Leaders from Beaufort County Community College joined other statewide community college leaders on Oct. 2 at Pitt County Community College to streamline worker training and development.

BCCC President Barbara Tansey, Board of Trustees Vice Chairman Betty Randolph and others from the community college joined N.C. Community College System President R. Scott Ralls at the summit to discuss Align4NC Works, said Tansey. Tansey and Lauren Dudley, BCCC’s customized training coordinator, gave a presentation on local workforce development initiatives, illustrating the college’s strongest partnership, which is with idX, a local manufacturing business, Tansey said.

“We’re going to remain strong partners with NC Works,” Tansey said. “Our joint effort is to make sure we have a strong workforce. We are very proud of our partnership with NC Works. Scott [Ralls] said the partnerships on the eastern side of the state were the strongest he had seen so we were glad to receive that compliment from him.”

Tansey said the summit was a community college initiative to see how well partnerships are working in the state through NC Works, a one-stop online resource for job seekers and employers in North Carolina. With NC Works, job seekers can search for jobs, create resumes and find education and training and employers can find candidates, post jobs and search labor market information. Align4NC Works is the NC Community College System’s strategic initiative to develop best practices in workforce development among governmental agencies and industries focusing on partnerships among community colleges, business and industry, workforce development boards, public schools and economic development entities, according to a BCCC press release.

According to Ralls, the goal of NC Works is to “work together to ensure that North Carolina’s workforce is number one in the nation.” The N.C. Community College System and the state’s community colleges are designated by state statue as “the primary lead agency for delivering workforce development training,” Ralls said.

Ralls said, however, workforce efforts in the state involve many partners and Align4NC Works is an effort to more clearly focus efforts among partners by discussing best practices and challenges in workforce development, he said.

The Greenville summit is one of several across the state that began in February and will continue through October when community college leaders shared what they have learned with State Board of Community Colleges and Align4NC Works partners. Among the major themes shared at the summits include career pathways and awareness, employer engagement, workforce education and training solutions, college affordability and access, work-based learning and connecting job seekers with jobs and more.