Education and economic development officials in Rocky Mount say their fields are inextricably linked.

The Gateway Technology Center, located on N.C. Wesleyan College’s campus, was constructed for industries to be able to offer advance learning with cooperating universities, and “that’s part of our game plan,” said Frank Harrison, chairman of the Carolinas Gateway Partnership.

Harrison said the center is a “piece of the Technology Corridor,” and offers advanced courses through the university for engineers at Honeywell and Cummins to train without having to get their master’s and doctorate degrees and without having to commute to Raleigh.

“That was why the Technology Center was put there,” he said.

Matt Brueshaber, engineering supervisor at Ceco Building Systems’ Rocky Mount office, said he’s been working toward his Masters of Civil Engineering for the past four years and should be finished this coming spring. Having originally graduated from N.C. State University, he opted for the online MCE through his alma mater at the Gateway Technology Center.

“Ceco has an Education Reimbursement Plan which has paid for all expenses up to this point except for the original application fees,” Brueshaber said.

He said the on-campus classes are held during a normal class schedule and are recorded so he can then watch them at his convenience.

“This has been nice since I am able to replay lectures if I miss something or watch them over several sittings if schedules do not allow me to dedicate enough time to do it all at once,” he said.

All of his exams must be proctored, “which is where the Gateway Center has been helpful.”

“One individual I work with had to pay a Sylvan Learning center to proctor his exams when he was working from his home office in another state,” Brueshaber said. “The Gateway Center has been nice enough to do this free of charge.”

IT BEATS DRIVING

Angela Norris, Career and Technical Education Director at Wilson County Schools, is enrolled in the Master of School Administration through N.C. State at the center as well.

She said the bi-weekly, evening classes at the Gateway Technology Center beat driving to Raleigh all the time, and she said a fraternal bond has formed among classmates.

She said there are 12 students in her cohort that come from diverse areas such as Nash, Wilson and Franklin counties, she said many of them chose the program because, like her, their “families are here.”

Whereas she said she could have enrolled in any of the other online-only programs, she chose the MSA program through N.C. State at the center because of the price break and she wanted her “degree to be reputable.”

“I’d definitely be spending more money without the Gateway Technology Center,” Norris said, who will complete her degree in 2012.

“Education is the key long-term cog in here, and you constantly have to be improving that ... and that’s not something you do overnight,” Harrison said.

developing minds

Marilynn Anselmi, director of East Carolina University/N.C. State University Rocky Mount academic programs at the center, said when it comes to economic development, it’s impossible to offer just academic programs for adults and not also engage in summer enrichment for children.

The educational level of an area determines the level of sophistication of employment there, she said.

Anselmi said the universities offering non-credit courses through the Gateway Technology Center in no way compete with the mission of the community colleges. It’s a question of degrees, she said.

“We have a very collaboration and working relationship with all the community colleges,” she said.

Education is one of the “key drivers,” Harrison said. “The world is changing dramatically, and we’ve got to be aggressive enough, realize it, adapt ourselves and not sit back.”

The corridor concept centers around extending ideas from the Research Triangle out into the surrounding counties like a tentacle in an effort to encourage prospective industries to expand to the area.

The type of labor that would suit this type of concept is not a college degree, Harrison said. Students coming out with a “good, solid high school diplomas or one or two years of community college work” will fill this labor force, he said.

He said N.C. State “is already on board to offer courses as we need them” at the Gateway Technology Center.

“The technology center is not just bricks and mortar, we already have the contacts with State, and as needed, they will do what we need,” he said.

attracting industry

Former Rocky Mount mayor and director of the Upper Coastal Plain Learning Council Fred Turnage said there are two major reasons there exists a correlation between the education of a work force and the level of attractiveness that the area has to outside industries.

First, after the sudden demise of the textile and agriculture industries, in which many people in the area were trained, prospective businesses are looking to take advantage of a work force that’s technology literate. Second, the families of some members in the work force look at the attractiveness of the school system where they would like to send their children.

Turnage said the Gateway Technology Center, with its technologically advanced communication systems, satellite course offerings from universities and summer enrichment programs for younger students “is almost like a secret.”

Harrison said one of the key jobs of the community colleges is to retooling its curriculum and designing course loads in order to cater to the needs of incoming industries.

“When we’re recruiting somebody to come in here, the first thing we do is we bring the community college presidents in here, and the plants will say, ‘We need some particular training things designed,’ ” Harrison said.

President Bill Carver at Nash Community College said the community college strives to form a partnership with industries.

Nash Community College’s Customized Industry Training Program currently has six approved projects with Nash County companies, which fall either into “job growth” or “productivity enhancement” projects.

The college trains employees from The Cheesecake Factory Bakery in finishing, depositing, sanitation, interpersonal skills, industrial safety and hazmat, among others. Employees from Hospira are trained in Six Sigma and PLC Project Management, and those at Rocky Mount Engine Plant are taught Root Cause Analysis, conflict management, presentation skills and supervisory leadership training.

“When they ask us to be involved, we take that responsibility very seriously,” he said. “We make sure they settle in and become part of this community.”

The community colleges aren’t just seen as a place to take a few classes before transferring to a four-year institution. The colleges are specifically centered on industry, recruitment and training.

Carver said the Gateway Partnership is symbolic of what it takes in the community in Eastern North Carolina. “We have to work a little harder to get industry, and to keep industry,” he said. “It takes the school system, it takes the community college, and it takes Wesleyan.”

In reference to the Technology Corridor concept, Carver said while the Research Triangle is coming up with the ideas, “we’re applying them.”

John Gessaman, president and CEO of Carolinas Gateway Partnership, said “we need to have a technically literate work force to get the jobs that are out there today ... and actually if you don’t have those technology skills, you’re probably not going to be able to participate in the work force.”

Gessaman said one of the key issues that’s not only crucial to Rocky Mount but to the whole country is “having more of our younger people focusing on technology occupations.”

The correlation between the education level of a work force and the types of industries that are attracted is “one-to-one, or perfect,” he said.

“(If not, one of the two will) be unhappy ... either the industry because they’re unable to attract the types of workers they need (from the area), or the community because the industry isn’t providing the kinds of jobs that are needed,” Gessaman said.

Carver said the college has customized industry training projects for American Food Resources in Nashville, The Cheesecake Factory Bakery and New Standard Corp.

The training consists of soft skills (or workplace professionalism), computer classes and individual technical training.

“We have been told many times through the years that the services of the community college are certainly important to create that atmosphere of high skill,” Carver said.

“A lot of people think that we want to become junior colleges, and college transfer is an important piece of our business model now, but still 75 percent or more of what we do is still technical training.”

Carver said perception is part of reality, and “we need to sell this community and let them know that education is a big business.”

“But more than that, we need to be a learning community,” he said.

With local industries focusing on production in an area with ample infrastructure, there also must be a distribution arm.

The community college has also trained more than 400 truck drivers in three years, Carver said.

“None of these businesses do business without some product moving in and out,” Carver said.

Edgecombe Community College President Deborah Lamm said 46 percent of graduates walked across the aisle with career-readiness certificates in May. The certificate, a nationally recognized credential based on the WorkKeys job skills assessment system, is proof to an employer that a student has already received a certain degree of training suitable to the company’s needs.

Lamm said the community college has a job profiler who goes to local companies like Sara Lee or Keihin and asks them what they want.

Whether the company needs assembly line training or system processes taught, Lamm said the a training program is customized to fit their needs.

“Edgecombe Community College will be their long-term training partner,” she said.

Dr. Randi Dikeman, director of customized training programs with ECC, said “that’s why it’s called ‘customized,’ because we do train them in subject they want, on the schedule they want, and at the location they want.”