One of North Carolina’s greatest strengths is our educated and engaged workforce.
But in today’s competitive global marketplace, where North Carolina competes for top talent with economies around the world and job creators can’t find the skilled employees they need, we must do more to strengthen the talent supply chain and support the workforce of today and tomorrow.
Taking on this challenge demands a comprehensive and collaborative approach. The modern workforce doesn’t exist in a bubble—as much as we need more workers with flexible and adaptable skillsets, it would be shortsighted to assume that we can produce those workers without a commitment to improvements at every stage of a student’s education journey.
That’s why we’re working at every stage of the talent pipeline to:
- Continue to expand access to our world-class pre-K program
- Identify efforts to strengthen 3rd grade reading proficiency
- Protect strong academic standards that prioritize the skills and knowledge students need after graduation
- Develop deep partnerships between business leaders and educators
- Align education systems, especially in high school classrooms, with actual workforce needs
- Grow apprenticeships, on-the-job training and other ways to expand lifelong learning