SUFFOLK—President Barack Obama this week unveiled a plan for investing more than $12 billion in America’s community colleges over the next 10 years.

Obama said community colleges will provide the answer to this country’s failing economy through training and preparing a workforce for employment in new, cutting-edge jobs.

While the specifics of the plan have yet to be released, the leader of Paul D. Camp Community College is encouraged.

“We’re excited about it and appreciate the president’s recognition of the important role the community colleges can play in the recovery process,” said Dr. Doug Boyce, president of PDCCC. “We applaud the president’s initiative and hope there will be an opportunity as it’s rolled out and created to work with the administration on the details.”

Specifically, Boyce said PDCCC is right in the middle of a project using a U.S. Department of Labor grant to create a program for training warehouse and distribution workers. Boyce added this program — which should be ready to begin by January — is the perfect fit for the work needed with the incoming CenterPoint development in Suffolk.

“We want to create a new program and new initiative that would help the region bounce back economically,” Boyce said. “We would hope that some of these funds are brought to the local level and to the state level and packaged in such a way that we could apply with sister institutions for them.”