Market Trends
readySC™ and Apprenticeship Carolina™ - Long-term educational and training options for South Carolina
Dr. Darrel Staat
President, SC Technical College System
It is my pleasure to once again call South Carolina home.
There are many things I love about this state, including its beautiful landscape, its welcoming demeanor, its cultural diversity, its innovative, can-do spirit and so much more. South Carolina has plenty to offer its citizens.
The SC Technical College System is a perfect example. Not only is it one of the oldest and most highly regarded systems in the nation, it is critically important to the residents and businesses of South Carolina.
The current state of the economy and the number of South Carolinians out of work makes the workforce training and education infrastructure provided by the System more important than ever before. Our state's future ability to put South Carolinians back to work quickly while preparing them to compete in jobs available now depends heavily on the SC Technical College System.
As a System, we ensure a quality higher education is accessible and affordable for all South Carolinians. The System educates and trains more than 250,000 South Carolinians each year providing them with the skills needed to increase their overall employability.
What's more, the System educates South Carolinians to live and work in the state. 96% of our students are South Carolina residents. And with 85 percent of our students remaining in the state upon graduation, the System educates students who are able to make an immediate contribution to the overall economy in South Carolina.
Yet, the System is much more than this. We offer a myriad of business programs and services designed to assist in not only attracting companies to South Carolina, but keeping them here through longer term educational and training options. Two such programs include readySC™ and Apprenticeship Carolina™.
readySC™
readySC™ contributes directly to the state's economic competitiveness by recruiting and training for new and expanding businesses — matching thousands of South Carolinians with new and better jobs every year.
Over the past 50 years, the recruiting and training readySC™ provides on a day-to-day basis has played an instrumental role in building confidence in South Carolina's workforce. Our experience and success allow prospective organizations to be certain that our state can provide the skilled workforce they need to compete.
In fact, readySC™ has trained more than 250,000 South Carolinians for over 2,000 companies since its inception. We are often cited as the primary reason that a company selects South Carolina over a competing location. In just the past 18 months, readySC™ has helped to recruit and train nearly 7,000 people for jobs with 100 organizations across the state. These organizations include Boeing, Daimler, Dixie Narco, General Electric, Louis Rich, Monster, Red Ventures, Samsung, Starbucks and Verizon, among others.
Apprenticeship Carolina™
Launched in 2007, Apprenticeship Carolina™ works to ensure all South Carolina employers can access the information and technical assistance necessary for creating demand-driven registered apprenticeship programs. As a free service to the organization, our apprenticeship consultants work with companies to guide them through the development process from initial information to full recognition in the National Registered Apprenticeship System.
In the past three years, Apprenticeship Carolina™ has made great strides in increasing the awareness and understanding of apprenticeship as an effective workforce development tool. In fact, since 2007, the number of registered apprenticeship programs has grown from 90 to 271 – an increase of 201% for the state. In addition, the number of active apprentices in the state has increased by 236% to a current level of 2613. Apprenticeship Carolina™ averages at least one new employer-sponsored program each week and has been nationally recognized as one of ten innovative workforce development best practices.
The impact of these two programs on our state is significant, yet they represent just a sampling of the numerous ways the SC Technical College System works to help individuals reach their educational goals while helping business and industry meet their workforce and training needs.
It is a given that future jobs will demand a higher-skilled workforce and education beyond high school. These are challenges the System is poised to address helping individuals and organizations increase their competitiveness through our quality education and training.
You can rest assured that we will strive to remain a key advantage to calling South Carolina home.
About Dr. Staat
Dr. Darrel W. Staat is the President of the SC Technical College System. Dr. Staat has a great deal of experience in higher education administration. Most recently, he served as President of Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, Virginia since 1999. He came to Lynchburg from Kennebunk, Maine where he served as the founding President of York County Community College from 1994-1998. He also served on the Kennebunk Chamber of Commerce Board. Prior to that position he served four years as President of Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor, Maine. Before moving to Maine he served as Vice President for Educational Affairs and Vice President for Development at Florence Darlington Technical College in Florence, S.C. In addition to administrative experience, he taught fulltime for 12 years and currently teaches on online course in American Literature at CVCC.
Dr. Staat hails from Michigan and received his doctorate from the University of Michigan. He enjoys golfing, sailing, reading and writing as leisure activities and lives with his wife Beverly in Columbia.
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