By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer

To satisfy their need for technologically skilled employees, Lowcountry manufacturers have set out to upgrade the region’s workforce.

The Lowcountry Manufacturers Council, a nonprofit group of nearly 70 tri-county area manufacturing companies, is promoting two workforce education and training programs, one aimed at high school students, the other at job hunters seeking work in manufacturing.

The LMC’s recently formed skills certification program is a pre-hiring initiative that not only prepares job seekers for manufacturing work but also ensures manufacturing employers that the new hires have at least the basic, required skills. The 30-hour program—a partnership among local industry, the Trident One-Stop Career Center and Trident Technical College—includes courses in applied mathematics, team skills, measuring techniques, basic computer skills, safety and environmental procedures, mechanical reasoning for light and heavy industry, and manufacturing technologies. The courses are taught at Trident Technical College.

“The work certification program is for potential employees who are trained and educated but want to hone their skills,” explains the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Jennifer Robson, spokeswoman for the LMC, which is affiliated with the chamber.

The LMC’s “Manufacturing Is Cool” program consists of a panel of local manufacturing employees, from machinists to plant managers, who travel to area high schools and suggest to students that they consider careers in manufacturing. Panelists describe their companies, the jobs they perform and the kinds of employment opportunities manufacturing offers. The LMC describes the program as “fun-filled” with a “Hollywood Squares” game show question-and-answer format. Operated through the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Education Foundation office at North Charleston High School, the program aims to dispel any notions students may have of manufacturing jobs being grimy, mindless drudgery. 

“We are showing young people the meaningful work opportunities that exist in industry today, where someone can use their talents and skills, whether it’s in art, computers or mechanics,” says Robert Bosch employee Quintin Wright in a recent LMC newsletter.

In addition to improving the region’s workforce skills, another issue on the LMC’s 2004 agenda is affordable health care.

“We’re looking for ways small companies can participate in group health insurance,” says LMC Chairman Herb Ellis.

Because of escalating health insurance premiums, 65% of South Carolina companies with fewer than 50 employees do not offer health insurance, according to the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce.

Among the legislative issues on the LMC’s 2004 calendar include curbing plaintiff awards through tort reform and making “employment-at-will” state law.

Even though South Carolina is considered an “employment-at-will” state, meaning an employer can fire an employee at any time, for any or no reason and without notice, “employment-at-will” has yet to become state law, claims Ellis.

A survey conducted by Internet market research group Harris Interactive ranked South Carolina ninth in a Top 10 list of states doing the worst job of creating a fair and reasonable litigation environment, according to the South Carolina Insurance News Service. States with the poor liability systems have low economic growth, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study notes.

South Carolina lost about 1,400 manufacturing jobs due to plant closings and layoffs between 2002 and 2003 while creating 1,700 jobs at existing manufacturing facilities, according to the S.C. Employment Security Commission. 

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