202: How Community Colleges Power Statewide Economic Development with John Loyack

December 15th, 2025  |  26 mins 19 secs

apprenticeship, bionetwork, community colleges, customized training, eco devo, econdev, economic development, manufacturing workforce, nc edge, regional collaboration, talent pipelines, workforce development

A deep dive into how North Carolina’s community college system quietly powers workforce development, customized training, and apprenticeship at scale, with lessons every economic developer can steal.In this episode of the Econ Dev Show, host Dane Carlson sits down with John Loyack of the North Carolina Community College System to unpack what “workforce development” looks like when you’re the person who gets the call the day after the ribbon cutting asking where the next 500–5,000 workers will come from—and how North Carolina answers that question through four major tools: NC Edge customized training, ApprenticeshipNC, the Bio Network (now stretching from life sciences into food/beverage and natural products), and a small business center network embedded across 58 community colleges, all while pushing for tighter collaboration so employers experience one connected system instead of disconnected silos.