By Jessica Holdman
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — As South Carolina seeks to become a hub for electric vehicles and batteries, the technical college system finds itself juggling the startup for a swarm of programs to train residents for high paying jobs in the industry.
Five major companies, each needing thousands of employees, have broken ground in South Carolina. And while the Lowcountry and Upstate are more established manufacturing centers, activity is now taking place in nearly every corner of the Palmetto State at a level not previously seen.
“What’s unique about it is that it’s a statewide thing,” said Brad Neese, vice president of economic development for the state technical college system.
Neese called the number of new jobs these companies are promising “mind-blowing,” accompanied by planned investments totaling billions of dollars, rather than the multimillion-dollar price tags seen in the past.
“These are community-changing companies,” he said. “Family and generational changes happen through the companies that we’re working with.”
In the Midlands, that’s Scout Motors.
Come September, the Volkswagen subsidiary plans to open the application process for the first 50 hourly, assembly line jobs at its $2 billion electric vehicle plant north of Columbia. Scout will be searching for shift leaders and floor supervisors, preferably those with prior manufacturing experience seeking to advance their careers.
“We’re looking for the best of the best because we’re building that foundation,” said Scout’s HR Director Corey Epps.
This round of hiring is just a start. Scout is expected to ramp up recruitment efforts for more entry-level production workers near the end of next year. Meanwhile, the state is busy readying the program it has promised the automaker to train employees on Scout’s behalf. The first instructor has been hired, Neese said.
Epps and the state team spent a week at VW’s facility in Wolfsburg, Germany, in November and have held multiple virtual planning sessions each week since to decide how training will look for the roughly 4,000 people Scout plans to recruit over the next few years.
What to expect
The hiring process, Epps said, will start with a little “homework,” required reading that introduces applicants to the company, its policies and what it’s looking for in employees.
Scout will then invite job seekers on site and ask them to perform more physical tasks testing dexterity, hand-eye coordination, ability to read and follow instructions, as well as aptitude for problem solving issues that crop up on the factory floor. There also will be group simulations to see how applicants interact in a team situation.
“It’s a very interactive interview process,” Neese said.
If a person gets the job, they then go through a secondary, post-hire instructional session also run by the state and personalized for each company.
Neese and his team head up the state’s Ready SC program, which develops and runs these worker trainings offered to larger employers as part of the incentive packages used to lure them to the state. It’s a process the group has honed over the last few decades as South Carolina has continued to flex its manufacturing muscle, enticing big names that include Boeing and Mercedes-Benz.
When Boeing came to North Charleston in 2009, Neese said his team was also training workers for jobs at nearby Mercedes-Benz. Then came Volvo Cars in 2015. All three companies are within 20 miles of each other and were seeking a similar type of worker from the same hiring pool of Lowcountry residents at the same time.
Today, Volvo is looking for 1,300 more workers — on top of the 2,000 Ready SC already helped hire and train — as the company adds its electric EX90 SUV to the production lines at its plant in Ridgeville. The state continues to aid the Swedish automaker while also helping stand up a battery cell plant in the Pee Dee, Scout’s facility in the Midlands, a company in the Upstate making electric mail trucks for the U.S. Postal Service and a battery recycling plant not far from Volvo’s factory.
In addition, Ready SC is constructing training centers for both Scout and AESC, the battery cell maker locating in Florence that will supply BMW’s new electric vehicle production in the Upstate. The AESC center will mark the first electric vehicle specific training center in South Carolina, Neese said.
A proven method
With so many groups vying for workers in the state, Neese said companies have grown willing to consider people at all skill levels. And while the training might look a little different or take a little longer for someone who’s coming from a pizza delivery rather than a manufacturing background, “we have a methodology that can take anyone through that process,” Neese said.
Even if someone doesn’t make it through the initial training, Ready SC offers follow up aid to help them land a job the next time around.
“We want people to make it through to employment,” Neese said.
So does Volvo and so will Scout — after all, their workforce needs are massive.
Redwood Materials, the Berkeley County battery recycler, is not as far along in the training development process as others. The company, founded in 2017 by a former Tesla executive, has started construction and expects to begin collecting batteries in need of recycling later this year, a spokeswoman said in a statement. Redwood will ramp up hiring in 2025, eventually employing 1,500 people.
Oshkosh Defense, the company that won the federal Postal Service vehicle contract, will need 1,000 people at a plant near Spartanburg.
Aid continues
Ready SC helps industry get started with major hiring events but the technical college system continues on as a source for the workers they will need three to five years from now.
Midlands Technical College will offer a direct feeder program for Scout, Epps said. House budget writers have proposed setting aside $6.5 million for the college to build out certain programs, including mechatronics and welding, specifically to serve the electric truck and SUV maker.
At the high school level, Volvo recently announced a pilot program for 50 juniors and seniors in the Lowcountry that will get them ready to go straight to work at the company’s Ridgeville facility once they graduate.
Jessica Holdman writes about the economy, workforce and higher education. Before joining the S.C. Daily Gazette, she was a business reporter for The Post and Courier.
