NC Community College System joins national effort to expand electrical workforce training
RALEIGH — The North Carolina Community College System is participating in a national workforce training coalition aimed at expanding the pipeline for electrical careers in energy, manufacturing and infrastructure.
The system announced June 9 that it is working with the Careers Electric coalition, a national initiative that includes industry employers, trade associations, workforce organizations and philanthropic partners. The announcement follows the recent selection of 10 North Carolina community colleges for the $2.5 million Careers Electric Training Network.
The system said it is serving as a North Carolina grantee partner and implementation partner along with Wake Technical Community College and the NC Community College System Foundation.
The coalition is designed to help students and workers gain technical, digital, safety and workplace skills needed in electrical careers. According to the community college system, the work is tied to growing demand in sectors such as energy, infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and data centers.
Through the state training network, NCCCS said it is modernizing electrical curricula, improving recruitment and addressing barriers that can prevent students from completing training. Those barriers may include equipment costs, transportation and child care.
System President Jeff Cox said North Carolina’s community colleges are positioned to help scale electrical workforce training across the state.
The employer-powered coalition includes ABB, Amazon Web Services, Duke Energy, JetZero, Hitachi Energy and Siemens as founding national industry partners. Other implementation and workforce partners include CareerWise, Strada Education Foundation and The Manufacturing Institute.
North Carolina incubation partners include the NC Chamber of Commerce, the N.C. Department of Commerce and NC Electric Cooperatives. North Carolina grantee partners include the North Carolina Business Committee for Education, Wake Tech, NCCCS Office and Foundation, EVITP and the Families and Workers Fund.
The Careers Electric initiative aims to train 25,000 people in its first 10 years.
North Carolina’s 58 community colleges serve about 600,000 students and award more than 60,000 degrees, diplomas and certificates each year, according to the system.
Editor’s note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.
