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higher education without financial
barriers, fueling long-term growth
and opportunity for our region.
ern Technical College, we hosted the
first-ever Northwest Georgia Workforce Summit in August, bringing
together educators, business leaders, and community stakeholders to
PK Dalton State has a $149 million
address the region’s most pressing
annual regional economic impact.
Can you talk more about the impact challenge: talent.
The summit marked the first
Dalton State has on the local area
economy, and any development proj- regional response to Georgia’s new
efforts to make the state the “Best
ects Dalton State is involved with?
State for Talent” and positioned
higher education at the center of a
JF Dalton State College is a driving
force in Northwest Georgia’s econo- regional strategy. This strategy is focused on bringing together industry,
my. With strong enrollment growth
in the past three years, it is creating professions, chambers of commerce,
non-profits, K-12, the Technical
real economic momentum for the
College System of Georgia and the
region and strengthening social
mobility for our graduates and their University System of Georgia (USG)
to work together as we provide both
families.
a future for talent and a future for
Our impact is most visible in
our employers— quite specifically, a
workforce development initiatives
future that connects the two. Chanthat recruit and retain local talent
by providing high quality, affordable cellor Sonny Perdue and Commiseducation aligned with high demand sioner Greg Dozier headlined this
summit, which included a greeting
career fields and K-12 pathways. In
partnership with Georgia Northwest- sent by Gov. Brian Kemp.
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JAMES JANUA RY /F E B RUA RY 2 02 6
PK What are the most sought after
fields of study/degrees offered at
Dalton State, and how many graduates enter the workforce in Georgia?
JF Some of our most popular pro-
grams are biology, management,
education, accounting, criminal justice and nursing. We currently award
more than 800 degrees each year, and
about 90 percent of our graduates remain and work in northwest Georgia.
We are in the process of adding
a Bachelor of Science in Nursing
that will complement our current
ASN to BSN degree and support our
USG-funded efforts to add 77 additional nursing slots to our cohort. We
are also in the midst of an exciting effort to expand the use of industry-recognized micro-credentials. While in
the early stages, we are actively working toward new academic programs
aligned with regional workforce
priorities, such as fire science and
occupational safety and education.
