RALEIGH: "The North Carolina Community College System is fulfilling the training needs of North Carolina, particularly in rural areas," said Dr. Larry Keen, Vice President for Economic and Workforce Development for the NCCCS.

Keen presented the 2001-2002 Trends and Statistics for the New and Expanding Industry Training program at the September meeting of the State Board of Community Colleges. The numbers show the services provided to rural areas have increased five percentage points over last year and that employer satisfaction is also higher.

Keen reminded the Board that North Carolina is the only state in the nation that has been ranked in the top ten every year since 1989 by the industry standard, Expansion Management Magazine. North Carolina ranked in the top spot for two consecutive years, and is ranked number five this year.

"Our performance statistics are extremely impressive," said Keen, as he noted the marked improvement in ratings. Employers were surveyed to determine if their training expectations were met and 67% said the training was excellent, "requiring no improvement and exceeding expectations." This is a ten-percentage point increase over last year. Twenty-nine percent ranked the training very good, meeting company needs at a "highly acceptable level." Three percent said training was "acceptable."

Keen told the Board that he was troubled by the 1% that found training "marginal" and vowed to determine and correct the reasons for that response.

Employers were also asked to rank the impact of training on the company’s operations. Again, rankings were extremely high. Impact received an "excellent" from 66.7% of those responding, up from 44.8% last year. A "very good" ranking was given by 26.3%, "acceptable" by 6.1%, and 1% rated impact on operations as "marginal."

Effectiveness in preparing employees for productivity was the third category ranked. Training effectiveness was ranked "excellent by 56%, up from 45.5% last year. A "very good" ranking came from 37% of the respondents and the remaining 7% said the training was "acceptable."

The State of North Carolina had 26% fewer new and expanding companies, which resulted in a 24% reduction in the number of training projects. Also, the number of workers trained decreased 39%.

The NCCCS offered 65.2% of the NEIT projects in rural areas. In addition, 65% of the funding spent and 65.9% of those trained were in rural parts of North Carolina. Keen emphasized that the NCCCS training is placing extra emphasis "exactly where it is most needed."

The NEIT supports the economic development efforts of North Carolina by providing education and training opportunities for new and expanding businesses. The program, which began in 1958, was the first state-supported customized training program in the nation and has been copied by other states. The program is designed to respond quickly to the needs of businesses, and to respect the confidential nature of the proprietary process and information within those businesses.

This was the first presentation given to the Board by Dr. Keen, who joined the System Office this month. Keen replaced Dr. Scott Ralls who left to become president at Craven Community College in New Bern.

-NCCCS-

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