The JOBS Commission visited Nash Community College on Thursday to hear from educators, business leaders and Eastern North Carolina residents about the needs of the region.

The topic of discussion was how businesses and schools could form partnerships and train students to compete in the 21st century job market.

Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton heads up the 20-member commission, which is charged with making recommendations to the N.C. State Board of Education and N.C. General Assembly about how the state’s early college high schools can mesh their curricula with the economic development needs of their regions.

“Because of global competition, we’ve got to do more,” Dalton said.

He said North Carolina has to ramp up its standards as well as academic achievement in its school system.

“We have to bridge gaps in the labor force if we want to build the brightest future possible for our young people,” said John Chaffee, president of the N.C. Eastern Region Partnership.

Chaffee kicked off the meeting by presenting a vision plan for economic development in the 13-county Eastern Region.

Members from the NC STEM Initiative then spoke about current education trends in Lenoir County and how to increase academic achievement in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math.

“We all know the stats, they don’t look good for our kids,” said Tom Vermillion, president of Down East Protection Systems and the Lenoir Committee of 100. “They’re falling further and further behind, especially in STEM education as we look at the world.”

It’s time to reverse that trend, he said.

A six-person panel made up of business leaders and educators also discussed the important qualities graduates must have to be marketable.

Tricia Willoughby, executive director of N. C. Business Committee for Education, moderated the forum.

“In school, how many of you were asked to pursue a career in social networking,” she asked. Nobody raised their hand.

“How many of you were trained in eight-track repair? Where are those jobs now?” she asked.

Since many jobs involve computers nowadays, North Carolina needs people with IT skills that know when the machines are making mistakes, said Rick Davis, NC Sites Operations Director of Spirit AeroSystems.

Michael Priddy, a partner with New Hope Foundation, advocated bringing students and teachers into businesses to shadow and get a real picture of what those careers were like, to let the students know if that was an occupation they wanted to pursue or not.

“The problem facing young people today is that they don’t see adults working,” Priddy said.

Three students from Nash County Early College High School then closed with testimonials of how, after attending the school, they felt they were better prepared for the real world than if they’d attended a traditional, four-year high school.

Partnerships with businesses make everything possible, said Dan Gerlach, president of the Golden LEAF Foundation.

“So we’re trying to get business partners to be engaged in the educational policies and let us know what those skills that you need are,” Dalton said. “It’s trying to bring reality to the education process."