State leaders joined Governor Henry McMaster on Tuesday to unveil a new workforce training initiative between the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce and the South Carolina Technical College System.
Unemployed South Carolina claimants will be able to explore short-term retraining programs offered at their local technical college instead of conducting a weekly job search under the new arrangement. When a claimant enrolls in and attends a short-term training program, they are exempt from the weekly job search requirement and continue to receive benefits.
“Most of these programs can be completed in 16 weeks or less. Some of these programs can be completed in four weeks, “Tri-County Technical College President Dr. Galen DeHay said. “These are jobs that fall into the logistics supply chain area, information technology, advanced manufacturing, computer technology, and healthcare.”
According to Gov. McMaster, in order to speed up the return to work process, the state stated in May that it would stop participating in federal unemployment programs that were preventing South Carolinians from returning to work.
“Through the power of our technical colleges we have an opportunity to jump ahead ten years through education,” said Governor Henry McMaster. “We have the culture and people who are ready to take the next step forward and we just need to get them trained and ready for work.”
Governor McMaster’s January distribution of $8 million in Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) money to the state’s technical institutions will give scholarships to cover the cost of retraining 3,100 South Carolinians, making the workforce training program free to the students.
Currently, there are an estimated 82,000 available jobs in South Carolina.
To register for the program, learn more about it, and see a list of offered courses, click here.
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