Apprenticeship Programs Benefit Students, Industry

Alliance Pickens Executive Director Ray Farley said apprenticeship programs will help Pickens County students see the opportunities available to them if they learn a skilled trade.

Farley was on hand Wednesday morning as United Tool & Mold, the School District of Pickens County and Apprenticeship Carolina announced the Upstate's first School-to-Registered-Apprenticeship program.

“We're really proud about what United Tool and Mold is doing today,” Farley said.

He's spoken often about the important of establishing such programs for “the industrial community of Pickens County.”

“Whether we're in Pickens County, South Carolina, whether we're in Greenville, whether we're in Akron, Ohio, or whether we're in Munich, Germany, all of industry is saying the same thing,” Farley said. “They need to find young, skilled people. What United Tool And Mold, the Career Center and the school district are doing here is creating an avenue for young people to see the opportunities that are available out here and to capitalize on them.”

United Tool and Mold is leading the way in the Upstate in launching apprenticeship programs through Apprenticeship program, he said.

“Because of the trail that United Tool and Mold is blazing, we're going to see more industry, both in Pickens County and in other counties, follow suit,” Farley said.

For several years now, there's been a “two ships passing in the night” situation going on in the United States, Farley said.

“American industry is one ship,” Farley said. “The other ship has been the unemployed people of the area. Companies have been saying, 'Gee, I can't find the skilled labor I need,' yet there's this 6 to 7 to 8 to 9 percent of the populace that's looking for work.”

He said said the partnership between United Tool and Mold, the Pickens County Career and Technology Center and Apprenticeship Carolina will show young people “how they can arrive at a family-raising wage rate.”

“A wage rate that will enable them to raise their family, send their children to college, buy cars, pay for mortgages,” Farley said. “And it's through development of a skill, a skill that's in demand here.

“These students coming out of the Pickens County Career and Technology Center in the industrial trades are walking out into industry, right out of the program, and getting very good jobs,” he continued. “I've seen their pay stubs. Some of these children are coming out of the Career Centers making in the high 50s. High 50s! They're making more than their parents are making. They're making more than the very teachers who taught them are making.”

Europeans have been doing apprenticeship programs “for a long, long, long time,” Farley said.

“The United States has only begun to scratch the surface on it,” he said. “As more companies become involved in the apprentice program, it's only going to be a benefit to our community.”

Carla Whitlock with Apprenticeship Carolina said the program, open to juniors at the career center,

United Tool and Mold's apprenticeship program is the first School-to-Registered-Apprenticeship program in the Upstate, and just the second in the entire state.

“They're pioneers not only here in Pickens County, but across South Carolina,” Whitlock said.

She said the partnership began in 2010 when United Tool and Mold established its adult apprenticeship.

She said students in the apprenticeship will not only be taught skills they need to be viable in the workforce, “they'll receive pertinent on-the-job training for whatever careers they go into.”

Upon completion of the School-to-Registered-Apprenticeship program, students will receive a credential from the Department of Labor in their particular occupation, Whitlock said.

“That's huge,” Whitlock said. “That's huge for somebody just coming out of high school and going into college, whether it be a two-year college or a four-year college.”

“All this, and they'll be paid, too,” she continued. “That's part of the program too.”

A graduate of Pickens County schools herself, Whitlock said she was thrilled Pickens County would be home to the first Upstate STRA program.

“These types of programs are vital for companies that already here in South Carolina, and for the companies that are looking to move here,” she said. “This is another tool in the toolbox that Ray Farley and Trent Acker (of Alliance Pickens) can use when they call on companies. It's wonderful to see the cooperation between the businesses of South Carolina and the educational system here.”

Ron Wearing, assistant director of the Pickens County Career and Technology Center, said the center is “a bridge.”

“It is a bridge for Pickens County,” he said, adding the center works to connect students and businesses. “We are the bridge for the future.”

The center is working with the WorkReady Communities initiative, he said.

“We're working with our students, building portfolios, so that they can market themselves,” Wearing said. “We're working on work ethics and things that help them be better employees. We are constantly working.”