Some believe that as community colleges prepare students for a new workforce, they also prepare North Carolina for a new economy.
RALEIGH -- A new study claims North Carolina will soon need more and more people to work in fields such as biotechnology, nursing, trucking and teaching. And community colleges can help fill that gap, according to the report from the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research.
"You've got the baby boomer generation, which is the largest generation in American history, retiring," said Ran Coble, executive director of the research group. "And so who is going to train the workers to meet those workforce shortages? It's going to be the community colleges."
The report estimates the state's population will grow by 15 percent within the next eight years, and that growth will exacerbate work force shortages. The report said community colleges will have to increase graduation rates by 75 percent to keep up, and that means 19,000 more students need to graduate every year.
"Just because of the baby boom retirements and the work force shortages that already exist there, the community colleges would have to step up the number of people who complete a program and get an associate degree by a phenomenal amount," Coble said.
At Durham Technical Community College, administrators are already focused on preparing students to fill gaps in the medical field. Margaret Skulnik, assistant vice president of Health Technologies at Durham Tech, said 25 percent of students seeking degrees at Durham Tech are enrolled in the Health Technologies program.
"We have several programs, we have two nursing programs, both a practical nursing program and a registered nurse program," Skulnik explained. "We also have programs in respiratory therapy and clinical trials. Clinical trials is one of the ones that I think is going to be blooming in the next couple of years because of the expanding research in RTP."
A new study claims North Carolina will soon need more and more people to work in fields such as biotechnology, nursing, trucking and teaching. And community colleges can help fill that gap.
NCCPPR Executive Director Ran Coble spoke to anchor Rob Boisvert about the state of the community college system.
She added, "If you think about what the projections are for the future for where are the jobs, they're talking about the healthcare industry being the place for consistent growth over the next several years. And certainly with the aging population and the baby boomers retiring, it's going to increase that need."
Wanda Maggart, Durham Tech's vice president of institutional support services, said workforce training is a vital part of the school's daily mission.
"Durham Tech is a collaborative partner with the community trying to stay current with the needs of today and tomorrow's workplace," she said. "We offer about 90 different program options right now in our credit instruction for workforce training, including university transfer programming, but we know that we need to add additional programs here at the college.
"But our new president, Dr. Bill Ingram, is looking at the program needs for the college and for the community to try to add some programs in high-demand workforce needs for the area," she continued.
Coble believes that as community colleges prepare students for a new workforce, they also prepare North Carolina for a new economy.
"It's a fundamental economic transition from the old economy of textiles, tobacco and furniture, into a new economy of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals and computers and who knows what else," Coble said. "So the community colleges are really key to that transition."