As a young girl, Winnie Harley used to help her father tinker with cars in his garage.
These days, thanks to a training program called ManuFirst SC, Harley helps build cars at Volvo’s manufacturing campus near Ridgeville.
It might seem like a natural progression from backyard repair shop to factory floor, but the journey has been anything but a straight line for Harley.
“I was a licensed cosmetologist for 30 years,” the Cane Bay resident said recently while inspecting S60 sedans at the Volvo plant off Interstate 26. “I ran my own cleaning business for a while and worked at an auto salvage yard. I’ve worked here and there. Most of the time I worked two jobs just to make ends meet.”