DIVERSE PATHS TO GOOD CAREERS.

Business North Carolina gathered a panel of education and business leaders at the James B. Hunt Jr. Library at N.C. State University to talk about how business impacts students' education and career paths. From offering hands-on experiences to exposing students and parents to lesser known jobs to creative ways to fill workforce shortages, ideas, challenges and success stories swirled around the table.

DAVE, CATERPILLAR HAS BEEN A LEADER IN HIGH QUALITY APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS FOR STUDENTS AS EARLY AS IN HIGH SCHOOL. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHY IT'S BENEFICIAL TO YOU?

EMONSON: We employ over 2,000 people in manufacturing roles in Wake, Lee and Johnston counties. With community colleges and the local high schools, we have developed pre-apprentice programs where students are exposed to the jobs we offer, that can then lead to a full apprentice program. They go through the same training that we would offer full-time employees and they do this while completing their studies. It's been really successful.

These programs have been running for over 10 years, and in Sanford, where welding is a really important part of the skill set we have been very successful. Twenty-five percent of our current welding workforce in Sanford went through these apprentice programs, and 20% of these ex-apprentices are at our highest level of our welding program and are very well compensated for this critical skill set.

It is very difficult to hire people into manufacturing, so the more we can promote it, the better. As for having young people within a workplace, I was an apprentice in the UK at age 16. You might have noticed that from how I speak, I'm not from North Carolina. I was an apprentice for four years, because in the old days, apprenticeship programs lasted a long time. I've been a big fan of getting young people exposed to manufacturing opportunities. We've got a relatively young workforce, so it's easy for us to engage the younger workforce or apprentices. It's not like they can't learn the roles and be very successful, if they have the aptitude, they can be successful.

BALDWIN: A key thing we find at Malone, is that businesses realize early on how important it is to build a relationship with the school and the students. This is about the time of year that some organizations suddenly show up with a stack of business cards, and they'll say: "I heard you have some HVAC technicians graduating, will you pass out my business cards?" And it's too late because the students have already been building relationships with other business partners who connected with them one or two years before they graduated.

PAT, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR EMPLOYERS TO GET INVOLVED IN SCHOOLS TO GROW THEIR WORKFORCE?

CRONIN: I think the conversation that we've had to this point really underscores the need for more employer engagement. And if I had to single out a reason for that it's self-interest, right. The only thing that we've consistently heard over the last several years from employers is their inability to find the workers that they need. And I think it's incumbent upon the employers to participate and help generate that pipeline...