Companies, Schools Partnering to Train Manufacturing Workforce

South Carolina’s economy requires highly skilled workers who can help make the automobile engines, aircraft parts, tires, and other products integral to the Palmetto State’s manufacturing ecosystem.

As the state has enjoyed rapid manufacturing growth in recent years, the need for skilled workers has grown, and companies and educational institutions have increased efforts to keep the workforce pipeline strong.

The South Carolina Technical College System offers training through its readySC and Apprenticeship Carolina programs, and it has partnered with many companies over the years to help boost the Palmetto State’s manufacturing workforce.

The technical college system has a presence in all 46 South Carolina counties, and it serves around 140,000 students each year, said Tim Hardee, Ph.D., the system’s president.

“When the state attracts a company to come here, part of the incentive package is training their workforce,” Hardee said in a recent interview. “We, as a state, historically provide water and sewer and land and whatever that looks like for a business coming to the state, but increasingly, having a skilled workforce is part of, ‘Why would I come to South Carolina instead of some other state?’ So our readySC division of the technical college system is essentially the entity that provides that. We work hand-in-hand with Commerce to be able to have that skilled workforce.”

One of the newest partnerships is with Scout Motors, which is building a production facility in Blythewood. Scout is working with readySC and Midlands Technical College to train workers to produce its trucks and SUVs.

The training program, which has around 111 students, was expected to ramp up to more than 200 in the second quarter of 2026, said Clarice Henderson, vice president of HR for Scout Motors.

“We know that we will have people who will come and work at the production center that have never worked in manufacturing. So everyone that enters will go through a 10-day intense orientation into manufacturing, automotive, and then after that 10 days, they will continue to be trained in their specialty shop. So we have a body shop, a paint and assembly shop,” Henderson said in a recent interview.

“They will go to those different shops and continue to be trained in on-the-job training that will be provided by our in-house trainers, as well as we partner with Midlands Technical College and readySC on developing some training.”

Henderson said that while South Carolina has a robust manufacturing culture, which includes the automotive sector through BMW in the Upstate and Volvo in the Lowcountry, that sector has not been represented in the Midlands.

“We know we will be able to build talent and build capability by putting that training center there, and we know we have to invest in, and want to invest in building that capability to actually work in an automotive plant,” she said.

The South Carolina Technical College System has partnered with many companies over the years, and in fact, readySC has been around as long as the state’s technical colleges, which were established in the early 1960s. In addition to the Scout Motors partnership, the system is also working with Isuzu as it prepares to begin production in the Upstate, Hardee said.

Scout Motors will need to hire at least 4,000 workers, but readySC is also working on a smaller scale with Isuzu North America Corporation, which is gearing up its production facility in the Upstate. The Isuzu plant will need around 500 workers, Hardee said.

The system only recently began its work with Isuzu, producing recruitment and training videos for the company. In addition, Hardee said, the system sent a team to Japan to get up to speed on the plant’s needs and the company’s practices. That is standard procedure, he said, adding that the system also sent a team to Germany to learn about Scout Motors.

Other companies in the state are partnering with colleges to create programs of their own. In Columbia, The Ritedose Corporation has joined forces with Benedict College in an effort to recruit international students to Ritedose, and the company’s engineers are serving as adjunct faculty members in Newberry College’s pharmaceutical program.

In the Pee Dee, GE Healthcare works with Francis Marion and Coker universities, as well as local tech schools, to recruit and train workers.

The technical college system also operates Apprenticeship Carolina, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year.

“We have a lot of European-based companies here in the state,” Hardee said. “They’re very familiar with the apprenticeship model, the whole, ‘mentor, you’re getting on-the-job training while you’re being educated.’ There’s about 7,000 active apprentices in South Carolina right now. We work with businesses and industries that are interested in that apprenticeship model.”

And readySC doesn’t wait until students have finished high school to start educating students about manufacturing opportunities in the state. The SC Technical College System works with the K-12 schools around the state to spread the word about manufacturing jobs, and there are around 21,000 high school students who are dual-enrolled, finishing their high school work while receiving job training through the tech schools.

Scout Motors also works with kids in the early school years.

“We have a K through 12 program,” Henderson said. “I tell everybody, I think some of our future Scouts are sitting in kindergarten right now. … We want there to be multiple pathways into Scout, so yes, we are absolutely partnered with the schools and the technical schools and the technical components.”

And Scout has tailored its training programs to work with students at various skill levels.

There is no cost for the training, and students are considered employees of Scout, but they are not bound to continue working there once the training is finished, Henderson said.

“Once they are certified in certain skill sets, those certifications stay with them no matter what they do from a career standpoint,” Henderson said.

South Carolina is one of several Southeastern states enjoying robust growth in manufacturing, and Hardee said he’s pleased with what the state is able to offer, both in terms of economic development and training for potential workers.

“We do extremely well when it comes to providing a skilled workforce, certainly in comparison to other states,” he said. “There are a few states that tend to do very well with the economic development side of it – Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia are very competitive with us. But right now, most of the economic development growth is happening in the Southeast. It’s just the reality that companies are relocating. They love the weather, they love the low property taxes. Obviously here in South Carolina, we’re blessed with both of those.”