Governor Nikki Haley, ACT Announce South Carolina Job Training Initiative

A company known for college admission testing is starting a job training program in South Carolina, as Governor Nikki Haley announced Thursday.

ACT, a non-profit, chose the Palmetto State and three others for the year-long Certified Work Ready Communities Academy.

The initiative, which starts next week, will integrate all of the state’s job training and employment programs and bring together several state agencies including Commerce and the Department of Employment and Workforce. The main goal is to work with business communities around the state to see what types of training and skills companies are looking for in new employees.

Haley said it was frustrating bringing new jobs to the state not seeing big dips in the unemployment rate. In December unemployment was at 9.5 percent, the lowest in three years, after peaking at 11.1 percent last August.

“The number one problem is we have people that need jobs, we have companies that need workers, we’re not connecting the dots. So the final piece of the puzzle is a trained workforce,” Haley said.

Workforce centers across the state already use ACT products, like the WorkKeys certification, to assess workers’ skills, train them and give them credentials. Some of the programs test “hard skills” like working with machinery and others prove communication or technical document literacy. According to WorkReady SC more than 160,000 South Carolinians already have some form of ACT certification.

Haley said the training programs exist now at the state’s technical colleges and workforce centers, it’s just a matter of “putting the puzzle together” and making sure workers get training that businesses need now.

Martin Scaglione, the president of ACT’s workforce development division, said the program means workers are more likely to get jobs because they’ll be properly prepared.

“Now there’s a more collaborative workforce effort. We have employers now engaged and wanting to do this and saying ‘come and work for us and come with the verified skills and we’ll hire you to have a sustainable career,’” Scaglione said. “You have educators that are now talking and engaged with the employers so that they understand what the employers’ needs are. What are the requirements for success in manufacturing, or healthcare or information technology and the educators can then take that information and build a curriculum that’s articulated to the job.”

Having the groups coordinate also means a comprehensive set of data. Instead of just focusing on the unemployment number, the program will collect data on who is getting training and hired and what companies are using the certification, focusing in on individual communities and several demographics including veterans, recent graduates and retirees returning to the job market.

“We’re now going to be able to see exactly what the problem is. I look at this like a doctor, when they’re trying to find out what the diagnosis is you have to have a lot of information to figure that out. We’ve always just known that the state was sick, but we didn’t know why the state was sick,” Haley said.

Scaglione said South Carolina was chosen out of dozens of other states that applied because the state’s leaders appeared dedicated to “skill building and a vibrant economy.”

Haley said the initiative won’t cost the state anything.