Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will make a stop in the Eighth District during President Barack Obama’s Cabinet Secretary Rural Listening Tour next month.

They are expected to join U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell on a visit to Richmond Community College Aug. 17. The focus of the stop is rural education.

“It will be my pleasure to host Secretaries Duncan and Vilsack when they visit the Eighth District during the Cabinet Secretary Rural Listening Tour. Their visit will help bring national attention to our struggles with unemployment here at home, and it is my hope they will help me carry our message back to Washington,” Kissell said. “Our focus must be on providing new job training and educational opportunity to our highly-motivated and dedicated workforce. Despite the devastating losses in our manufacturing industry, we have incredibly talented workers in need of the opportunities to put those talents to use. This is a great chance for us to show the Administration the needs of the Eighth District.”

Dr. Sharon Morrissey, president of Richmond Community College, said the college will make most of the opportunity to promote RCC’s Workforce Training Capacity Expansion project.

“ We appreciate the Secretaries' concern for rural communities, and we appreciate Congressman Kissell, who has an understanding of the plight of rural communities because his roots are here,” Morrissey said. “While the Secretaries are here, we plan to share a project for Workforce Training Capacity Expansion. Richmond and Scotland Counties have the highest unemployment rates in North Carolina, and record numbers of displaced workers are turning to Richmond Community College for education and training. We have the opportunity to make a significant economic impact in communities that are truly experiencing a depression. Our goal is to prepare an educated workforce that is focused on science, technology, engineering, and math--workforce skills that are attractive to industry today and that will be in demand by industry tomorrow.”

The Workforce Training Capacity Expansion program focuses on the areas of science, technology, engineering and math while working to increase the rate of workers with a post-secondary education in the Richmond and Scotland County areas. RCC has requested federal funding to expand the facilities to include a Customized Industrial Training Center.