Brian Ralph President William Peace University
What do the opportunities for remote learning look like moving forward? At William Peace, one of our core strategies is immersive learning. Immersive learning is all about how students interact with information in as many and varied ways as possible. In-person learning is what really facilitates immersive learning, whether that is through group projects, undergraduate research, working with external partners and internships. Technology plays a role in how we create these varied experiences for our students. We’ll look at how to maximize and optimize the use of technology while leveraging the human connection that we believe is critical to learning. One of our major focuses is helping our students learn how to learn because we believe this will be essential in our students’ success after graduating from the university. Our primary mode of instruction will remain in-person but we’ve learned new ways to integrate various technologies. What factors are influencing strategic planning moving forward? For one, diversity, equity and inclusion is at the center of our plans. It is one of our core values and we know the future of learning institutions is very diverse. Most of the major school districts in North Carolina are minority-majority schools districts. We want to make sure we’re able to best attract all of those bright and talented students. We have the great opportunity of being in Raleigh and we want to leverage this. This is a terrific city that is on the move so we’re looking at the many ways our location can be advantageous to students. Our strategic partnerships will be important as well moving forward. We will also look at how to take immersive learning to the next level. Our faculty are unbelievably committed to learning new ways to teach and finding new ways for students to learn and connect with information. We’re really excited as to how immersive learning will look over the next 10 to 15 years. 150
| Invest: Raleigh-Durham 2021 | EDUCATION
The welding industry mainly consists of men, but profuse demand is driving women to pursue a career in the field as well.
( ) 13,000 licensed electricians were 51 or older. The state’s plumbers face the same conundrum: barely 3 percent of the 5,500 licensees in North Carolina are under the age of 30. It’s a similar landscape for construction: By 2030, there will be a labor shortage of 500,000 skilled highway construction workers. The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s (NCDOT) Office of Civil Rights has taken matters into its own hands, sponsoring new Highway Construction Trade Academies around the state. The importance of this industry niche is also made apparent in manufacturing, which employs 472,000 professionals in North Carolina, the ninth-largest in the United States and reigning supreme in the Southeast. By 2024, the American Welders Society estimates the United States will be short by over 400,000 welders in the national workforce.
