State business and education leaders gathered in Durham on Thursday to discuss how to develop a diverse and competitive state workforce at the N.C. Chamber’s “Education and Workforce Conference.”

Event speakers and panelists addressed each juncture of education – early childhood, K-12, and the postsecondary level. Advocates for early childhood education said that more accessible pre-K options help workers, which in turn helps businesses. Educators and leaders from the K-12 and college levels said clearer career pathways give students more options.

N.C. Chamber, a business advocacy organization, stressed that moving the needle on the state’s workforce shortage requires education partnerships – and vice versa. Serving the state well requires collaboration, agility, resiliency, and partnerships, speakers said.

More than 25,000 students have now received Longleaf funds, according to the NCCCS.

Those same funds are being offered to students who graduated in 2022. Students can receive funding for tuition and fees at any of the state’s 58 community colleges.

Gov. Roy Cooper launched the grant in May 2021 to supplement the federal Pell grant. The grant ensures recent high school graduates from low- and middle-income families receive anywhere from $700 to $2,800 per year to go toward tuition and fees for up to two years at N.C. community colleges. Nearly $8.7 million in Longleaf funds went to more than 13,600 students by last spring, the governor’s press office said. Of those students, 63% were from families with incomes less than $70,000 per year.

The UNC System is launching a statewide initiative to offer one-on-one success coaching to help students with some college and no degree or credential complete their studies at one of eight system schools.

“The pandemic has made college access more challenging than ever, especially for adult learners and students from historically underrepresented populations,” said Eric Fotheringham, director of community college partnerships and adult learner initiatives at the UNC System. “The expansion of this work will be a crucial part of the System’s efforts to support returning students, remove barriers to re-enrollment and success, and ensure that students have the support they need to succeed.”

In 2021, a coalition of community colleges across the state started similar work to re-enroll adult learners. N.C. Reconnect also partners with InsideTrack. When N.C. Reconnect launched, the program saw nearly 1,000 adult learners enrolled across the first five pilot schools. Last spring, N.C. Reconnect expanded to five more schools. 

Blue Ridge Community College President Dr. Laura Leatherwood shares her tips and strategies for how to be a strong leader.

Community college presidents wear many hats, requiring a great deal of organization and a team on whom you can rely. As presidents, we have to understand the big picture and entrust the daily ins and outs of running the college to our capable and well-qualified staff and faculty.

Additionally, we must play an integral role in solving workforce challenges through education and leadership, welcoming the opportunity to take the lead in bringing partners together to find solutions. We’re advocates, mediators, administrators, and fundraisers. The list goes on. So, how do we meet so many needs without dropping the ball?

Find out what Leatherwood describes as five strategies for success.

Thomas Stith recently resigned after serving as NCCCS president for more than a year. In a recent Perspective, he reflects on what he accomplished during his tenure.

As I visited each of the “Great 58” North Carolina community colleges during my first year as president, I took in the similarities and uniqueness of each college. Just as each of us has a distinctive style, so does each of our community colleges.

Read more from Stith here.

The North Carolina Community College System’s conference will be held Oct. 9-11. Registration is now open. Conference topics include innovative practices in student success and retention, initiatives and programs focused on breaking down barriers to access and success, and more.

The annual Dallas Herring Lecture is scheduled for Nov. 8. Dr. Mike Flores, chancellor of the Alamo Colleges District, will deliver the keynote address. Flores will discuss advancing equity and enhancing economic mobility using local collective impact strategies. Register for the event here.

LatinxEd is hosting their annual education summit Sept. 14-15. The summit will take place at the conference center at Guilford Technical Community College. Summit details and registration information can be found here.

The Hunt Institute’s webinar on the role of community colleges in postsecondary attainment is scheduled for Aug. 31 at 2 p.m. Wilkes Community College President Dr. Jeff Cox and the Belk Center Executive Director Dr. Audrey J. Jaeger are among the panelists. Register here.

Sandhills Community College President John Dempsey announced his retirement. 

Gov. Roy Cooper visited Western North Carolina last week to deliver remarks at the WNC Rebounding Stronger Summit. Cooper talked about rural areas and “the importance of community colleges in training economic development workers so that they can bring that to potential industries that might want to consider Western North Carolina for an expansion.”

State grant funds will go to 12 counties in North Carolina to expand broadband. 

myFutureNC shared several tools for attainment success, including early childhood briefs and the Belk Center’s Adult Learner Guidebook. 

The Earl Scruggs Music Festival is scheduled for Sept. 2-4. Isothermal Community College’s radio station, WNCW 88.7, is partnering with the Earl Scruggs Center to host the event at Tryon International Equestrian Center. 

North Carolina Wesleyan University is partnering with Wayne Community College to boost higher education access. 

Community colleges, including Forsyth Technical and Davidson-Davie community colleges, and health care systems in the Triad address worker shortages through apprenticeships.

EdNC’s Early Bird newsletter is out, and Liz Bell covers workforce efforts ahead of a funding cliff.

What if every community college president was on board 100% to support their college’s social media strategy? What if they took the following big steps toward ensuring their school is fully leveraging social media? The result could be the golden trifecta: improved enrollment, retention and brand awareness.

This piece from Community College Daily explores the challenges of in-house social media marketing and provides strategies for community college leaders to consider when leveraging social media. Read more here.

In a speech made last week, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona urged colleges to change how they approach student success and announced a new grant program for minority-serving institutions.

Cardona said that elite rankings are a “joke” and that more attention needs to be focused on the institutions that serve the nation’s less-affluent students.

“It’s a cruel irony that institutions that serve the most students with the most to gain from a college degree have the fewest resources to invest in student success,” he said.

In order to change this, he said that leaders in higher education need to “embrace a new vision of college excellence,” which involves creating spaces and resources that are inclusive and meet the needs of underrepresented students.

Read more here.