This article is part of EdNC’s coverage for National Apprenticeship Week. In 2026, we held a “mini-blitz” to visit community colleges and document strategies being used to increase apprenticeships. You can read all our coverage of apprenticeships here.
It’s signing day at Beaufort County Community College (BCCC). The four students sitting behind baseball caps and in front of business representatives are not choosing the next sports team they will play for, but what local business they will join as part of the inaugural BeauPros class of 2025.
BeauPros is a pre-apprenticeship program created to connect high school juniors with local businesses who want to develop and invest in the next generation of professionals.
The signing day event is a way to celebrate their commitment and recognize all the factors that make up this successful equation — students from local high schools who will be learning and earning on the job, the employer that made space for the student, and the community college that helped connect the two and will continue to support them.
Dr. David Loope, president of BCCC, said, “Apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships have to be a priority for us in this region (because) we’re losing population, especially among young people.”
At the BeauPros signing ceremony, Loope said this is “a chance to shape the future.”
Beaufort County Community College by the numbers
Beaufort is the 8th largest county by area in North Carolina, but it’s community college serves three additional counties: Hyde, Tyrrell, and Washington. This puts BCCC’s service area at more than 2,100 square miles — making it the largest service area of any community college in the state. The combined population of these four counties is just under 70,000 people.
All four counties are considered rural, and water touches a border of each. Loope said the chief focus for BCCC is to break down barriers so more people can go to college.
“We’re trying to use postsecondary education as a means to socioeconomic mobility,” said Loope. He believes education and training can “change multigenerational poverty,” and help those in eastern North Carolina get out of that cycle.
One way BCCC is offering students, and the region, opportunity for economic growth is through its apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeship programs.
According to ApprenticeshipsNC, students completing registered apprenticeships earn, on average, $10,000 more per year than their non-apprentice peers, and the employer who works with the apprentice sees an see average return on investment of 47% to over 100%.
Beaufort County has the second highest number of apprenticeships per 1,000 workers across the state’s 100 counties, behind only Surry County. The school added a new layer to its apprenticeship efforts by helping support and serve the BeauPros program.
BeauPros: A pre-apprenticeship initiative
Sara Watson is the director of customized training and apprenticeships at BCCC and a founding member of BeauPros. She knew the road blocks BeauPros would encounter while starting the pre-apprenticeship program because of her work at BCCC.
The school’s service area is rural and local companies are already short staffed, so the idea of adding in the required paperwork for registered apprenticeships is often daunting for these small businesses. To lighten the load on employers, BCCC took away that burden by becoming the apprenticeship sponsor.
Watson travels to companies that take on apprentices with BCCC, accommodates to their work schedules, and helps the business identify needs, identifying where students can fit in.
“Sarah is incredibly agile. She identifies the needs [of local businesses] and then she goes about building what’s necessary to fulfill those needs every single time, from the ground up,” said Chris Young, dean of continuing education at BCCC.
Travis Stephenson is also a cofounder BeauPros, and has a more than 30-year history of working in the private sector. While Watson comes from the community college vantage point, Stephenson comes from a business angle. Both have strong relationships with regional workforce leaders.
Victoria Hamill is the current director of CTE, workforce, and STEM for Beaufort County Schools, a cofounder of BeauPros, and the necessary link from the community college and industry to the future workforce.
With these three connections, BeauPros was born.
The first class connected four high school pre-apprentices with four local industries, and this second year will add seven more pre-apprentices to the program. Stephenson said its a testament to BeauPros that businesses who took on one student last year are taking on two more this summer.
Gram Barnes, a student at Washington Montessori, joined Carver Machine Works (CVM) as a pre-apprentice last summer. CVM clientele include international industries in the business of manufacturing and fabrication solutions.
Barnes started welding his junior year and enjoys working at CVM. He’s encouraged a friend to join the program and looks forward to working at CVM again this summer.
“This is a good opportunity to get some experience,” said Barnes. His plan is to go to BCCC after graduation, take classes to earn certificates, then transfer to East Carolina University and major in engineering.
After a BeauPros pre-apprentice graduates high school, the employer can choose to keep them on in a registered apprenticeship. And, thanks to the state’s pre-apprenticeship tuition waiver, those students can work toward a degree or certification at the community college for free.
BeauPros is eager to add more businesses to the program and expose students to jobs in their own backyard.
“People use(the phrase) ‘win-win’ a lot,” said Stephenson. “Sometimes its ‘win-win’, sometimes its ‘win-lose a little bit.’ But for this one, it’s everybody wins.”
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