Powering the area’s workforce: Educational and training resources elevate the Camp Hall region

A large and highly skilled workforce in the surrounding Charleston, South Carolina, region is one of the reasons that next-generation commerce park Camp Hall has been named the nation’s No. 7 industrial park. It has ranked No. 7 for three straight years and is the only ranked industrial park in the Southeast.

In fact, as of early 2020, the Charleston region boasted an available workforce more than half a million strong, all while the area’s fast-growing population increased by an average of 34 people a day.

The labor-related advantages the area offers don’t stop there. The region has a wide range of workforce education programs, as well as a strong list of four-year colleges and universities that are constantly delivering new graduates to the workforce. The region also boasts an array of workforce training programs that are giving workers the skills they need to gain, hold and grow in their jobs.

Here, we’ll take a closer look at some of the South Carolina educational resources, Charleston-area career training, and South Carolina workforce training that help make the region surrounding Camp Hall such an attractive one for industries seeking skilled workers:

Regional workforce and education programs

• ManuFirst SC — ManuFirst SC provides South Carolina residents with 62 hours of free coursework and training that can lead to an entry-level manufacturing certification. It was first launched in 2017 as a way to facilitate the rapid recruitment and training of area workers hoping to gain employment at the Volvo plant located at Camp Hall. The skill- and knowledge-boosting program focuses on educating workers about job-critical topics such as safety, manufacturing and production processes, quality practices and measurement, maintenance awareness, and OSHA-10. It was developed via a partnership between Berkeley County, the South Carolina Department of Commerce, Trident Technical College, Volvo Cars and readySC.

• Trident Technical College — A public community college, Charleston-based Trident Technical College offers 150-plus programs of study, including two-year certificate programs and others geared toward students seeking to continue their higher education at four-year colleges and beyond. The areas of study offered at the 15,000-student-strong school include business; industrial and engineering technology; aeronautical studies; health care; hospitality, tourism and culinary arts; film, media and visual arts; law-related studies; community, family and child studies; humanities and social sciences; and science and mathematics.

• Regional College and Career Guide — When area middle and high school students are considering their higher-education and career options, the Regional College and Career Guide can serve as a valuable and informative resource. The guide was developed via a partnership among the region’s school districts. It is intended to serve as a handbook detailing high school programs of study and college-preparation resources, along with projections regarding which career skills are expected to be in the highest demand in the region over the coming years.
  
  

Regional 4-year institutions

• Clemson University — Based in Upstate South Carolina, Clemson University is a leading public research institution that offers 80-plus undergraduate majors and 130 graduate degree programs across seven distinct colleges: agriculture, forestry and life sciences; architecture, arts and humanities; business; behavioral, social and health sciences; education; engineering, computing and applied sciences; and science.

• University of South Carolina — With eight campuses spread across nearly 20 locations, top public research university the University of South Carolina offers 450-plus degree programs both in person and online. Its numerous colleges and schools cover areas of study including arts and sciences; business; education; engineering and computing; hospitality, retail and sport management; information and communications; law; medicine; music; nursing; pharmacy; public health; and social work.

• Charleston Southern University — Charleston Southern University is a private Southern Baptist university based in North Charleston that offers 50-plus undergraduate programs, as well as more than 15 graduate-level programs. The wide-ranging areas of study available to the school’s more than 3,400 students include accounting, aeronautics, business, communication, computer science, criminal justice, cybersecurity, Christian studies, education, engineering, graphic design, hospitality and tourism, nursing, physical therapy, public health, technology and many more.

• College of Charleston — The College of Charleston, a public liberal arts and sciences university found in the heart of historic Charleston, offers a range of study areas to its more than 10,000 undergraduate and 1,000-plus graduate students. The focuses of its colleges and schools include arts; business; education, health and human performance; humanities and social sciences; languages, cultures and world affairs; and sciences and mathematics.

• The Citadel — The Citadel, a Charleston-based public military college, has roughly 2,300 undergraduate students in its Corps of Cadets. All undergraduate students at the school are required to participate in ROTC, and The Citadel’s academic programs are divided among five schools: business, education, engineering, humanities and social sciences, and science and mathematics. The institution awards bachelor’s degrees in nearly 40 major programs of study, while The Citadel Graduate College offers more than 25 different master’s degree options and 25 different types of graduate certificates.
  
  

Regional workforce training programs

• readySC^TM Program — Developed with the aim of fostering economic development in South Carolina, readySC partners with South Carolina’s 16 technical colleges to provide customized recruiting and training assistance — at no charge — to companies that are relocating or expanding to the state. Since the program’s launch in 1961, it has trained nearly 308,000 people, and in FY 2020-2021 alone, it served a total of 115 companies and more than 2,800 workers in the state.

• Apprenticeship Carolina^TM Program — With a mission to create positive economic impacts for South Carolina, its businesses and its people, Apprenticeship Carolina helps state employers create their own registered apprenticeship programs. It rewards companies that do so with a $1,000 state tax credit for each registered apprentice employee who works for at least seven months in a given year. Industries that have participated in the popular skill-building program have included manufacturing; construction; energy and utilities; health care; information technology; tourism; and transportation, distribution and logistics.

• Enterprise Zone Retraining Credit Program — By offering a tax incentive for training and educating eligible employees on new processes and/or new equipment, the Enterprise Zone Retraining Program (EZone) delivers a financial boost for companies seeking to stay competitive by adding new technology and/or equipment at their facilities. With nearly 120 different facilities and 990-plus courses approved for EZone incentives since 2014, the program has seen company participation grow by more than 400% in the same time period.

To see all the benefits that next-generation commerce park Camp Hall can provide to support your business’s needs, visit the Camp Hall website. To learn more about campus availability for your business plans, view Camp Hall’s available sites. And if you have any questions at all about the master-planned commerce park, don’t hesitate to contact Camp Hall today.