Cavco and Richmond Community College Build Workforce Pipelines in Hamlet, N.C.

Training, Growth and Opportunity

Hamlet, North Carolina, sits near the South Carolina border between Richmond and Fayetteville. Once called the “Hub of the Seaboard,” Hamlet was built around the railroad, making it one of the region’s most important transportation crossroads.

Today, manufacturers like Trinity Manufacturing, Impact Plastics, Enviva and Cavco Industries operate in Hamlet, employing members of the local community. Through the NCEdge Customized Training Program and Richmond Community College (RCC), Cavco and RCC are partnering to power workforce growth across the region.

The NCEdge Customized Training Program

NCEdge Customized Training is a program of the North Carolina Community College System that partners with local businesses to provide low- or no-cost employee training funded by the state. The program helps companies in industries like manufacturing and technology strengthen workforce development and improve employee retention — while giving community members the skills they need to build meaningful careers.

Richmond Community College recently secured nearly half a million dollars in NCEdge state training funds for a three-year workforce development program that will directly benefit Cavco’s Hamlet team members.

“RCC has been a great partner for Cavco and this location for years,” said Tyler Fuller, General Manager of Cavco’s Hamlet facility. “Our facility reflects the growth we’ve made, and we want to continue to grow our team and strengthen our workforce capabilities. The NCEdge training program helps us do that.”

NCEdge awards state dollars to manufacturers making meaningful capital investments tied to job growth, productivity and technological advancement. Cavco’s Hamlet facility qualified on all counts. Since 2022, the location has grown from roughly 80 employees to more than 160, invested between one and two million dollars in new equipment and facility expansion, and increased employee wages — all signs of sustained growth.

The program supports training in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and CPR certification, blueprint reading, leadership development and the 5S methodology for workplace organization, all delivered on-site at Cavco.

Training Built for Real Growth

The NCEdge program isn’t Cavco’s only active initiative with Richmond Community College. For the past two years, Cavco’s Hamlet facility has partnered with the North Carolina Apprenticeship Program, offering hands-on learning opportunities to students studying trades in electrical, plumbing, welding and HVAC. The apprenticeship program gives the next generation of skilled tradespeople a foot in the door and a head start on a meaningful career — while allowing participants to earn as they learn.

“We are very pleased to increase the support we’re providing to Cavco, one of our proven industry partners,” said RCC President Brent Barbee. “Many of our graduates have gone to work at Cavco in various departments, and we’ve previously provided company-specific training for them in the past.”

“The training really improves the quality of leadership at Cavco’s Hamlet facility,” Fuller said. “And in turn, this improves the quality of the homes we build.”

Strengthening the Community

Fuller plans to deploy the training strategically over three years, pairing each learning module with real-world applications on the factory floor.

“If you don’t use the skills learned in your training, you lose it. I want to make it progressive — here’s some training, let’s use it in real life. Then we do it again.”

For Cavco, being a good employer and a good neighbor are part of the same commitment — investing in the communities where the company’s team members live and work.

Cavco is proud to call Richmond Community College a partner in Hamlet, working together to expand opportunity and support the future of manufacturing in Richmond County.