Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
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Friday, October 9, 2009
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer
Henry County and Martinsville likely cannot replace every manufacturing job that the community has lost in recent years, no matter how many companies locate here, according to two New College Institute (NCI) officials.
That is why NCI plans to offer a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship within a few years. It would be Virginia’s first public institution of higher education to offer such a degree program, said Executive Director Barry Dorsey.
The institute’s board learned of the plan Thursday.
Since 1997, the area has lost about 12,000 manufacturing jobs, according to Mark Heath, president and chief executive officer of the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp.
Modern technology lets machines do jobs that manufacturing workers once did, so “we’ll never be able to fill the need of all the people unemployed” due to factory job losses, Dorsey told the board.
Heath, who is a member of the board, agreed.
“Machines replace people” in today’s business world, he said.
“I expect a lot more companies” will locate in the area, “but not a lot more jobs,” he said. Although there will be growth in the number of jobs locally, it will not be in terms of “massive hiring.”
Dorsey mentioned RTI International Metals, which is establishing a plant in the county’s Patriot Centre at Beaver Creek industrial park, as an example. The firm plans to invest $100 million in the facility and hire 150 people.
In contrast, the former DuPont plant near Martinsville employed thousands at its peak.
“Companies wanting thousands of workers ... have gone offshore,” Heath said.
“It would take a lot of plants” like RTI — at least six or seven — “to even equal 1,000 jobs,” Dorsey added.
NCI’s entrepreneurship degree program would be targeted toward helping people launch their own businesses, he said — in essence creating jobs for themselves and others.
“People in this area have a lot of great ideas,” Dorsey said. “But they need help in translating those ideas into viable” businesses.
Various colleges and universities nationwide offer entrepreneurship degree programs, but none is in Virginia. Dorsey mentioned that Ariel Harrington, an NCI student recruiter, has a bachelor's degree in commerce and business administration with a concentration in entrepreneurship from the University of Alabama.
NCI is seeking $150,000 in state funds during the 2010-12 biennium to start an entrepreneurship degree program. Dorsey said he is optimistic the institute will get the funds because the state asked NCI to submit a proposal.
And, “everyone I’ve talked to at the state thinks it’s a great idea,” he said.
But that is “no guarantee” the funds will be provided, he emphasized.
In its current form, NCI cannot offer a degree program of its own, Dorsey said. Most likely, “a consortium of institutions would have to develop” the entrepreneurship program and then “one would have to provide it” to NCI students, he said.
NCI provides local access to higher-level courses needed to earn certain degrees conferred by universities across Virginia. Students attending the institute must have completed their first two years of college courses elsewhere, such as at a community college.
The State Council for Higher Education in Virginia is expected to decide in 2012 whether NCI should remain in its current form or evolve into a stand-alone university or a branch campus of an existing university. |
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