Training in Flux

Abstract

When Martin Lancaster took over as president of the North Carolina Community College System more than a decade ago, the state, not unlike much of the nation, stood at the precipice of a massive economic shift. As traditional manufacturing and farming jobs--from tobacco to furniture to textiles--began to disappear, demand for a new breed of worker was emerging. Where jobs that required hands-on manual labor once dominated the state's working-class landscape, a technological revolution, coupled with a growing global economy, forced many community colleges to retool existing job-training programs to satisfy the needs of local communities. BioNetwork, a statewide training program dedicated to helping North Carolina community college students land high-paying careers as biotech processors, isn't the only initiative in North Carolina, or throughout the country, helping community colleges better prepare students for an economy in flux. From coast to coast, academic programs are shifting to meet the demands of their constituencies. In this article, the authors examine other programs already having an impact.