(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Major support for Carolina Business Review provided by Colonial Life, providing benefits to employees to help them protect their family, their finances and their futures.

High Point University, the Premier Life Skills University, focused on preparing students for the world as it is going to be.

And Sonoco, a global manufacturer of consumer and industrial packaging products and provider of packaging services with more than 300 operations in 35 countries.

- Spring fever is beginning to take hold here in the Carolinas in more ways than one.

As we get closer to what a spring-summer season looks like, people feel better, just generally.

But what happens about schools and, more specifically, what about community and technical colleges?

Later on the program we'll be joined by the new head of the North Carolina Community College System, Thomas Stith.

But before that, we start with our panelists now.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Gratefully acknowledging support by Martin Marietta, a leading provider of natural resource-based building materials.

Providing the foundation upon which our communities improve and grow.

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

Visit us at SouthCarolinaBlues.com.

The Duke Endowment, a private foundation, enriching communities in the Carolinas through higher education, healthcare, rural churches and children's services.

(upbeat music) On this edition of Carolina Business Review, Brooks Raiford, of the North Carolina Technology Association, Carl Blackstone, from the Columbia Chamber of Commerce and special guest, Thomas Stith, President of the North Carolina Community College System.

(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome again to our program.

Carl, nice to see you.

Brooks, welcome to the program.

Gentlemen, you know, here we are heading into the spring, people starting to feel good, the vaccine is being widely deployed, it makes people feel even better.

Do you get the sense that instead of just plodding along toward some kind of normal, we're picking up speed, this thing's accelerating?

Carl, what's the sense you get?

- I think, you know, with the warmer weather, people are ready to get outside.

They've been frustrated for a long time.

So yeah, I think they're anxious to get and they're looking for the first opportunity to really get back to a state of normalcy, whether that state will be where it was over 13 months ago, I'm not sure, but I do think there's enough energy right now and with thousands of vaccines getting deployed every week, it's gonna really help and so I think we're a couple of months away from really opening up.

I know in the last several weeks, the governor's eased restrictions here in South Carolina, but and across the country, we're seeing that.

So, I think we're getting really close.

I know business is humming.

Manufacturing's back to work, they've not missed a beat.

So we're ready, we're open.

- Brooks, same question.

What do you see and you get that same sense that we're accelerating pretty quickly toward a norm?

- I do.

I think, you know, you can't beat consumer optimism.

We always have seen that in the past and I think we're seeing optimism across individuals as well as companies and organizations Interestingly, given the organization I represent, we're seeing a lot of discussion around how restaurants to businesses of all types are looking at ways to use technology to make the transition back to normal easier, whether it's the ways in which offices are organized or the contactless ordering and pick up.

A lot of that stuff I think will continue.

I just was hearing the other day that the flu season is looking to be a lot less severe than it would normally be in part because of all the things we're doing to protect ourselves from COVID.

So that will continue as well.

- You know, Carl, let's unpack this idea, as Brooks just talked about the technology of it all.

At the beginning of this public healthcare crisis or public health crisis, you know, everyone said, okay, it's gonna be different now.

Now we're gonna be working remotely, that old going into the office is gonna look completely different.

But here we are not saying that we are going to all go back into the office or all work remotely but there'll be something in between.

What are the new rules of engagement and, Brooks, we'll wanna hear from you on this as well.

But what are the new rules of engagement for a commercial space, for office space, for working, for some hybrid?

What does it look like?

- I've been reading reports after reports on folks predicting what the market's gonna be in next year, as it relates to commercial space.

I don't think we really know.

I mean, I think it's gonna depend, really, what part of the country you live in.

I think if you're talking about a regional firm, I think they'll be in the office.

If you talk about a national firm, maybe not so much, at least not in the near future.

There may be even a boomerang effect.

I mean, one of the things I think we've gotta look out for within companies is the culture of the company and can you sustain the corporate culture from a remote atmosphere?

And, again, it's gonna depend on the industry, I believe, but think you may see folks that want to try this remote workplace but over a period of time realize they can't control that culture as well with folks living or working remotely so they may come back in.

I think it'll be a hybrid.

I don't know if a five day in the office will be the norm going forward.

It may be three or four days in the office but we'll see.

It'll definitely just be a short-term disruptor for the commercial space.

- Brooks, Brooks, clearly technology was driving that change, is culture back on the field and in charge of what the new work environment's gonna look like?

- Sure.

Actually, I've been talking to a lot of business owners and leaders about the very question of culture as well the need for in-person interaction, not only internally, but with your external audiences, customers and so forth.

There's a real itching to get back to that.

But to Carl's point, there will likely, what we're hearing is there will likely be not necessarily less space needed, because employers wanna have more spacing of their employees versus the densification that was their order of the day before COVID.

So they might have an 80% rule or a 50% rule such that on a given day there's a smaller footprint, or smaller head count, even if it's the same footprint.

- Just talk about jobs for a minute, A couple of weeks ago we got a pretty good strong jobs report.

Carl, as we look now toward the summer and tourism's going to be an important indicator, certainly in both states 'cause it's the number one business in both states.

Would you expect that tourism's gonna catch back up to the rest of the economic output that's going on?

- I think it'll come close.

Whether it's back 100%, I wouldn't go that far, but I do see, we've seen upticks as of the first couple months of the year.

You know, what we're not seeing is the business travel.

The personal travel and the family travel's gonna continue to go.

People wanna, they need a vacation, they need a change of scenery, so I do think both states are primed to pick up those travelers from the eastern part of the United States that wanna come to the coast or wanna go up to the mountains.

So I predict an increase in travel this summer over, definitely over last summer.

What a lot of my companies in this region and those I talked to along the coast, especially in the service industry, are really pushing for that business travel to come back.

That'll just take a little longer.

- You think that's the last thing to come?

- I do.

I think this, bottom line matters.

And so when you see sales guys, they're still selling but they don't have to spend the money to go travel.

I think that's gonna be a new norm.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Then you have to ask them then, what's the motivation?

Brooks, let's take the next, last couple of minutes before we bring our guests on this idea of technology and when we unpack things like FinTech in Charlotte and Columbia or Asheville's trying to build kind of a cool technology core.

Wilmington wants to be angel and leverage UNC Wilmington and, of course, the Triangle and the Charleston Digital Corridor, all of these hotspots around technology, clearly been a driver the last 12 months, is that, I don't know how else to say it, is the red been licked off that candy or are we gonna see more momentum in there the next 12 months?

- I definitely think you will.

First, there's a real emphasis on continuing to build-out high speed broadband across the states and especially in rural areas.

What we're seeing is people have learned that they can go live where they want to and then work for whom they want and companies are willing to accommodate that more and more because of this COVID experience which forced all of us into a trial run that we might not have anticipated or planned for.

So we're hearing counties and regions who've said, we're now marketing ourselves almost more to the individual than to the economic development traditional approach which is companies and and expansions and relocations because they will follow the talent, they will follow the individuals.

The regions you mentioned are prime for continued growth.

They're all still very livable and affordable, compared to very large metros and other areas of the country.

And we all continue, I'm sure Carl does, to get inquiries from individuals and organizations about wanting to consider growth, expansion or move.

- Yeah.

It's gonna be a hot button, Chris.

I mean the real estate market is still booming in the Carolinas, across the Carolinas, and I don't see that slowing down anytime soon.

So, I think to Brooks's point, the biggest game changer is the rural infrastructure and putting high broadband throughout the state, both in Eastern North Carolina, the rural areas, South Carolina as well.

That's gonna be the game changer.

- Joining us now, one of the, North Carolina's, at least, North Carolina's newly minted education leaders comes some a very varied background both from the SBA, Small Business Administration, also a chief of staff for a former North Carolina governor.

He was an economic developer, member of city council.

Joining us now is the new president of the North Carolina Community College System, Mr. Thomas Stith.

President Stith, welcome to the program and congratulations on the job.

- Thank you so much, Chris.

It's good to join you today.

- Sir, how do you take all that you've learned from non-academic places and bring them to bear on the third largest community college, community and technical college system in the country and make that strategically viable and successful?

- Well, Chris, interestingly enough, I have a very unique background as you, as you have outlined but it really starts from the beginning, the literal beginning.

My parents started a two-year business school in Durham in 1956.

So I grew up in an environment that valued education, that really instilled in me that a good education, training was a pathway to success.

And so as now, as I lead the third largest community college system in the country, I have the benefit of both a strong business background, understand the nuances of government and how that works with our education sector.

And so I think it really provides me the tool to lead just our outstanding community college system.

Our system here in North Carolina has led in economic development, economic recovery when we face financial crisis and, you know, I firmly believe that the community college system will serve as a leader as we recover and grow after and, you know, during and after this pandemic.

So my varied experience really gives me a strong foundation to lead just a successful system and to grow our system here in North Carolina.

- Mr. President, you talk about during your recovery and, interesting, history suggests that when the economy drops or when something that causes the economy drops, people flood, flock to community and technical colleges, but that actually that model's been turned upside down this time during the public health crisis and, in fact, nationally, as you know, enrollment at community and technical colleges is actually down 10%.

How do you square that and how does that compare to what's going on in North Carolina?

- You're correct.

You know, nationally, we're seeing about a 10% decrease in enrollment.

Here in North Carolina we're at 7%.

So while still, at 7%, it's lower than the national average but really what has created this dynamic is this is not a traditional economic downturn, this is a global pandemic.

So as I talked to our college presidents, we have 58 community colleges across the state the reasons vary.

First and foremost, our students, you have a group of students that are hesitant.

We haven't closed our community colleges so we are still providing in-class, on-hands training but we've also pivoted.

We have flexible learning with online and virtual.

So there are several reasons, you know, some students not comfortable to come, literally come to class, for those that require in-class training.

We have had, is impacted our whole region, both North and South Carolina, our K-12 system.

Certainly our high schoolers are, with the career and college pathways, have been impacted just because of access to our high school students.

So while this hasn't been a typical economic impact on our system, we are strongly positioned as we open our economy and move forward, we know that we'll see that return to the community college system and we'll be prepared to lead this state in economic recovery and growth.

- Carl, Brooks?

- Hey, Thomas, thank you for joining and good to meet you.

There's a huge difference in both North and South Carolina, between the rural and urban areas.

As you are analyzing in your new role, what is the path for the rural communities to have better access to the community colleges?

Is it dual enrollment through high school?

Are there other programs that you're looking at to really help mentor or help get education to some of these rural communities?

- Well, Carl, you touch on a good point.

We have substantial dual enrollment throughout our system, but what we always also recognize is what are the keys to success for our rural community colleges?

We were able to deploy broadband to 20 rural community colleges that we identified and we have another 15 to 20 that we're working to deploy that so that they have that high-speed access through broadband.

Our rural community colleges, even pre-pandemic, also realize the benefit of working together in regions.

So you have community colleges pooling their resources, pooling programs.

We have some that've, for example, that've come together around truck driver training and they're doing it in a regional model so that one community college didn't have to bear the whole cost of the program, but we know that there's a huge demand nationally, over 60,000 jobs available just in that one industry.

So our community colleges are moving forward in a strategic manner and that's been enhanced because of the impact of the pandemic.

- Brooks.

- Hi, Thomas.

You know, given your roles, particularly in the governor's office, I wanted to ask you this question.

We're blessed in North Carolina to have three very strong higher education sectors.

Of course, the community college system is often lifted up with the national model, so is the University of North Carolina system, the public system and we have an amazing array of independent or private liberal arts colleges and universities throughout the state too.

So where do you see some of the best opportunities for collaboration, where three, you know, one plus one plus one equals more than three?

- Exactly.

And we're, again, I think as you mentioned, you know, we're a national model, whether it's our community college system, our higher, university system, both public and private, and therefore we've already thought that through and are implementing articulation agreements between community colleges and our four-year institutions, providing a pathway for whether it's our newly-minted teacher preparation course.

We have our articulation agreement with both our public and private four-year institutions.

And so again, that collaboration that you find that's important for a successful initiative, we have that here in North Carolina.

So we're doing that through articulation agreement, we're doing that through just having consistent numbering of courses.

So as our two-year students complete their associate's or complete some level of instruction at our community colleges, we try and provide that seamless pathway to that four-year degree - President Stith, the community colleges have asked for a 5% increase in teacher pay in the coming fiscal year and in a year when there is, as you talked about, this collaboration across both higher ed, lower ed, K-12, do you have to have, and excuse the analogy here, but do you have to have sharper elbows than those in the K-12 to try to get a teacher pay raise?

And especially since those K-12 teachers have been front and center when it comes to this pandemic?

- Well, I don't, Chris, I don't think it calls for sharp elbows.

We all wanna play nicely in the sandbox as we say, a playground analogy, but it does call for us to very aggressively and assertively advocate for the community college system and that's what we're doing.

You know, we have 58 presidents across the state, 800 trustees and we firmly believe, and we're together as a united community college family, that we have to properly compensate those individuals that are preparing that next generation of workforce, whether it's a nurse, someone in IT, they have to have the best instructors in front of them.

We are 40th in the nation when it comes to compensation and I'll say that again, 40th in the nation, and that's just unacceptable.

We're the third largest system and I would submit we are the best system in the country and no slant to my friends there in South Carolina, but we have, and we are in competition, not only with South Carolina but nationally for our faculty and staff.

And so we have to ensure that they are properly compensated so that they are in the classroom or providing virtual instruction so that we can have a properly prepared workforce.

So, yes, we're asking for a minimum of a 5% increase and we realize that's gonna be incremental.

If you're 40th in the nation, you don't recover or close that gap in one legislative session but we certainly believe we have to start now.

- Carl.

- Hey.

You know, the partnerships are everything, especially regional partners as well as partners with the business community.

What is the business community, what support do you need from them going forward?

What's something they can do differently now, after the pandemic, to support technical colleges, community colleges, in a way that helps get the best workforce?

- We, of course, have a strong relationship with our business community.

Our apprenticeship, North Carolina Initiative, once it was brought to the community college system, has increased over 80% and that doesn't happen unless you have a strong relationship with your business community and for them to realize the value of providing apprenticeship opportunities.

We have 58 small business centers across the state that work very closely with our small businesses.

They're the backbone of our economy here and so we have a good foundation but, moving forward, we're working with the business community.

We've identified eight to 10 high demand areas, whether it's advanced manufacturing, I mentioned earlier our truck driving training initiative, our nursing, you know, clearly in the midst of a pandemic, our healthcare programs are gonna be very key to the healthcare industry.

So we continue to expand and grow our relationships with the business community because they are a strong partner.

At the end of the day, our students want an opportunity.

They wanna job or they gonna start their own business and that collaboration with the business community has been and will continue to be critical for the community college system and our economy here.

- Brooks.

- Yeah, Thomas, I wanna pick up on something you touched on there and that is areas that have seen maybe an increased demand during the pandemic.

Could you elaborate a little more on that?

The trends in enrollment can mean various things, it could mean of course increases or decreases in overall demand in enrollment but also who's applying, age and stage, those sorts of things.

Over the past year, has the system observed any abnormal trends or just different than it would be typical in terms of who's coming to the community colleges, where they are in their career and in what areas of education or training they're looking for?

- Sure.

You know, as you disaggregate the numbers, as I said, overall we're down in enrollment, 7%.

One of the most glaring statistics, African-American males are down 30%, Latino males over 20%.

So we know there are specific demographic groups that are showing unusual patterns and specifically some of the industries we can, you know, you don't have to have a crystal ball to know our hospitality workforce has been significantly impacted.

But we do have funding for the short-term training programs and a significant amount we received through federal funding and the governor's GEAR program, $15 million to focus on these high growth, short-term training opportunities.

So while we see the data shows us there are particular students that have been more negatively impacted, we literally have funding for high demand, short-term and through short-term workforce training.

We have funding to help retool our workforce.

- President Stith, two minutes left in the program.

It's not nearly enough to ask you this question but I do wanna at least get a flyby answer from you.

As you well know, any successful adoption of a corporate initiative like diversity inclusion is a good thing but it ends up being mainstreamed like everything else and it's mainstreamed and then it becomes, and I don't wanna completely undermine it, but to say, it's a box that gets checked.

So how do you make sure that diversity inclusion and especially diversity and inclusion, which one is more important?

Is it important to be diverse?

Is it important to be inclusive?

How do you look at that?

- Yeah, I don't think they're mutually exclusive.

I think both serve an important role.

As I told my board, as I stepped on board, you know, I have a vision for the community college system here in this state.

The first be the first choice for accessible, affordable education for the citizens of North Carolina, to lead in the economic recovery and growth of this state and to be a national model in diversity and inclusion.

And what does that mean?

That means you're utilizing our most precious asset here in North Carolina and that's the people of North Carolina.

Our diversity is our strength.

You know, whether it's in Manteo or Murphy, you have the strength of our state because of the diversity of our state and our region.

And you do that having top leadership, our board is currently going through a visioning process within diversity inclusion, look seeing if there are existing barriers within our system.

So you have to have a very comprehensive approach and, as I said, we're building on the strongest strength in our state is our diverse population.

So I don't think it's an either/or proposition, it's a proposition that will strengthen our, you know, our community college system and therefore strengthen our state.

- And you get the sense that it's widely being accepted across the system?

- Oh, yes.

I think if you, if you go to any of our community college campuses, you'll see that displayed.

I've had the pleasure to go to a couple of welding classes that I have yet to be asked to participate in.

I think they know not to let me do some of those tools, but, you know, there was a young lady in that class and her uncle was a welder and she had done her research and these are significantly high-paying jobs and she had determined that she was going to be an underwater welder or either a pipeline welder because of the salary that demanded.

So I use that small example to say, you see diversity throughout our system.

- Apologies.

Have to cut you off, sir.

That means you have to come back.

Congratulations, thank you.

Carl, Brooks, good to see you both.

Until next week.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Have a good weekend.

- [Narrator] Major funding for Carolina Business Review provided by High Point University, Martin Marietta, Colonial life, The Duke Endowment, Sonoco, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

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