It may come as no surprise to you that the craft beverage industry is booming
or that it's booming in North Carolina. What may surprise you though is that one
of the primary sources for the training
that helps fuel this boom is in Wentworth, a tiny town north of
Greensboro.
Wentworth is home to Rockingham Community College
a school in the vanguard of craft beverage training
RCC produces strong candidates for the industry
with the first of its kind community college curriculum
brewing, distillation, and fermentation. There's a vacuum
for quality educated students and we are filling that void
and its active the industry is really blowing up
and we're helping kindof feed that pool. That the program should be taught here
is no fluke for more than 35 years the town it even has hosted the massive
Miller-Coors brewery
one of Rockingham County's largest industrial employers
while our program is not about that kind of brewing
we benefit from it as you'll see. The curriculum was developed in
collaboration with several other schools
and is based on a wealth of information collected in the US and abroad
complimenting net academic research is the broad experience if our instructors
whose credentials would be hard to match anywhere we have such a diversity
from the teaching standpoint the
instructor standpoint and so we all have our different angles
that we can given so you can answer the same question in different ways
I think that provides a better conceptual understanding for the
students once they get out in the
marketplace the three professors is a eighty years combined
experience and education in the field I think that that stuff the match
and Community College setting. The students are engaged they come from
different backgrounds
it wonderful to teach students so eager to learn
makes it fun as an instructor to see students who truly want to be here want to, want to
learn the material,
want to take part in the class. For every brewer
there's a couple farmers there's a couple technicians
there's a couple operators there's a couple welders
are there's couple salespeople was marketing their drivers
all these people part of this industry to take that plotter
get it to load I think that one of the strengths of it is that it is a
community college rather
undergraduate program I think that people are approaching this from a
working standpoint rather than a theory standpoint and I think that's super
taking a class is for a year I gotta really great understanding
what happens in a big production facility like many things
so I decided to use that knowledge that game there
to come here put it to work the instruction is really good
well what we're seeing is the guys are coming in
know what they're talking about consider some other moving parts in a Brewers
world
it never gets dole materials are being grown whether the burly
pops you find those things can just change year to year
the living product and every year changes a little bit you have to adapt
you bring to it so you don't have product direct
the sick celebrating economic engine is infusing new energy
and optimism into communities generating both jobs and revenue
to be here soon enough people go either way to come in and have a beer
no I think it's great that people can be trained locally to make something this
good local
can there's an added benefit for otherwise sleepy little towns
Granite Bay do have their charms the places can sometimes be a little too
sleepy for their own good
enter the brewpub if we get a micro brewery will bring this transform
downtown team will have younger people coming here and will spend more money
here there's more reason for restaurants
that helps with the downtown revitalization component
North Carolina is positively bursting with growth in craft beverages
but the market is far from being saturated
whether you're looking for a career in the brewing industry or in a related
field
or want to relocate or start your own business in North Carolina
Rockingham Community College can show you how
North Carolina's craft beverage story is a great one
and it's still being written in fact there's a part in it for you
just contact our CC to get started your future in craft beverages
only
K for more information visit our website at rockinghamcc.edu
or go to ncbionetwork.org