Dawn of a new day: Eastern North Carolina is welcoming new businesses with the latest workforce training improved transportation and expanded foreign trade zones.

• Position: SPONSORED SECTION: REGIONAL REPORT: EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA

Technology-dependent companies are moving to eastern North Carolina. "In recent years, Greenville and eastern North Carolina have successfully competed with the Research Triangle over companies that made a final decision to locate here because ... you could have nearly everything that you have in [Research Triangle Park] but at a considerably lower cost," says John Chaffee, president and CEO of Greenville-based economic booster NCEast Alliance. While their executives like those numbers, their human-resources managers are struggling to make others add up.

Washington, D.C.-based U.S Chamber of Commerce says jobs based on science, technology, engineering and math--STEM--are growing twice as fast as non-STEM jobs. Finding enough skilled workers to keep pace with that trend is a tall order for the region, whose economic strength has always been agriculture. But NCEast has planted seeds across the 24 counties between the Triangle and Atlantic Ocean that it represents in hopes of cultivating a new workforce.

Bruce Middleton worked as a teacher and administrator for schools in Alamance and Orange counties before retiring and moving east. He is putting that experience to work as executive director of NCEast's STEM East program, a position he started in January. Borne from a partnership between industry and public education, he says the STEM learning centers reinvent education. "We are aiming to grow skilled employees locally, so they can continue to make their careers and homes where they grew up, where they are close to their families and where they enjoy living."

STEM training starts in middle school, where students choose a career path. Then they enroll in learning modules based on real-world situations pulled from current and emerging career opportunities. "Corporate executives are incredibly involved and supportive, both in service to education and through financial contributions," Middleton says. "They offer teachers an opportunity to work at their companies during the summer, when they get workforce experience to take back to their classrooms."

The east's economy is diversifying. It's adding industries, such as biotechnology, pharmaceutical, renewable energy and advanced manufacturing, while holding tight to its agrarian roots. STEM East is one accommodation that's being made to welcome the additions. It joins upgraded transportation, plentiful renewable and clean energy, and an easier way to get raw materials and finished products in and out...