Upstate South Carolina has been blessed by successful economic development efforts over the last thirty years from the recruitment of BMW to Spartanburg, Michelin putting their North American headquarters in Greenville, the establishment of the Clemson University – International Center for Automotive Research and the list could go on.
One area that has to become a stronger focal point moving forward is education; having the right workforce is becoming a more and more critical factor to a community’s successful economic development strategy.
The universities and technical schools in the Upstate have done a superb job in helping to prepare a necessary workforce for today’s jobs. However, our future depends on educating tomorrow’s workforce for jobs not even created yet around ever-changing technology.
We have all seen the results, from SAT scores to dropout rates, which show a disturbing nationwide trend in which America’s ability to compete in an increasingly global economy is being hampered by our inability to educate the workforce our future requires.
Said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, after learning that U.S. students finished 17th in a global ranking of 15-year-olds in math and English last year: “The hard truth is that other high-performing nations have passed us by during the last two decades.”
Statistics aside, the Upstate business community knows that our local schools have a lot to offer. The students themselves present a rich talent pool – ideal as future employees and also future customers. That’s why local businesses for years have made goodwill gestures toward our schools to ensure a better-educated, well-nurtured student body.
The work of the Upstate SC Alliance is to globally market the Upstate region to the world in order to drive job creation and stimulate capital investment. Since 2008, the Upstate has announced over $5 billion in capital investment and over 20,000 new jobs. For this success to continue, we as a region must focus not just on economic development but on education. It is the core of enhanced economic prosperity. The support of local education by business leaders is critical to improving the long-range economic landscape in the Upstate.
Collaboration between schools and the business community is nothing new. In fact, between 1990 and 2000, the number of alliances between businesses and U.S. schools doubled, a favorable sign for the spirit of partnership that must exist between these cornerstones of our community.
During a recent presentation made by Spartanburg County School District Six to the Upstate SC Alliance’s CEO Think Tank, a group of area CEOs that serves as a sounding board on key issues for the region’s chief economic development organization, it became clear that the best investments businesses can make in education are not investments of money, but rather investments of time. In fact, it’s one of District Six’s goals for success: partner with the community and businesses to create support and advocacy for our schools and school district.
While our region’s teachers and administrators continue to do what they can to raise educational standards, businesses counting on hiring well-prepared employees shouldn’t wait for an invitation to roll up their sleeves and help.
- Confucius said, “To hear is to forget, to see is to remember, but to do is to know.” Today’s business leaders should be helping develop tomorrow’s business leaders. Concrete examples might include becoming a mentor or adopting a class focused on an area of study relevant to your business.
- Sponsor a “school-to-career” program as a half-credit classroom/half-credit paid workforce program for high school juniors and seniors interested in applying classroom learning in the workplace.
- Establishing a “Time Away from Work for Education” program that allows employees a certain amount of hours per month to volunteer in schools.
- Creating a career academy where students can take part in “job shadowing,” opening their eyes to the vast number of job opportunities just outside their door.
The good news is that bridging the gap between business and education isn’t in its infant stages here in the Upstate. In Greenville, the public school district continues to promote its Business Education Partnership, with hundreds of companies helping out the district’s 100 schools.
And for 15 years, the Anderson County Business and Education Partnership has paired businesses with schools, providing mentorship or financial assistance. The organization is funded equally by the business community and the county’s five school districts.
President Obama said in his 2011 State of the Union address, “We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time. We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”
The Alliance urges more businesses and educators to work more closely together to produce a workforce that will help our country – and specifically our region – succeed in this hypercompetitive environment. The rewards for doing so will be both immediate and long-lasting, because an effective education system is vital for ensuring a future of economic success in the Upstate.
Richard K. Blackwell serves as the vice president of the Upstate SC Alliance, a public/private regional economic development organization designed to globally market the 10 counties in South Carolina’s Upstate. He can be reached via email at rblackwell@upstatealliance.com. Additional information is available through the Alliance’s web site, www.upstateSCalliance.com.