The future economy is going to be a technology-based, and students need to prepare now for the jobs that will be created.

That was the message that Scotland School Board member Mary Evans said she and a handful of local officials took away from a meeting this week in Fayetteville to discuss how students can best be prepared to meet the job demands of a changing economy.

More than 100 educators, community leaders and employers from the region attended Tuesday's meeting hosted by the NC STEM Community Collaborative, a group that is working to help communities develop and implement science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum in public schools, community colleges and four-year colleges and universities.

"It reiterated my own belief that we should be focused on preparing our students to be both well educated, and ready to compete with the rest of the world, too, " Evans said.

Also attending the two-hour meeting were School Board member Terrence Williams, School Superintendent Rick Stout, County Commissioners Robert Davis, Laurinburg/Scotland County Chamber of Commerce President Theresa Lamson and several Scotland educators.

Tuesday’s meeting, hosted by the BRAC Regional Task Force, served as a kick-off to the importance of STEM education in the regional public school systems, said retired Gen. Paul Dordal, the executive director of the BRAC Regional Task Force.

The 11-county Fort Bragg region has been recognized for its educational efforts by the NC STEM Community Collaborative — a partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and MCNC based in the Research Triangle Park — and is one of three local regions in North Carolina being considered for Gates Foundation funding. As part of the service region for the BRAC Regional Task Force, Richmond Community College, Scotland County’s public schools and St. Andrews College have all been the recipients of advanced visualization technology for instruction that will capture the attention of students who are learning in the rapidly evolving technological world.

“The world is changing. Sixty percent of jobs today require an advanced degree or beyond,” said Joe Freddoso, the president and CEO of MCNC. “The majority of students are prepared for jobs in a manufacturing economy ... But we have to shed the costs of the old system and put resources into the new system.”

Freddoso told those at the meeting that he had been an executive with Sysco Systems for seven years and watched jobs go overseas. The jobs, he said, left the U.S. not because businesses found it less expensive to operate in other countries, but because there were larger, skilled labor pools available in those countries.

Dordal said that with increased troop movement through the region resulting from base realignments and closure, there will be an influx of high-tech defense and Homeland Security jobs.

“I’m already seeing the higher technology moving in,” he said. “It’s not just these companies moving into the area because of BRAC. It’s every company ... We need a higher skilled work force.”

Maxton Mayor Gladys Dean said that she came to the meeting because of her interest in education.

“Education is critical to sustain life,” she said. “You can’t support life without it.”