BCCC Joins "1,000 In 100" Initiative | Eastern NC Now

    Beaufort County Community College is participating in a statewide effort to understand the challenges and successes business and industry faces in finding and retaining high-quality employees.

    BCCC is part of a team of workforce development partners that are leading the effort in Beaufort County.

    The local effort is being led by Lauren Dudley, BCCC's Customized Training director and Walter Dorsey, director of Region Q Workforce Development, who serve as co-chairmen of the project.

    This month, the team began visiting local businesses as part of Gov. Pat McCrory's "1,000 in 100" initiative announced last spring as part of NCWorks.

    "1,000 in 100" refers to the governor's call to have local teams visit 1,000 businesses of all types in all 100 counties in the last 100 days of 2014.

    The team includes representatives from BCCC, NC Works, Washington/Beaufort Chamber of Commerce, Mid-East Commission, and Region Q Workforce Development. The team has been meeting since early August and has chosen the companies for each visit as well as the teams to conduct the visits.

    "This is a great opportunity for Beaufort County to build on our past partnerships, get face-to-face with businesses, hear concerns, develop solutions and lay the foundation for how we work together in the future," Dudley said.

    Dorsey agreed.

    "We want to listen together so we can bring solutions and services together," he said. "The end goal is to help both employers and employees."

    The "1,000 in 100" initiative will conclude at the end of 2014, but the information gathered will be paired with other research and best practices to develop recommendations for changes within North Carolina's workforce system to better serve businesses and citizens, according to McCrory.

    "If we want to know what is working and what isn't with our businesses, we have to talk to them directly," McCrory said. "Our goal is to better understand how to meet their workforce needs and how to more effectively connect North Carolinians to great careers.

    "I appreciate all of our agencies and industry working together to make this a success," McCrory said. "NCWorks covers all 100 counties so we need to listen in all 100 counties. This initiative is critical so we better understand what we need to do differently."

    NCWorks focuses on a new partnership that includes the N.C. Department of Commerce, the N.C. Community College System, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction and the NCWorks Commission to improve the state's workforce system.

    Through the NCWorks initiative, partners will create a stronger alignment of services and resources to meet the workforce needs of businesses, connect North Carolinians to technical training and quality careers, and use data to monitor and assess program outcomes. For more information about NCWorks, visit www.nccommerce.com/ncworks.

    For more information, contact Lauren Dudley at 252-940-6311 or laurend@beaufortccc.edu or Walter Dorsey at 252-974-1815 or wdorsey@mideast.com.org.

    Beaufort County Community College is a public comprehensive community college committed to accessible and affordable quality education, effective teaching, relevant training, and lifelong learning opportunities for the people served by the College.