Training edge: community colleges help employers.

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When Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker Dell selected Winston-Salem as the site of its latest U.S. assembly plant, much of the talk centered on the $280 million in state and local incentives it took to secure the factory. That's only natural. Most people understand the value of money. But North Carolina had something else that helped it win the plant, which opened in September and was scheduled to begin shipping computers in October. That not-so-secret--but harder-to-quantify--weapon is worker training.

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With 700 hires needed to staff the plant initially and expansion plans calling for as many as 1,500 workers within five years, Dell recognized its need for assistance with employee training. The state has long been renowned for the strength of its community-college system and, in particular, for its programs run through the colleges that provide industrial education for companies that create jobs. Thus the state's education system played a big role in helping to seal the deal when Dell executives came shopping for a place to put down roots.

In fact, when Kevin Rollins, Dell's chief executive, announced that the company would come to North Carolina, he ticked off a list of things about the state that appealed to Dell. Education was first. Dell has since partnered with Forsyth Technical Community College, which will train all its new employees.

Similar training initiatives are under way across the state for new and existing businesses. Such programs provide a catalyst for economic growth and development. In 2004-05, community colleges provided training for 164 new or expanding businesses. The colleges also trained workers in evolving technologies at existing companies. Statistics aren't available yet for 2004-05, but a year earlier more than 10,000 workers from 701 companies attended more than 1,000 training classes.

The worker-training tradition in North Carolina dates to 1957, when Gov. Luther Hodges opened the state's first industrial-education center in Alamance County. Its purpose was to provide vocational and technical education to high-school students and industry-based skills training to adults. Funds were allocated by the General Assembly to the State Board of Education to initiate a statewide system of similar industrial-education centers.

That same year, the governor appointed Cannon Mills engineer A. Wade Martin head of the state Department of Public Instruction's trade and industrial-education division. Part of his job was to visit other states, particularly in the Northeast, and ask industrialists what it would take to start factories in North Carolina. The resounding answer: a trained work force. Based on that input, Hodges and Martin created the nation's first custom-training program in 1958, along with a guarantee that, if companies created jobs in North Carolina, residents would be trained and ready to fill the positions.

Today, the state Community College System is the third-largest in the nation. Each year, its 58 community colleges enroll more than 750,000 students. There's a campus within 30 miles of every state resident. From the beginning, the system's mission has been to provide opportunities for students to further their educations and obtain training to compete in...