By Betsy Finklea
Providing the education, skills, and training needed to gain employment or to get better employment is the goal of Northeastern Technical College.
With a campus located at 2204 Highway 301 South, Dillon, residents have the opportunity to gain further education right here in Dillon County.
Dr. Ron Bartley, president of NETC, said NETC can be the pathway to get the skills training needed to get a job.
One of the reasons that schools and economic development officials want to get Dillon County workers trained is so Dillon County people can get the jobs available here. These jobs will provide them money to spend here, and everybody wins with the result of an improved economy.
One of the efforts that NETC has made to get local workers trained is to bring the SCMC (South Carolina Manufacturing Certification) program to the Dillon campus for unemployed or underemployed individuals.
Sherrie Chapman, Dean of Continuing Education, said this is a 200-hour training program with 11 college credit hours. The program gives youth and adults the basic skills to get a manufacturing-based job. Some of the skills that can be gained from the program include improved communication skills, safety awareness, accurately interpreting and  using data, using a variety of instruments to measure, mastering the use of hand and power tools, learning to read blue[rints, etc. The program is MSSC (Manufacturing Skill Standards Council) model based and tailored to South Carolina.
Tuition money is available for the program through June, and they hope it can be extended.
Participants in the program must  meet certain criteria including 1) being unemployed or underemployed, 2) being a S.C. resident, 3) passing WorkKeys at the silver level, 4) being 18 years old, 5) being able to pass a drug test, and 6) being able to pass a background check.
NETC is partnering with several entities including the public schools, SC Works, Adult Education, ATEC, etc. to try to meet the educational demands of the area.
Dr. Bartley said that the governor and her economic development team have done a good job of bringing manufacturing jobs to South Carolina. He said the industries coming to the region have three characteristics: they require high skills; they are high demands; and they are high wage.
Dr. Bartley said he wants to bridge the skills gap that exists. “There are a lot of jobs looking for people,” said Dr. Bartley.
Jobs that require high skills are being brought to the area, but many workers don’t have the skills needed to fill the jobs. Dr. Bartley said they are trying to remedy this through NETC  helping to bridge this skills gap. Dr. Bartley said this is not something that can be done overnight. NETC can help provide the skills to get employees in the door. Their goal is to help employees stack credentials on top of each other helping them gain more and more skills. Dr. Bartley said they owe it to the industries to provide skilled workers. Dr. Bartley said the manufacturing jobs now are not the same kind of jobs that they were in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Today’s manufacturing workers must be problem solvers, be capable of understanding various processes, and have high tech skills. Today’s industries are efficient, clean, and sophisticated operations.
Dr. Bartley said he would like to bring some of the specialized skills programs to the Dillon campus, but this will be dictated by demand.
Haywood Proctor, chairman of the Dillon County Public-Private Partnership Board, said the goal is to improve the Dillon campus so Dillon County residents will not have to go anywhere. “There is no reason why we can’t do that,” said Proctor.
If you would like more information, please call 774-1402, 841-2014, or 843-921-6924.