Beaufort County Community College recently received funding to support the creation of a new program.

The college received a $97, 075 grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation to start its new Agribusiness Technology Program. The program will give local students who are unable to attend an agricultural school like N.C. State University, the opportunity to receive an agriculture-related education at BCCC, said BCCC President Barbara Tansey.

The grant will be used to pay for renovations to a building on the college’s campus that will house the program, laboratory equipment, safety equipment and computers. It will also provide one year of salary and benefits for new lead instructor Willam Askew, Tansey said.

“BCCC appreciates the grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation and is grateful for the economic benefits it will provide our four-county service area,” Tansey said. “The students within our service area will benefit from the job training offered by the Agribusiness Technology Program and businesses will benefit from having trained workers.”

Tansey said upon coming to the college, she realized Beaufort County was an agricultural community. Prior to this grant, there were no agriculture programs offered past the high school level. Tansey worked with Beaufort County Schools Superintendent Dr. Don Phipps to identify the demand for such a program by meeting with agriculture teachers at area high schools and local agriculture-related business owners to receive feedback.

“We started working and talking sometime last year, and we decided to work toward an ag program,” Tansey said. “When you look around our community and see how many businesses are ag-related, we decided it would be a strong suit for us to go after.”

Over the next 10 years, over 120 new positions are projected in the college’s service area for the agricultural sector, Tansey said. The program will train individuals to fill those positions as well as additional positions vacated through the aging of the current workforce. It will prepare graduates for jobs in agriculture such as equipment, feed and agricultural supply sales, store management, farm operations and office management of agricultural products and marketing firms, Tansey said.

Askew said the program is designed to help any student that wants to get involved with agribusiness or someone who wants to learn how to better manage their own farm.

“Outlook is great,” Askew said. “We already have classes that are made, having enough students. We’ve already received enough responses for that. We’ve been in contact with businesses in the area and received nothing but full support and excitement about the possibility of having trained employees.”

The Golden LEAF Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 1999 to help transform North Carolina’ economy and places special emphasis on helping tobacco-dependent, economically distressed and/or rural communities across the state.

“Golden LEAF is proud to support agribusiness, North Carolina’s number one industry,” said Dan Gerlach, Golden LEAF president. “This program will provide a region that relies heavily on agriculture and its related businesses with the knowledge and skills needed to help further growth and opportunity.”

For more information about BCCC’s Agribusiness Technology Program, contact Askew at 252-940-6304 or at billya@beaufortccc.edu. Information about the program is also available on the BCCC website at www.beaufortccc.edu.