Press Releases

Governor Roy Cooper today laid out his priorities for workforce development, a primary focus for his administration as he seeks to ensure more North Carolinians are ready for the jobs of today and tomorrow. Cooper spoke at Vernon Malone College and Career Academy to highlight the core principles of his job readiness initiative, NC Job Ready.

Governor Roy Cooper today announced an innovative opportunity for high school girls to explore the field of cybersecurity through a competitive online game called Girls Go CyberStart. North Carolina girls in grades 9-12 can sign up to compete with girls from 16 other states and territories for a chance to win prizes—and potentially discover their future career.

To strengthen North Carolina’s workforce and connect students and workers with successful careers, Governor Roy Cooper has declared the week of January 22-26, 2018 Career Pathways Week in North Carolina. NCWorks has developed 27 Certified Career Pathways to help North Carolinians get the education and training needed to work in high-demand, high-wage careers. Throughout the week, regional NCWorks Career Pathways teams will host workshops across the state aimed at raising awareness among K-12 and community college career counselors and teachers.  

Governor Roy Cooper challenged business and workforce development leaders to increase the number of work-based learning opportunities across the state, part of a broader initiative to help North Carolinians become more job-ready. Governor Cooper offered his challenge today at a meeting of the NCWorks Commission, along with a call for the commissioners to provide him firm recommendations at the Commission’s next meeting for further action to advance the state’s workforce development agenda.

Today, Governor Roy Cooper announced that a wood veneer manufacturer, a regional collaborative for economic development, and four individual North Carolinians have won NCWorks Awards of Distinction for outstanding accomplishments and contributions in workforce development. The awards were presented last evening during a ceremony held in Greensboro.

Gov. Roy Cooper joined students, educators, corporate leaders and elected officials today to encourage real-world, work-based learning experiences for North Carolina students.

In his budget proposal, Common Ground Solutions for North Carolina, Governor Cooper proposed the NC Getting Ready for Opportunities in the Workforce scholarship (NC GROW). The program is free community college that covers last dollar tuition and fees to any NC Community College for recent high school graduates who make a certain grade point average and who have exhausted other sources of financial aid.

In his first Medium post since being sworn in, Governor Roy Cooper laid out his priorities to work with legislators to strengthen and grow the middle class through economic opportunities