Fayetteville Technical Community College has joined with nine additional community colleges, N.C. A&T State University, N.C. State University and six workforce development boards in a charter aimed at optimizing their strengths to address the needs of regional employers.
Representatives from each of the partners met Sept. 21 at Central Carolina Community College to sign the AdvanceNC charter. AdvanceNC is an innovative workforce development ecosystem developing a robust talent pipeline to support unprecedented economic growth in North Carolina.
Dr. Tiffany Watts, Chief of Staff & Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at FTCC, attended on behalf of College President Dr. Mark Sorrells.
Gov. Roy Cooper, N.C. Community College System President Dr. Jeff Cox, UNC System President Peter Hans and N.C Association of Workforce Development Boards President Rodney Carson were each given the opportunity to speak before the signing.
“There is so much good going on here from VinFast to Toyota to Wolfspeed bringing great-paying jobs right here to the central part of our state,” Cooper said in a press release. “We are the number one state in the country for business. That’s no accident. The credit belongs to the people of North Carolina. North Carolina has the best, most hard-working, dedicated, well-trained, diverse workforce in the world. When you invest in people, you invest in success, and education is the backbone of our economy and our workforce.”
The AdvanceNC partners recently applied for funding and designation of central North Carolina as an Economic Development Administration “Tech Hub.” The proposed project — known as the Central Carolina Cleantech Hub (C3H) — aims to strengthen the region’s capacity to manufacture, commercialize, and deploy critical clean energy technologies.
The full list of AdvanceNC partners includes:
Alamance Community College
Capital Area Workforce Development Board
Central Carolina Community College
Durham Tech Community College
Durham Workforce Development Board
Fayetteville Tech Community College
Johnston Community College
Kerr-Tar Workforce Development Board
Lumber River Workforce Development Board
Mid-Carolina Workforce Development Board
N.C. A&T State University
N.C. State University
Piedmont Community College
Piedmont Triad/Regional Workforce Development Board
Randolph Community College
Sandhills Community College
Vance-Granville Community College
Wake Tech Community College
The Advanced Contractors Academy, a free six-week program, is designed for established contractors ready to pursue larger-scale public contracts with agencies such as Fayetteville State University (FSU), Cumberland County and Cape Fear Valley Health.
Today, Hungry Snacks Vending operates 140 machines across North Carolina, with locations ranging from schools to public transit stations.
A total of 84 interns participated in this year’s My Future So Bright program. At the graduation ceremony held on Aug. 1, each student was able to receive their graduation certificates from Mid-Carolina Regional Council Executive Director Saman
