LAURINBURG — Local educational leaders held a panel discussion Friday morning and all spoke on the successes of the schools with regard to enrollment increases, but one focus was on economic development and education’s impact.
Richmond Community College President Dale McInnis, St. Andrews University President Paul Baldasare, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke Dean of College of Arts and Science Jeff Frederick and Scotland County Schools Superintendent Ron Hargrave all attended the annual State of Education breakfast where each spoke about what they’re doing to help economic development.
“I personally believe that economic prosperity for us as individuals and for us collectively begins at the doors of our public education school system,” Hargrave said. “That road continues on to our community college and our colleges and universities. Being an employee of 800 staff members, we have a tremendous impact on our local community.”
Hargrave added that, while there is staff in that number who doesn’t live in the county, much of their time is spent here.
McInnis added that one of the goals of RCC with the new location opening up at the former Covington Street Elementary School will be the expansion of the small business program with a dedicated representative just for Scotland County. He also stated that the community college is involved in every stage of conversation with industrial recruitment and expansion.
“I’ve been personally involved in most of the recruitment expansion efforts because we’ve found that … the last variable is the quality and quantity of the workforce — whether that is readily available or has been developed,” he said. “So with that, the public schools and community college have to be at the forefront.”
Frederick agreed there is a direct correlation between economic development and education, especially with 21st century jobs.
“It doesn’t matter what study you read, by 2050 somewhere between a quarter and 40% of jobs that we’ll be doing haven’t been invented yet,” Frederick said. “The reality is what can we teach people now so that the skills that they walk out of the high school system, the community college, the college systems (will be) skills that migrate as the economy shifts.”
He added that the combined economic impact is half a billion dollars per year, but asked “what if that impact could get higher and how that would be able to prepare people to learn valuable skills?”
While Baldasare spoke on how the university helps with economic development, he brought up a topic from when he was listening to the Secretary of the Department of Commerce.
“One of the things he said that caught my attention was that 80% of the job growth comes from the expansion of existing business and industry, and only 20% comes from recruiting folks from the outside in,” Baldasare said. “He went on and spent about 80% of his time talking about all the efforts to recruit industry into North Carolina.
“At the end, I asked a question — well, if 80% are on expansion, what programs are you doing to support the industry that’s already here? He said we need to work on that, and we do need to work on that.”
He continued that all four of the institutions should be supporting the local industry to help grow what is in the area.
According to Executive Director for the Laurinburg/Scotland County Area Chamber of Commerce Chris English, the event was a success and he was happy with the discussion from all the panelists.
“We have an opportunity to get together as a community to hear from our educators,” English said. “It lets the community see what contributions they’re making, how they’re growing and how they’re adapting to the social environment. It’s good to see them working together and how our education system as a community is so intertwined.”
Reach Katelin Gandee at 910-506-3171 or at kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com
