Martin Center brief urges NC to tie college training to workforce needs

North Carolina should tie public college funding to employment outcomes and give employers a direct hand in shaping academic programs, closing the gap between the skills companies need and the graduates colleges produce. That’s the case made in a new policy brief from the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.

The brief, Aligning Education with Work: Why Employer Partnerships Are the Key to Effective Workforce Education in North Carolina, was released this week. Its author, Martin Center president Jenna A. Robinson, argues that labor shortages, new technology, and demographic change have left the state’s higher education system out of step with its economy.

“North Carolina is lucky to have a growing, vibrant economy,” Robinson said in a statement. “We need workforce policies that can keep up with it.”

Hiring remains a problem for most of the state’s employers. In the Commerce Department’s 2024 Employer Needs Survey, 62% reported trouble finding qualified workers, down from 81% in 2021 but still higher than before the pandemic. The UNC System, meanwhile, counts business, computer science, education, engineering, and the health professions among fields producing too few graduates to meet demand.

Work-based learning, the brief contends, pays off long after graduation. Students who complete internships are 49% less likely to be underemployed after earning a degree, according to a February 2024 analysis from the Burning Glass Institute and the Strada Institute for the Future of Work. Closer to home, state Commerce Department data released in April show apprenticeship completers are 13 percentage points more likely to be employed — and earn higher wages — a decade after finishing their programs.

Several homegrown models are already working, the report argues. The Carolina Battery Institute, founded in 2023 by Greensboro-based battery maker Soelect Inc., runs what it bills as the nation’s first hands-on training program for lithium-ion battery manufacturing through Guilford Technical, Forsyth Technical, and Rockingham community colleges. Ten employers have signed on as partners, with registered apprenticeships in eight occupations.

Wake Tech launched a BioMechatronics Apprenticeship in 2025 with biotech employers CSL Seqirus, FUJIFILM Biotechnologies, and Eli Lilly. Other examples include NC BioImpact, a biopharma training partnership between the UNC System, community colleges, and industry; and NC State University’s Golden LEAF biomanufacturing training center, in operation since 2007. Novant Health’s Future Forward program, which covers up to $5,250 a year in employee education costs, also gets a mention.

On the policy front, Robinson wants lawmakers to tie college funding to employment outcomes and labor demand, offer matching grants for employer-college partnerships, and require public institutions to report earnings and employment results program by program.

“Funding models that reward instructional activity rather than outcomes often direct funds to unproductive programs,” Robinson wrote in the brief.

That approach builds on Propel NC, the community college funding model that ties dollars to enrollment in high-demand, high-wage fields. Senate lawmakers funded new Propel NC career pathways in healthcare, engineering, advanced manufacturing, the trades, IT, and transportation. Robinson would like to see the UNC System follow suit by building workforce-alignment and return-on-investment metrics into its academic program reviews.

In Washington, the brief asks Congress to codify 2011 guidance allowing revenue-sharing partnerships between employers and colleges. Similar provisions appeared in the 2024 College Cost Reduction Act sponsored by US Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District.

Workforce alignment has been a recurring theme in Raleigh. Lawmakers considered legislation this session to expand community college workforce training, and Gov. Josh Stein has pitched free community college in high-demand sectors.

“Policymakers have the opportunity to catalyze such partnerships through deregulation, better incentives, and increased transparency measures,” Robinson wrote in the brief’s conclusion.

“Martin Center brief urges NC to tie college training to workforce needs” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.