A visit by two Obama cabinet members to Richmond Community College will bring various elected officials and citizens to Hamlet Monday to discuss education and workforce development in rural America.

U.S. Department of Education (DOE) Secretary Arne Duncan and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack will get a firsthand look at what resources are available for rural people to gain the skills and credentials to get a good job in today’s changing economy. However there will be more involved than just that, RCC President Dr. Sharon Morrissey explained.

“For one brief and shining moment, Hamlet and RCC will be in the national spotlight,” she said. “Certainly, (we will have the opportunity to discuss) the economic situation that we’re in right now with high unemployment rates, the loss of the textile industry and the need we face right now to retrain our workforce and retool them to fill the jobs that are going to come and take us out of this situation.”

This event is one stop on the White House’s Rural Tour, described as a series of town hall-style forums with top-level Obama Administration officials to discuss collaboration between local, state and federal governmental agencies to help rural America develop opportunities to improve the quality of life for its citizens.

The meeting is scheduled to last from 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. in the banquet rooms of the Cole Auditorium, and the emphasis of the discussions will be education and workforce development. The public is invited to attend, and no admission will be charged. Doors open at 12:30 p.m.

Morrissey said Rep. Larry Kissell was instrumental in bringing this forum to Hamlet.

“One of the things I talk about repeatedly at home, as well as in Washington - and I’m glad they are listening - are the opportunities people have in the rural areas of this nation,” Kissell said in a phone interview Wednesday. “We were hurting before the nation went to hurting, and I wanted this opportunity to offer a national spotlight to the concerns of the 8th District.”

He said welcoming the two top-ranking officials to the area will offer a chance to bring the three subjects he hopes to emphasize at the meeting to the forefront of a national discourse.

“Jobs, jobs and jobs,” Kissell listed. “Our people need the opportunity to have workforce development opportunities, and that will be the emphasis of this meeting.”

He defined workforce development as a collaboration between community colleges and public schools to provide the resources individuals need to develop the skills that make them marketable in the 21st Century job market.

“And it’s all leading back to rural development,” Kissell said.

The tour is being touted by the president’s press corps as a chance for the upper echelon of the federal ranks to get boots on the ground and converse with the common folks about the issues facing rural America, as well as sharing some of the administration’s ideas to help nurture less-developed areas of the country.

“A healthy American economy depends on a prosperous rural America,” President Obama said when announcing the concept. “Rural America is vast and diverse, and different communities face different challenges and opportunities. That’s why we’re going out to hear directly from the people of rural America about their needs and concerns and what my administration can do to support them.”

Richmond County is an appropriate venue for a discussion of education and workforce development in rural economies, Morrissey said, because of the number of workers being displaced by America’s trade policy.

“We are seeing a lot of displaced workers coming this fall that have been out of school for awhile, so they’re math and reading skills are rusty,” she said. “So they are having to come in and brush up their skills to the point they will be successful at the college level.”

She said the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) are being emphasized at the federal level, and will be vital in getting the laid-off back to work.

RCC provides services primarily to citizens of Richmond County, where unemployment is currently hovering above 14 percent, and Scotland County, which has maintained the highest unemployment rate in the state over the course of the last year.

The two counties also have hundreds of laid-off employees who receive federal benefits to retrain for another career.

RCC set an enrollment record in the Spring semester, and the early registration period concluded last week with more incoming students than the previous semester.

Previous stops on the White House’s tour featured discussions about jobs related to the clean energy economy the president is championing. These stops included a July forum in Virginia to discuss green jobs and a new energy economy, as well as forums yesterday in Alaska and Sunday in Ohio.

Forums in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Louisiana have also been held to discuss broadband, economic development and healthcare in rural areas.

Vilsack has been featured at all of the meetings, while Alaska will be the first appearance for Duncan.

While no correlation appears to exist between stops on the tour and grant announcements, Morrissey said. The funding needs of RCC will be on display for individuals who can help the situation.

The college currently has a grant application with the DOE to fund special services for displaced workers.

“It is fortuitous that the Secretary of Education will be here so we can showcase the need we have for that grant,” she said. “The money would be used to move displaced workers through our placement process and give them special support services, like tutoring and counseling, so they can receive training for jobs in other areas and have a certification in hand when they leave RCC.”

Opportunities like this are not as common for a rural community college as those in urban areas, she said.