H. Martin Lancaster, President
North Carolina Community College System
Every North Carolinian is now a part of the global economy. It has been said so often that it has become a cliche, but just because it is now a cliche, does not make it any less true.
Traditional textile workers lose their jobs as their companies move their plants to third world countries. Mothers outfit their children for school in clothes increasingly fabricated in the Caribbean. Families buy television sets and VCRs, which almost without exception, are made in foreign countries. Workers compete with and communicate with new residents in North Carolina who speak foreign languages. They and their children struggle to understand the cultures, foods, and holidays of their new co-workers and new friends. Company owners and executives buy raw materials from and sell finished products to customers all over the world. Workers who have spent their entire lives in a job or jobs in North Carolina, suddenly find themselves transferred to supervisory or other positions with their company in foreign countries.
The North Carolina Community College System was created to help farm workers no longer needed in the fields make the transition to manufacturing jobs. In more recent years, we have helped workers make the transition from traditional manufacturing jobs to high technology jobs in the information and service industry. Now, we must help them make the adjustments necessary to deal with the realities of being in a global economy. Under the leadership of President Desna Wallin, the North Carolina Community College Presidents Association obtained grants from the Stanley Foundation and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to host a global education conference at Forsyth Technical Community College on September 17 and 18.
If our workforce and our business and industry are to be competitive in this global economy, we must infuse every curriculum in our System with the training necessary for the persons to be prepared and our programs to compete effectively. Businesses must be taught the tools of successfully offering their products for sale in foreign markets. Employees must be taught to respect and work with the cultural differences of their co-workers born in foreign lands. Students must be taught the languages they will speak on the job and in communicating with customers around the world. Workers must receive the skills that are internationally recognized and certified so that they may move without difficulty between jobs today in this country and jobs tomorrow in another.
In September, Anson Community College hosted the first Virtual Trade Mission for students interested in international business careers and opportunities. All participants benefitted from this experience.
In addition to conferences and training programs of various kinds, our System will gain valuable experience in working with our competitors and partners around the world by working with them as they seek ways to upgrade worker-training programs in their respective countries. The System Office is now in the process of working with leaders in Thailand, China, and the Dominican Republic as they seek these worker-training and retraining skills that we have so effectively mastered and implemented in North Carolina. It is flattering that representatives of government and education in these countries have identified our programs as particularly relevant to meeting their needs and have come to us for our help.
I am proud of the role our Small Business Centers have played in encouraging exports of North Carolina products through seminars and direct support of businesses interested in increasing their profits through foreign trade. We must do more to prepare these businesses to compete and succeed. Colleges and members of the community college family across the State should be more proactive in seeking foreign exchange students to enroll in our programs and live in our communities. Their presence will greatly enhance the learning of our other students and enrich the lives of their host families and friends they make in North Carolina.
Though our System has trained the workforce for hundreds of foreign-owned companies that have located in our state, college leadership and all members of the community college family must be more aggressive in involving employees of those companies who have come to our communities from other countries in the social and civic life of the community and of our college activities.
I have been honored to be included in the North Carolina delegation to accompany the Governor to Europe last year and to Asia this year as we seek additional trade opportunities in foreign countries and greater investment by foreign companies in North Carolina plants and jobs. We will be more effective partners with the Department of Commerce and the Governor's Office in these foreign outreach efforts if each of our colleges takes seriously its responsibility to integrate global education in every aspect of its programs.
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