.
BioNetwork will include a state-level biotechnology office for community colleges and a hands-on, state of the art training facility on a university campus. The facility will have 300 litre bioprocessing capacity and real "clean" room work spaces to teach technicians to work in such an environment and to teach maintenance personnel how to maintain that environment. BioNetwork will also include five community college resource centers, and specialized curricula in biomanufacturing at the community college and university levels.
Slide 16 (jobs)
If I had to sum up all of this information about the community college role in economic development in North Carolina, I would say -- jobs. We're about jobs.
- Preparing people for good jobs with great futures.
- Helping our state attract, grow and keep those jobs-
- Making sure people on the job keep their skills up-to-date.
We see confirmed every day the assertion that new industries locate and existing industry flourishes where our community colleges train and retrain the workforce where investments are made in infrastructure and in human capital.
Slide 17 (human capital)
Today, technology and capital travel across the globe at rates that only a decade ago would have been unimaginable. Capital knows no boundaries. It flows to those areas of the world that have the highest skills.
Why? Because, people and the skills they possess today are the most important assets for building wealth for a city, a state or a nation.
In North Carolina, we have made the commitment to invest in our people and their future.
Slide 18 (conclusion)
So that's what your community college system does for YOU. What can you do for us?
First, USE our colleges for your workforce training and continuing education needs. If you're not sure what Wake Tech, Durham Tech and Vance-Granville offer, call and find out. I think you'll be surprised and delighted by both the quantity and quality of offerings appropriate to your firm's needs.
Second, think about our community colleges for the education of your friends and family members. I realize that many -- probably most -- of us in this room think first of big universities and top liberal arts colleges for our own children. We should always want the best. We should recognize, however, that "best" has many definitions, and community colleges are the best choice for many people.
Third, get involved! Take a class yourself. If you don't want to brush up computer or management skills, try landscaping or CPR. Serve on an advisory committee. Ask about seats on the boards of trustees of community colleges. The local trustees are powerful, influential people…and they need smart people like you in their group. Teach a class…some of you likely already do.
And fourth, value your community college system. Because I hear it from so many of you, I know that you do understand that we provide a tremendous return on investment. Help us make sure that your neighbors and colleagues understand that, too.
Thank you again for your hospitality today. I am happy to take your questions.
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