College President Takes Collaborative Approach
Published Feb 23, 2009
Dr. William W. Locke leads Northeast State Technical Community College.
William W. Locke has been president of Northeast State Technical Community College in Blountville, Tenn., for 13 years and has been involved with workforce development for a quarter century.
Northeast State is collaborating with government, business and industry leaders to help ensure the area has a prepared workforce for the present and future. About 5,300 students are enrolled at the college.
Dr. Locke took time out from his busy schedule to answer questions about workforce development.
Q How do you see Northeast State’s role in workforce development?
A We feel that our college’s main major goal is to prepare a qualified workforce. The goal is to do two things – allow existing businesses and industries here to expand, and to aid in the recruitment of new businesses and industries.
Q How do you accomplish that goal?
A We don’t talk about all this so much as an educational environment here at the college; we talk about it as a workforce-prep environment, because that’s the one thing that people looking to expand a business or to locate somewhere want to know: “Do you have a qualified workforce? Can you get me one?” So all of our educational programs are focused on developing a qualified workforce, which we talk about in economic development terms.
Q What are recent successes you can point to?
A The Regional Center for Applied Technology, or RCAT, (which opened to students in 2002 and is part of Northeast State), is part of a huge endeavor going on in Kingsport, with three new buildings coming on line. We have RCAT, the Regional Center for Health Professions, which just opened [in August 2008], and we’re going to have a Center for Higher Education and a Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing. It’s a big endeavor – no one in Tennessee is doing anything like it. We’re excited about it.
Q How have officials in your area been able to work together to achieve your goal?
A We’ve had this goal since 1999. What has made the difference for us is the thought that the one thing we needed to do to expand our economy was to make sure we could tell people that we had a qualified workforce. … We wanted to maintain and enhance our standard of living and quality of life. And the only way you do that is through economic growth.
Story by Anne Gillem
Photo by Ian Curcio
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