RALLYING POINTS.

• Author: Saylor, Teri
• Position: WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT TRAINING N.C.

Businesses arriving and expanding in North Carolina are creating thousands of jobs. Colleges and universities, along with public and private sector partners, are uniting to fill them with skilled workers.

North Carolina history was made in March, when Vietnamese electricvehicle manufacturer VinFast chose 2,500-acre Triangle Innovation Point in Chatham County for its first North American plant. The $4 billion investment is the state's first passenger-car factory and its largest economic development project to date.

VinFast plans to build cars and buses at the factory, as many as 150,000 per year when production begins in mid-2024. That will require plenty of skilled workers--eventually about 7,500. And that doesn't include ones to operate the factory's supply chain, which is expected to develop across the region and North Carolina.

It took many people to get the VinFast deal to its current point. And it'll take even more to keep it moving forward. State and local officials, along with educators and private partners, are rallying to train and grow the needed workforce. N.C. Community College System officials, for example, have already earmarked $38 million for training customized to VinFast's needs. That's just tip of what will be needed for workforce development in a host of industries statewide.

Boom Supersonic, for example, plans to create more than 1,750 jobs by 2030 at Piedmont Triad International Airport near Greensboro, where it's investing $500 million to build supersonic passenger jets. Toyota is creating 2,100 jobs by 2025 at a $3.8 billion electric-vehicle battery plant that it's building at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite. Add to that the 3,000 jobs Apple is bringing to Wake County as part of a statewide $ 1 billion investment and the up to 1,000 jobs Google is creating at its Durham engineering hub, part of a $7 billion investment nationwide.

In Gaston County, for example, where N.C. Department of Commerce reports the July unemployment rate was 3.7%, plastic packaging manufacturer Sibo Venture is investing $ 10 million at a 6.2-acre site in Gastonia Technology Park. It will build a factory and create about 25 jobs over the next four years.

The U.S. Postal Service will need an undetermined number of workers at the 620,000-square-foot building its leasing at Gateway85, a 300-acre industrial park along Interstate 85 between Gastonia and Lowell. And fresh-foods manufacturer Hans Kissle broke ground in June at the Apple Creek Corporate Center, where it's building a $42.2 million factory that will create 219 jobs.

All businesses are struggling to hire employees quickly, so workforce needs are critical, says Greg Smith, Gaston College's vice president of economic and workforce development. "At one time, we used the term 'skills gap,' and we would talk about needing to get our residents up-skilled for the new jobs in our area,"...