Brent Parton is the deputy director of the Center on Education & Skills at New America, a D.C.-based think tank. He focuses on education policies at the Center in order to build learning-based pathways to economic opportunity. He took time to speak with Rural Business HQ recently on rural workforce development, sharing his thoughts on what rural communities can do to prepare a workforce that will benefit their economies long-term (6:33).

We discuss how rural areas can become more entrepreneurial (9:32), what industries have the most potential for growth (12:09), the role businesses can play to build up the local talent pool (16:09), and examples of success that are happening today (23:00).