Wilmington Star News - Sen. Kay Hagan Focuses on Jobs-Training Bill During CFCC Tour

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By Emily Evans

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan stopped by Cape Fear Community College's North Campus Wednesday to tour various labs and tout a jobs-training bill that's now working its way through Congress.

The bipartisan bill, which Hagan co-sponsored, looks to close the country's skills gap by creating an industry-recognized credential system and training job seekers for available positions now. The bill passed through committee and will be on its way to the Senate floor in the coming months.

Hagan, D-N.C., said replicating the successful jobs-training partnership that already exists between Cape Fear and GE Aviation, which aims to prepare students for advanced manufacturing jobs at the global company that has a manufacturing facility in Castle Hayne, is the goal of the new bill.

"This is exactly the kind of partnership I want all of our community colleges to be doing across the state," Hagan said. "This is exactly the type of investment that is going to push NC over."

Hagan said she has a problem with so many unemployed people while there are companies struggling to fill available positions because of a lack of skilled workers.

According to Hagan, the America Works Act would reduce that skills gap by modernizing federal jobs training programs. The bill will give priority to programs that provide industry-backed training, resulting in industry-recognized credentials for job seekers.

Theresa Handy, a Cape Fear graduate and current GE employee, is a product of the public-private partnership between the college and GE. Handy earned her associates of applied science degree in 2011 and is now a machine operator for GE Aviation.

"The program is geared towards you being able to be a machinist," Handy said. "When you walk out of the program, you have all the skills you need to walk into an employer's door and get started."

Larry Durbin, a value-process engineer for GE and former CFCC instructor, credited today's skills gap with the nation's push to move manufacturing jobs overseas.

"High schools quit pushing students into trade skills, the trade schools started closing because there were no jobs in manufacturing," Durbin said, creating a generation that did not have the manufacturing skills industries need today.

Hagan faces re-election in 2014, but said her focus right now is on her travels through the state.

"Right now my job is representing North Carolinians in the U.S. Senate and when I go across the state like I'm doing right now, it is about jobs," Hagan said. "It's about economic recovery, it's about education that takes place right here in Cape Fear to put people back to work. That's what I am focused on."

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