H. Martin Lancaster, President
North Carolina Community College System
Gothenborg, Sweden
April 8, 2002
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am honored to be with you to share information about North Carolina's commitment to preparing our citizens for today's knowledge-based economy.
I am reminded of that commitment every day when I walk through the front doors of the headquarters of North Carolina's community college system. Above the main entrance is a huge sign that reads, "The North Carolina Community College System: Preparing North Carolina's World-Class Workforce."
The goal of preparing a world-class workforce is not only a strategic reminder over our entrance; it has been a central component of North Carolina’s economic development efforts for over 40 years. Governors and state leaders have frequently repeated the mantra that education is economic development in North Carolina, and our current Secretary of Commerce, Jim Fain, has his own way of saying this when he refers to workforce development as "Job One" of all our economic development initiatives.
North Carolina is recognized internationally as a pioneer in connecting education and workforce development to our economic development goals. The roots of these efforts date back to Governor Luther Hodges, who became US Secretary of Commerce and who had two signature educationally focused economic development efforts as part of his vision to diversify the North Carolina economic and industrial base. The first was labeled an absolutely crazy idea to create a world-class research and technology park in the middle of a pine forest that was at the center of three of our strongest universities. That crazy idea became the Research Triangle Park, today recognized as one of the most successful research and technology centers in the world and a key driver in our State’s increasingly high tech economy.
The second initiative, with an even stronger education slant and even more widespread impact on the state, was a system of Industrial Education Centers to provide customized industry training to prepare our citizens for new job opportunities. That initiative, started in the 1950s by Governor Hodges to train displaced farmers for manufactuirng jobs, grew into the 59 institutions of the North Carolina Community College System which I am proud to lead today, the most comprehensive community college system in the United States and a world leader in workforce development.
Frequently, I am asked to talk about our role in economic and workforce development as I have been today. 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 preparation, I say, "All of them."
North Carolina's community colleges enroll 800,000 students each year in 59 institutions. From our founding forty years ago, our system's mission has 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 more true today, when workforce preparation is all about knowledge…learning how to learn, to adapt, to keep up with high tech and high skills in the global marketplace.
Here are just a few of the accomplishments of our community colleges in their support of economic and workforce development across the state.
- North Carolina was the first state to offer extensive job
training to attract new industry. Our customized training programs continue
to be the national model, having earned the highest average annual ranking
of any state in the nation the past four years by Expansion Management
magazine, and earning the highest of satisfaction rankings from employers.
Last year our New and Expanding Industry Training program trained 24,000
North Carolinians for 203 new and expanding companies, a 20% increase over
the previous year.
- Through our community colleges, North Carolina now produces
the fifth highest number of technical and vocational graduates of any state
in the nation. Our enrollments in degree programs this year are up more than
10 percent. In occupational extension and other training focused on specific
skills, enrollment is up 19 percent, and still climbing.
- Last year, we enrolled more than 300,000 people in
short-term skills training as part of our workforce continuing education
program, one of the largest lifelong learning programs in the nation, if not
the world.
- In 2000, we implemented a new concentrated competency-based
training program called the Manufacturing Certification Program, based on
industry skill standards and certification programs, to better prepare new
and existing workers to work in North Carolina’s restructuring,
increasingly high tech manufacturing environment. The program has been
offered at 15 colleges and is growing, and has been a major plus in economic
development and training efforts.
- We continued pioneering partnerships with the North Carolina’s electronics and information technology industry, and with the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industry, forming strong industry-led collaboratives to insure that we are preparing workers to compete in the new economy. Our goal is to use our high tech company talent to set the targets for where we need to be in training for our ever-important information and biotechnology industries.
- Almost every one of our colleges now offers a networking academy at one or more of their campuses, and our networking technology enrollments have increased over 3,000% since 1997, by far the largest increase of any program area. Each year, approximately 200-thousand North Carolinians come to community colleges to learn Information Technology skills, some for advanced programming and networking, others for computer and Internet Literacy which we can now offer free of charge to our unemployed and poorest citizens.
- In biotechnology, North Carolina now has the largest concentration of these industries in the Southeast, ranking among the top five states in the nation. To help further spur this growth, through our partnership with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, we have developed a series of concentrated training programs including BioWork, a groundbreaking program for biotechnology manufacturing process technicians that has been profiled by the media throughout the country.
- Our courses offered on the Internet have grown more than 300% in just the last three years. 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.
That’s a lot of activity in a very short period of time, and as President of the North Carolina Community College System, I am extremely proud of the workforce development efforts of all 58 of our community colleges and the North Carolina Center for Applied Textile Technology. But as a North Carolinian, I am even more proud when I look at the full array of educational progress that has taken place across the state which puts us on pace to meet our State objective to be first in education for the entire U.S. by the year 2010.
Our public schools are making extraordinary progress, in fact according to independent studies, making the most progress of any state in the United States during the decade of the 90s. Just a couple of examples:
- North Carolina’s fourth and eighth grade students topped the national and Southeast average scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ (NAEP) 2000 Mathematics Assessment, often referred to as the "Nation’s Report Card."
- SAT scores by our high school graduates have shown the most improvement of any state since 1991.
- Our state accounts for almost a quarter of the nation’s National Board Certified teachers, and we received the highest score of any state for improving teacher quality according to a 50-State Report Card by Education Week.
- Recent initiatives also include a nationally recognized school accountability program and a new "More at Four" pre-kindergarten effort started by Governor Easley.
- A collaborative program between community colleges and public high schools called Tech Prep prepares students for a seamless transition from high school technical education to community college technical education.
Because of these efforts, both in the community colleges and public schools, it may not surprise you that the National Alliance of Business awarded North Carolina recognition as State of the Year in Workforce Development in 1999.
Of course, workforce preparation in North Carolina includes our extremely strong public and private universities, that include the 16-campus University of North Carolina system, often recognized as the leading public university system in the nation.
Did you know that according to U.S. News and Report national rankings last year, North Carolina is home to three of the top thirty universities in the United States; three of top 50 business schools, and two of the top forty engineering schools. And just two years ago the citizens of our State passed the largest higher education facilities bond in U.S. history that will lead to over $3 billion worth of construction on University and community college campuses.
Now if I appear to be suggesting to you that we do not have any problems in our education systems in North Carolina, I am not. But if I appear to be suggesting how very proud of the leadership our state has taken in education in workforce development, I am.
Why? Because tomorrow’s economic prosperity is linked more to the education and skills of our workforce, than it was forty and fifty years ago when the groundwork of many of our initiatives were laid. 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 least fluid of any of the major factors of production, and they are the most important asset for building wealth for a city, a state or a nation.
Just as you know here in Sweden, we know that our economic prosperity will be determined by our knowledge-based workforce. I invite you to explore the opportunities that North Carolina has to offer.
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