With the jobless rate hovering over 11 percent in Beaufort County and 10 percent in North Carolina, it’s encouraging to see someone taking steps to put people back to work.

This week, Sen. Kay R. Hagan announced that Beaufort County Community College was one of nine community colleges scheduled to receive a portion of nearly $19 million for “targeted job training and workforce development to help displaced workers who are changing careers.”

The Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant will help community colleges train workers to fill open positions with a corporate “partner.”

“With North Carolina’s unemployment rate over 10 percent, we need to focus on initiatives that prepare our workforce for real job opportunities,” Hagan said in a news release. “I introduced the AMERICA Works Act to ensure that job training translates into real-world job readiness. And I am pleased that today’s announcement provides North Carolina community colleges – the best in the country – with funding that will expand their ability to place more people in high-quality jobs in fields ranging from welding to healthcare to biotechnology. I am 100 percent committed to working with the administration and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on initiatives that put North Carolinians back to work.”

We are hopeful that this is the first of many initiatives that will result in paychecks for the unemployed.