College Strategic Plan

2026-2031 Strategic Plan

The 2026–2031 Strategic Plan reflects a continued commitment to a student-centered, workforce-aligned Durham Tech by expanding opportunity, delivering consistent student success, and strengthening the well-being of the communities we serve.

We aim for our students to be in demand, earning job-ready credentials and industry-aligned skills that lead to above-average wages in high-opportunity fields and prepare them to serve in roles that power the industries that move our region forward. Durham Tech graduates will continue to lead the state in college transfer success and set the standard for equity, completion, mobility, and impact.

Mission

Durham Tech ensures that all students develop the knowledge, skills, and networks needed to be successful in college, work, and life.

Vision

To be the leader in our community’s educational, training, and economic development.

Core Values

Durham Tech is...

Priority Areas of Focus for a Pivotal Five Years

The Durham Tech 2026–2031 Strategic Plan is not a response to the past. It is a bet on the future — a future that, by nearly every economic indicator, is arriving faster than anyone expected. 

This plan was shaped by a core planning team, input from across the College, and guidance from its Board of Trustees. What emerged are five interconnected priority areas that, taken together, constitute a comprehensive response to where the regional economy is heading.

Increase enrollment and completion in high-opportunity, living-wage programs

Durham Tech’s first priority is to dramatically expand access to programs that lead to above-average wages. The College aims to serve 10% of the region’s population between the ages of 15 and 44 by 2031, with particular growth in nursing, biotechnology, teaching, and high-demand skilled trades. This isn’t simply about enrollment numbers. It’s about ensuring that the people who live in Durham and Orange counties — many of whom work multiple jobs, raise children, and face the constant pressure of an expensive and fast-moving regional economy — have a clear path to a career that pays well and the ability to support themselves and their families. 

The living wage target embedded in the plan — $45,552 per year, or $21.90 per hour — is not an abstract benchmark. It is a concrete definition of what economic mobility looks like in this region. By 2031, the plan calls for at least 80% of students in applied degree programs to achieve employment at or above that threshold. Given that AbbVie’s entry-level manufacturing operator positions are expected to average well above that figure, the trajectory is clear: high-skill, high-wage employment in life sciences, healthcare, and technology is within reach for community members who have the right training and credentials.

Lead the state in university transfer success.

Durham Tech has long served as a gateway for students who want to earn a four-year degree but need a more affordable or flexible starting point. The new strategic plan sets an ambitious target: by 2031, at least 77% of transfer-ready students will matriculate to a four-year college or university upon completing their associate degree. That would position Durham Tech as the state leader in transfer success — and reflect a conviction that community college is a powerful on-ramp to a bachelor’s degree and the career opportunities it opens. 

This priority is particularly significant in a region where knowledge-intensive employers consistently say that educational attainment matters — even for roles that don’t require four-year degrees. Research by RTI International has found that while employers value candidates with technical credentials, the ability to continue growing academically is an asset companies often prioritize

Build robust talent pipelines in key sectors.

Durham Tech is committing to expanding workforce-aligned pathways in building, engineering, healthcare, life sciences, and skilled trades — the exact sectors that regional economists and employers identify as experiencing the most acute talent shortages. 

The construction sector alone is facing significant pressure. Industry modeling indicates that the U.S. construction sector needed an estimated 501,000 additional workers in 2024 beyond normal hiring levels, and that pressure is expected to persist. Locally, the scale of construction underway and planned means that demand for skilled tradespeople in Durham and Orange counties will intensify considerably over the plan’s five-year horizon. 

In life sciences, the story is similarly urgent. North Carolina is already home to more than 860 life sciences companies employing more than 76,000 people statewide, and the industry generates more than $80 billion in annual economic impact, with a target of $100 billion by 2030. Community colleges have historically been recognized as critical partners in building the biotech talent pipeline — North Carolina’s BioNetwork consortium has worked alongside community colleges across the state to prepare students for pharmaceutical manufacturing careers. Durham Tech’s strategic plan positions the College to deepen that role substantially, building pipelines for the campuses of the coming years, not just the ones already here. 

Improve community well-being to drive economic mobility.

Of the five priority areas, this one is perhaps the most distinctively ambitious. Durham Tech’s plan articulates something that workforce development practitioners have known for years but that strategic plans often hesitate to state plainly: You cannot reliably educate and train working adults if their families are not stable. Childcare, family health, and community well-being are not separate from workforce development. They are prerequisites to it. 

By 2031, the College aims to partner with community organizations to support the development of a childcare center serving students, employees, and community members. It also plans to expand the use of its Community Health Lab, increasing services that improve child health by 15% while connecting families to educational opportunities, health resources, and workforce pathways. The logic is straightforward: A parent who cannot find affordable, reliable childcare cannot reliably attend class or hold a job. Addressing that barrier is not charity — it is strategy. 

Align the College’s footprint with regional growth. 

Durham and Orange counties are changing. Residential growth, commercial development, and the expansion of RTP itself are reshaping where people live, work, and need access to education and training. Durham Tech’s fifth priority is to ensure that the College’s physical presence is aligned with those shifts — that the College is where its students and partners need it to be, not simply where it has always been. 

This is particularly relevant given RTP 3.0’s vision for transit-oriented development. The Triangle Mobility Hub — a multimodal transit center supported by a $25 million federal transportation grant and expected to generate $270 million in economic returns over 30 years — represents the kind of infrastructure investment that changes patterns of movement throughout the region.

In Orange County, the concentration of industry growth in the Hillsborough and Buckhorn Economic Development Districts along I-40/I-85 is expected to continue to boom. The county projects an average tax base growth of 7.2% annually over the next five years.

Central to Durham Tech’s new strategic plan is the College’s role as a central node in the region’s economic infrastructure, vital to the Triangle’s growth story.

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The Goals Behind the Priorities

Underlying the five priority areas are six concrete, measurable goals the College has committed to achieving by 2031. Together, they represent a kind of accountability framework — a set of pledges the College is making to its students, its community, and its regional partners. 

The enrollment goal — serving 10% of Durham and Orange County residents between 15 and 44 — is ambitious enough to demand significant institutional investment and innovation. Reaching that percentage means not just growing the student body but making Durham Tech genuinely accessible to working adults who may have never considered community college as a realistic option for them. 

The completion goal — 60% credential completion for all students, with equitable outcomes across all demographic groups — confronts head-on one of the persistent challenges of community college education. Enrollment without completion doesn’t produce a viable workforce. It produces debt. The equity dimension of this commitment is equally important: Outcomes that differ dramatically by race, income, or immigration status undercut the College’s core purpose and reinforce the very inequities it exists to address. 

The workforce credentials goal — growing the number of community members attaining workforce credentials at a rate commensurate with regional population growth — reflects the full breadth of what Durham Tech does beyond traditional degree programs. Adult High School, English language acquisition, the Small Business Center, Human Resource Development, Customized Training — these programs serve people who are often invisible in conventional higher education metrics but who are central to the region’s economic health. 

The transfer success goal, the living wage employment goal, and the child well-being goal together paint a picture of what genuinely transformative community impact looks like — not just moving enrollment numbers but changing the material conditions of people’s lives.

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Driving The Region

The businesses that anchor RTP need employees with doctorate degrees, engineers, and senior researchers. They also need a deep, reliable pipeline of skilled workers who can run manufacturing lines, staff clinical facilities, build the campuses that house the next wave of companies, and care for the families of everyone doing that work. That pipeline doesn’t emerge automatically from having great research universities nearby. It requires sustained, deliberate investment in workforcealigned education — the kind Durham Tech has been building since its inception and is now committing to expand significantly. 

The founders who opened Durham Tech as an integrated institution in 1961 understood something about what a community college is for. It isn’t just a steppingstone or a fallback. It is, at its best, an institution that reads the economic moment clearly and prepares people — all people — to participate in it. 

The Research Triangle is entering one of the most consequential periods in its history. More residents. More companies. More investment. More complexity. More opportunity — and, without the right infrastructure, more inequality. Durham Tech’s 2026–2031 Strategic Plan is, at its core, a statement that the College intends to be part of what makes the next chapter of this relentlessly dynamic region work. 

Not just for the companies or people moving in, but for everyone already here.

Goals for Impact

By 2031, Durham Tech will achieve the following outcomes to move the needle on its strategic priorities and advance student success and regional economic mobility:

Access and Growth	Expand Community Reach Increase enrollment among Durham and Orange County residents ages 15 to 44, with a target goal of serving 10% of the region’s population in that age group. This growth will include expanding enrollment in critical fields such as nursing, teaching, biotechnology, and high-demand skilled trades.
Student Attainment and Mobility	Ensure Completion For All Ensure at least 60% of all students successfully complete their credentials, with equitable outcomes achieved across all student groups defined in the NC Community College System performance measures. Strengthen Workforce-Ready Talent Pipelines Increase the number of community members attaining workforce credentials at a rate commensurate with regional population growth. This includes programs and services such as Adult High School English language acquisition, the Small Business Center, Human Resource Development, and Customized Training. Accelerate University Transfer Success Ensure at least 77% of transfer students matriculate to a baccalaureate program upon completion of an associate degree. Advance Opportunities for Living Wages Ensure at least 80% of students in applied degree programs will attain employment earning a living wage of $45,552 ($21.90/hour) or higher.
Community Impact	Increase Mobility Through Children's and Family Well-Being Leverage the College’s assets to strengthen children's and family well-being across the community as a key strategy for advancing economic mobility by: Partnering with community organizations to support the development of a childcare center for students, employees, and community members to ensure that families have the support needed to succeed. Expanding the use of the College’s Community Health Lab to increase children's services by 15% while aligning service delivery and outreach to connect families to educational opportunities, health resources, and workforce pathways.

Initiatives for Implementation

By 2031, Durham Tech will advance the following initiatives to drive progress on its priorities and achieve its goals.

Access and Growth	Initiatives for Strategic Action: Expand dual enrollment by building a vertically aligned high school-to-college pipeline that creates early momentum through seamless partnerships with public, charter, private and homeschool networks. Implement a comprehensive Strategic Enrollment Management framework that aligns recruitment, onboarding, retention, and completion through targeted, data-informed enrollment and marketing strategies focused on priority populations. Build clearly articulated pathways from Continuing Education, College and Career Readiness, the Center for the Global Learner, and the Center for Workforce Engagement to degree, diploma, certificate, and short-term training programs and beyond. Assess enrollment gaps among key populations and geographic areas across Durham and Orange counties.
Student Attainment and Mobility	Initiatives for Strategic Action: Persistence Implement a fully integrated Early Success System that proactively identifies and addresses student needs by providing personal and academic support through real-time intervention. Improve online learning experiences by strengthening standards for high-quality online instruction, investing in faculty professional development, and expanding full-time faculty leadership in online course and curriculum development to support engaging, effective, and student-centered online learning experiences that increase student success, persistence, and course completion. Increase persistence and retention by:  delivering efficient, targeted, data-informed student support services;  scaling flexible, high-quality course delivery; and fostering student engagement through employer-connected networking opportunities. Completion Advance dual enrollment outcomes to boost college transitions in alignment with the 25% credential completion pipeline goal with Durham Public Schools and Orange County Schools and the 35% goal with Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. Phase out the Associate in General Education program as an enrollment option to provide intentional advising to students currently enrolled in the program to help them identify and transition to a high-opportunity pathway. Ensure all students on competitive admissions pathways have a plan to access an alternate pathway if they are not admitted into their chosen program. Design and implement structured educational planning pathways and proactive advising for students enrolled in short-term workforce programs by aligning those programs with stackable credentials that support continued skill development, wage growth, and career advancement. Transfer/Post-Completion Outcomes Strengthen high-quality instruction, expand dual enrollment opportunities, and implement proactive advising and transfer support early in the student experience in order to increase the number of transfer program students successfully matriculating to 77%. Redesign advising strategies for transfer programs by identifying the students’ intended transfer destinations and academic majors on the admissions application to Durham Tech. Strengthen advising by ensuring all transfer students have an education plan aligned with their intended transfer destination and major.  Double the number of apprenticeships offered by implementing a College Sponsor model alongside an employer sponsor model for the Registered Apprenticeship Program.  Initiatives for Exploration: Expand personal and professional networks for students with a focus on campus environments, clubs and activities, employer connections, and alumni engagement.  Implement a fully integrated career development framework embedded within advising services including intentional alignment between educational planning, workforce pathways, and long-term career outcomes for students. Strengthen career services and integrate career development throughout the student experience.  Strengthen and expand existing eight-week course access with a goal of increasing credit accumulation, decreasing zero-credit semesters, and increasing full-time enrollment.  Align seamless pathways into both university transfer programs and high-demand fields such as Health & Wellness and Building, Engineering & Skilled Trades.
Community Impact	Initiatives for Strategic Action: Partner with community organizations to support the development of a childcare center for students, employees, and community members to ensure that families have the support they need to succeed.  Expand the use of the College’s Community Health Lab to increase services provided to children by 15% while aligning service delivery and outreach to connect families to educational opportunities, health resources, and workforce pathways.  Initiatives for Exploration: Collaborate with community partners including local K-12 school systems to identify and address additional priority needs that support healthier families and create clearer pathways to opportunity.

Powering The Next Economy

Geared to Economically Power the Region, Drive Workforce Development, and Build Prosperity

For more than six decades, Durham Technical Community College has tracked the shifting tides of the regional economy — and helped workers navigate them. As the greater Research Triangle region enters one of the most dynamic chapters in its history, the College is launching a bold five-year plan to meet the moment. 

When Durham Tech opened its doors in 1961, its founders made an unusual decision for the American South: The College would be integrated from the start. That choice wasn’t simply a moral statement. It was a strategic one. Business leaders and the founding Board of Trustees understood that a rapidly shifting industrial economy demanded a higher education institution built for everyone — and that the region’s future prosperity depended on it. 

More than six decades later, the region those founders were part of is barely recognizable. Throughout that time, the College has continued to grow and update its programs, curriculum, and technology to match a changing region. Given the nature of the economic opportunities and challenges in both Durham and Orange counties in 2026, this work may have never been as important  as it is today.

Durham Tech's Backyard

Durham has shed its identity as a tobacco town and reinvented itself as one of the most dynamic innovation economies in the United States. Orange County has shifted from the home of UNC-Chapel Hill to a locale boasting an economy bolstered not just by the universities and healthcare, but by advanced manufacturing firms like ABB, Morinaga, and Medline. Together, Durham and Orange counties are known as a hub for careers in healthcare, research, clinical trials, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. Duke and UNC Health have become world-class academic medical centers.

Today, the Research Triangle Park – most of which sits in Durham County – is home to more than 385 companies, from nimble startups and federal research labs to Fortune 100 multinationals.

IBM, which arrived as one of the park’s earliest anchor tenants, recently marked its 60th anniversary there. Novo Nordisk, which opened its first diabetes manufacturing location in Clayton, NC in 1993, has since expanded multiple times and now has a major presence in Durham. Biogen, which celebrated 30 years in the park, announced a $2 billion investment commitment. Eli Lilly has invested $450 million to expand its high-tech manufacturing campus in RTP to help meet demand for its diabetes and obesity treatments. And in April 2026, in what Mayor Leonardo Williams called “a groundbreaking day in the Bull City,” pharmaceutical giant AbbVie announced a $1.4 billion investment to build a 185-acre manufacturing campus near RTP — the largest private investment in Durham’s history, projected to create 734 jobs averaging more than $118,000 per year and generate more than $8 billion in state economic activity over 12 years. 

The park’s roughly 55,000 workers collectively generate an annual economic impact of $25.1 billion — equivalent to more than 4% of North Carolina’s entire economy. And that’s before accounting for what comes next. 

RTP is entering its next iteration with RTP 3.0, which outlines how the park will evolve over the next 50 years. The plan expands on how land can be used in the park, which will create more mixed-use development and future-ready infrastructure. This, in turn, will help employers attract talent. 

To the north of RTP in Durham sits Treyburn Corporate Park, also known as Treyburn Industrial Park. Just off NC-501 with convenient access to Interstate 85, the park was developed in the 1980s. Today, Treyburn is one of Durham County’s key employment hubs. Major companies based there include AISIN North Carolina, bioMérieux, Corning, Merck, and Novo Nordisk, together employing thousands of workers. 

The park has a strong life sciences and advanced manufacturing tenant base and is an important counterpart to RTP, giving Durham County another concentration of major pharmaceutical, biotech, and industrial employers. 

In Orange County, there has been a surge in life sciences, clinical trials, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare jobs. In addition to UNC Health and UNC Chapel Hill, the county’s two largest employers, employers that include Morinaga, Medline and ABB have invested in the county.

ABB invested $40 million to expand its Mebane facility and create more than 400 jobs.

Morinaga has also increased the footprint at its Mebane facility. At the ribbon-cutting for the new expansion, Orange County Economic Development Director Steve Brantley said it will make Morinaga one of the county’s largest employers, with almost 400 people and a tax base of almost $160 million.

Another large employer that has invested in the county is Medline, a major medical supply hub serving hospitals and clinics throughout the Southeast, opened its 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center in Mebane in 2023.

The Triangle is expected to continue to see robust job growth in coming years. The N.C. Department of Commerce projects that one in three projected job increases across the state by 2034 will take place in the Raleigh-Durham region.

A Continuing Demand for the Bachelor's Degree

While the region’s economic base diversifies, for many employers, a bachelor’s degree remains a key credential for employment. Durham Tech partners with many universities in the state, including UNC, N.C. State, N.C. Central, and most recently, Duke, to create the opportunity for students receiving their associate degree to transfer their credits to the four-year institutions to complete their bachelor’s degree. 

The transfer program has a proven track record of success, showing that the high-quality education students receive at Durham Tech prepares them to continue to pursue higher degree attainment.

Data show Durham Tech students perform better at these institutions than students who started off as freshmen at the same institutions, with high rates of graduation.

While companies are creating new and significant opportunities for individuals with sub-baccalaureate credentials, the bachelor’s degree remains an in-demand degree for many companies and occupations and provides a strong return on investment in the Research Triangle labor market. 

Major Growth Industries

Economic forecasts project major growth and demand for employees in life sciences, skilled trades, and healthcare. The College is working proactively to meet the anticipated increased need. 

The College has expanded its Orange County Campus not only to enhance the EMS programs there but to add additional healthcare programs and bring Durham Tech’s Building, Engineering and Skilled Trades pathway courses to that campus for the first time. On Main Campus, Durham Tech broke ground on the Novo Nordisk Life Science Center and the Health Sciences Building in 2025, with expected completion in 2027 of the state-of-the-art facilities.

The College has launched the Durham Early College of Health Sciences in partnership with Durham Public Schools and Duke Health to prepare high school students for careers in clinical trials, surgical tech, medical assisting and nursing when they graduate with their high school diploma and Durham Tech degree.

After earning their degrees, they will be immediately eligible for employment, with Duke Health committing to hire at least 60% of the high school’s graduates.

Headwinds to Overcome

Durham Tech is fortunate to have economic growth, robust and long-standing educational and organizational partnerships, and strong governmental support that offer major tailwinds for the College. Each of these makes it possible for the College to set ambitious goals for what its students can achieve and what it can accomplish as a community institution. 

However, stubborn historical headwinds exist as well. Raj Chetty, William A. Ackman professor of economics at Harvard University and the director of Opportunity Insights, has developed a map of economic mobility in the country that outlines the clear challenge for Durham Tech. His data paint a grim picture of the chances for upward economic mobility in the Southeastern U.S., among other regions, with the Triangle being no exception.

Chetty's Data Show

In Durham County, adults aged 35 who grew up with low-income parents earned an average household income of $24,000 per year. 

• Of those adults, only seven out of every 10 graduated from high school, and approximately two out of 10 earned a college degree. 

In Durham County, the average income for children born in 1992 was $25,300, or 1.1% more than 15 years earlier. 

In Orange County, adults aged 35 who grew up with low-income parents earned an average household income of $29,000 per year. 

• Of those adults, 78% graduated from high school, and 27% earned a college degree. 

In Orange County, the average income for children born in 1992 was $28,200, or 1.8% less than 15 years earlier.

Lack of exposure to potential careers, networking opportunities, childcare, in addition to facing economic insecurity, and poor access to healthcare are all contributing factors. 

Durham Tech is working to be part of the solution. 

In addition to its academic and workforce development programming, the College is also committed to increasing access to key services like affordable housing and healthcare in underserved neighborhoods. 

Recognizing transportation and financial concerns are major obstacles for many people who need healthcare, Durham Tech established the Community Health Lab, a van equipped with medical equipment and providers, which provides free services ranging from eye exams and prescription eyewear to blood pressure screenings.

Foundational Success Is...

Employee Excellence and A Culture of Care

• Build a high-performing, student-centered culture that strives for continuous growth and improvement by caring for and investing in employees, strengthening leadership, supporting employee well-being, and aligning talent to what drives results.
• Expand a comprehensive leadership development model that builds capacity at all levels, including supervisors, emerging leaders, and executive leaders.
• Faculty and Staff Professional Development - Expand professional learning opportunities in AI literacy, advising, online instruction, Early Success System, and student engagement.
• Full-Time to Part-Time Faculty Ratio - Assess the impact of faculty composition on student success and instructional continuity.

Technology/Data Innovation and AI Integration

• Implement an enterprise-wide, iterative AI strategy providing ethical oversight, literacy support, cross-campus collaboration, and practices that enhance instruction, student services, and operations systems while delivering personalized, scalable student support. 
• Leverage predictive analytics and AIenabled systems to deliver personalized, timely support across the student lifecycle, from application through completion. 
• Build a more robust data and analytics strategy. 
• Build a unified, real-time data and technology ecosystem that drives decisionmaking, strengthens accountability, and enables a culture of continuous improvement across the institution. 

Financial Sustainability

• Align resources and investments with institutional priorities to improve operational efficiency, ensure responsible stewardship of College resources, and support long-term stability and student success.

Internal Process Redesign

• Strengthen operational effectiveness by redesigning and streamlining internal processes and leveraging strategic technology and AI integration to improve efficiency and responsiveness while creating a more seamless experience for students and employees, with an initial focus on human resources, business services, and information technology.

Campus Planning and Safety

• Execute or refresh forward-looking campus plans for Main Campus, Northern Durham Center, and Orange County Campus that align facilities with enrollment growth, program demand, and evolving models of teaching and learning. 
• Prioritize renovation and modernization projects for the Collins Building, Phillips Building, Educational Resource Center, Northern Durham Center, and 1510 E. Lawson Street. 
• Assess the suitability of existing leases and explore opportunities for growth through leasing or land acquisition in line with the College’s vision and mission.
• Foster a culture of safety and care by creating learning and working environments where students, employees, and visitors feel safe, supported, and empowered to succeed through continuous investment in campus safety, preparedness, 
  and well-being.