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