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Businesses arriving and expanding in North Carolina are creating thousands of jobs. Colleges and universities, along with public and private sector partners, are uniting to fill them with skilled workers.
North Carolina was the No. 1 state for workforce last year, according to business-news channel CNBC. And it topped Site Selection magazine’s South Atlantic Regional Workforce Development ranking this year. The Tar Heel State regularly outshines the 49 others as the nation’s top place for business and industry. That prestigious ranking bestows an abundance of jobs that need to be filled with qualified workers.
Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, the state’s public-private business booster, called North Carolina one of the fastest growing states by population in a recently published white paper. It says more than 340 residents arrive daily, and its growing labor force that currently numbers 5.2 million. “I think from a top-level perspective, our workforce argument continues to be strong, propelled by its size and the rate it is increasing,” says EDPNC CEO Chris Chung. “But that doesn’t mean fast growth is necessarily relevant for every industry sector or that every employer will have the same hiring experience.”
The EDPNC counts about 650 business and industry announcements with more than 90,000 jobs created and more than $50 billion of investment in less than five years. They include megasite corporations, such as the Toyota battery plant in Randolph County, aerospace company Pratt and Whitney near Asheville and Wolfspeed semiconductor in Siler City. Three corporations — medical device companies Schott Pharma in Wilson County and Nipro in Pitt County and Natron Energy in Edgecombe County — announced investments totaling more than $2 billion this year. “So, you’ve got Greenville, Wilson and Rocky Mount scoring over 2,000 new jobs right there,” Chung says.
While the arrival of multimillion-dollar companies make the biggest headlines, most businesses that relocate to North Carolina are small to midsize. While they count plenty of reasons to relocate, some pause when they consider hiring in a job market tightened by robust economic development. “On one hand, companies might say, ‘Wow, North Carolina is very successful. Maybe I need to be a part of this,’ and that’s great,” Chung says. “The challenging aspect is that they see other employers creating thousands of jobs and wonder if the state has tapped out its labor force.” He believes the state needs to illustrate what the long-term trajectory of workforce growth looks like and the trends that support it.
Workforce supply is a Catch 22. While North Carolina has a host of workforce development programs, most with the state’s Community College System, it can’t deploy them until it knows what’s needed. “We can’t just build that pipeline of 1,000 highly qualified specifically skilled
individuals and have them sit and wait for a company to arrive,” says N.C. Community College System President Jeff Cox. “We must show companies that if they do choose North Carolina, we will build their talent pipeline, because we’ve got a track record of being able to do that.”
The state Community College System intends to influence targeted workforce growth by providing a steady flow of employees who are ready to work through its proposed Propel NC workforce development funding model. “We are the workforce solution for the state, the primary labor partner for business and industry,” Cox says. “We are thinking differently about how we’re asking the legislature to fund us in a way that is tied directly to our high-demand, high-wage labor market needs.”
Propel NC is designed to better fill the talent pipeline by elevating the status of short-term credentials that meet specific requirements in the labor market and tailoring them to individual needs in communities statewide. The model focuses on high-demand careers and those that pay competitive wages.
The system’s current funding model, which was created in 2010, doles out financial resources to colleges in proportion to the number of full-time equivalent students enrolled in each curriculum program. Some receive more money than others because of a tiered funding model that encourages colleges to offer courses that lead directly to employment.
While funding decisions will remain FTE-based under Propel NC, the tier model would shift to workforce sectors — public safety, transportation, health care, information technology, advanced manufacturing and biotechnology. Under the new funding system, certificate programs receive the same funding consideration as ones that lead to a degree.
Dale McInnis will retire from his post as Richmond Community College president this fall, ending a 32-year career in the community college system, and take the helm of The O’Neal School, a private college preparatory school in Southern Pines. But his impact on the system will continue: He played a lead role in drafting Propel NC, which grew from a proposal by the community college system for a 16-month study on workforce development. “Our state board chairman said we couldn’t wait that long,” McInnis says. “We were operating off a 14-year-old model that hadn’t been updated since 2013. [It’s a ]complicated system of tiers that is … too inside baseball and needs to be changed so others can understand it. Now we’re matching up the credentials with what’s really valued in the labor market.”
Propel NC has received widespread support. The N.C. Association of Community College Presidents’ 58 members unanimously approved it in December. The State Board of Community Colleges approved it in February. And the business community is on board. “We’ve received over 200 letters of support from private businesses and industry, local chambers of commerce, workforce development boards and others,” Cox says. “In over 10 years in the community college system, I’ve never seen us embark upon any kind of initiative that’s caught fire more than this.”
The community college system estimates Propel NC’s cost at $68.6 million. It recently requested that, along with an additional $24.4 million to shore up campus-based support, from lawmakers. That nearly $100 million is on top of the state’s usual $1.5 billion allocation for the 58-campus system, the country’s second largest.
Before the 2024 short session of the General Assembly adjourned in late June, the House and Senate approved $18.5 million for Propel NC. But the session ended without a budget. Community college officials hope the legislature goes back into session in November to pass a budget that includes Propel NC funding, even if it’s less than requested. “We’re moving forward and already thinking about how much we can do even without full funding,” Cox says. “But at the end of the day, the Propel NC model won’t serve its intended purpose without the
full investment.”
Community colleges have long worked under a mandate to match programs to local workforce needs. “We focus on jobs in the communities we serve, and we offer scholarships for free training,” says Scott Ralls, Wake Technical Community College president. The application process for scholarships opened Oct. 1.
Wake Tech’s accelerated nondegree Workforce Continuing Education courses lead to industry recognized or state credentials, and most can be completed in three to six months. That helps students quickly obtain skills and certifications for high-demand jobs.
While all training programs prepare students for immediate employment, some also lead to obtaining course credit in a Wake Tech degree program or enrollment in an apprenticeship program.
Ralls says Wake Tech received more than $850 million in bond revenue over a 10-year period. The college has invested it in simulated work environments on seven campuses. They provide hands-on training, including at the Lilly Center for Science and Technology in Research Triangle Park, a public safety center in Wendell, Perry Health Sciences Campus near WakeMed Raleigh Medical Park and a cyber-science lab on the college’s RTP campus. “The facilities we are building will connect the dots to uniquely meet workforce opportunities and challenges,” he says. “Wake Tech is a national leader in simulated work environments, and we’re moving fast because people can see opportunities when they come through our programs.”
Cox previously served as president of Wilkes Community College, where a partnership with Hendrick Automotive Group created a 15-week program designed to fill jobs quickly. “We’re constructing a new building to house a short-term automotive training program,” Cox says. “They have embraced this option to get skilled workers into their talent pipeline faster.”
The state’s 20 workforce development boards and 80 NCWorks Career Centers operate on the local level, serving about 100,000 residents annually. “We work with our local workforce development boards and career centers across the state to administer funding and carry out the governor’s vision for what workforce needs to look like,” says Andrea DeSantis, N.C. Department of Commerce’s assistant secretary for workforce solutions. “Once companies determine they want to be here or want to expand, we connect them to those services. We’re fortunate that through great collaboration and partnerships with the community colleges and local school districts we help employees of the future get their career pathways started early.”
The Workforce Solutions Division assists individuals entering the workforce after they have been released from the state’s correctional facilities. “We know that folks coming out of incarceration face a number of barriers but having a well-paying and stable job can help alleviate many challenges they face and also helps keep our communities safe,” DeSantis says.
Workforce development efforts also are focused on rural communities, where the lack of opportunities spurs population decline. “We’ve been impressed with Surry Yadkin Works, a pre-apprenticeship program for high school students that leads to an apprenticeship,” DeSantis says. “It’s a collaboration between the four school districts in Surry and Yadkin counties and a local community college with a goal to help people find ways to live the life they want within their community.”
The state Community College System assists rural North Carolina in other ways. Zack Barricklow, a former Wilkes Community College administrator, recently filled a new position, vice president of rural innovation and strategy. “We will be developing a new playbook for rural community colleges on strategies they can be implementing to lift up their communities more effectively,” Cox says.
Also in the works for the community college system is a strategic plan that focuses on the workforce needs of the future. In its Propel NC proposal, the system projects 576,000 annual job openings and workforce shortages by 2031, especially in health care, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology and information technology. More than half of those jobs — 68% — will require a post-secondary degree or credential. “We will also be thinking about skill sets students of the future will need and will strive to be responsive to the things that are already happening and preparing for jobs that don’t even exist yet,” Cox says.
EDPNC supports Propel NC and its basic tenet, which aligns education with the current workforce needs of private businesses that locate, expand and invest in North Carolina. “Ideally, the workers our education systems are producing, and those our employers are seeking, are in alignment,” Chung says. “So, let’s get more resources into the hands of community colleges that can be producing the skill sets and experiences that employers increasingly are looking for in North Carolina.”” ■
— Teri Saylor is a freelance writer from Raleigh.