Randolph Community College (RCC) is expanding its footprint across the region with new facilities, course offerings and an entirely new campus.
The downtown Asheboro location will house the Small Business Center office, which has the goal of creating new businesses and supporting existing ones. The space will also have two English as a second language classrooms.
The Archdale Center, 20 miles north, and home to the school’s HVAC and welding programs, is introducing an accredited dental hygiene program.
Plans are also on the drawing board for a new campus in the Liberty area, 20 miles northeast of Asheboro.
RCC President Shah Ardalan says the school is seeking community partners — companies both large and small in need of employee training —for the Liberty campus.
"They will have easy access to that location, but also to a workforce that is going to be coming there to get education," he says. "We have had this model in other places, and it was very successful, and I think it will work very well for this location at this time."
The first phase for the 22-acre site on U.S. 421 will be creating new RCC facilities, followed by adding partners from area universities, and later businesses, with names like Toyota and JetBlue already in the mix.
The total investment for the Liberty campus is currently estimated at some $60 million.