By Scott Miller
smiller@scbiznews.com
Published July 28, 2009

Greenville schools, nonprofit organizations and local and state agencies partnered to form a new work force development initiative called Greenville Works.

The 12-member coalition includes Greenville County Schools, Greenville Technical College and the University Center of Greenville, along with several job screening and work force training agencies. The coalition will help craft curriculum to produce an educated labor pool that can attract business to the area, organizers said.

In announcing the coalition today at Greenville County square, organizers began with a video of representatives from General Electric, 3M, Advanced Composite Materials LLC and Greenville Hospital System discussing unmet demands of the local work force. The increasing complexity of products, processes and technologies requires more and different skills from workers, they said.

“Our focus is on being tied in with the business community to find out what they need,” said Greenville Works Director John Baker. “The feedback that we get from the business community is going to be the driver of what we do.”

As an example, Greenville Tech previously developed an advanced materials training program, with input from the business community, that impressed a manufacturer now locating in Laurens County, said Cynthia Eason, vice president of corporate and economic development at the technical college.

Other members of the collaboration include the city of Greenville, the Greenville Area Development Corp., the Greenville Chamber, Personal Pathways to Success, ReadySC, the S.C. Employment Security Commission, the S.C. Manufacturing Extension Partnership, United Way of Greenville County and the Greenville County Work Force Investment Board.

“What we’re doing is above and beyond the charters of these individual institutions,” Baker said.

Each member agreed to provide funding or in-kind services, or both, to Greenville Works, which has an initial budget of $175,000. The funding will help support the Greenville Business Retention and Expansion Program, which calls on hundreds of county businesses each year to gauge the issues and needs of the business community.

The Greenville Works strategy is to focus on four primary areas of improvement:

▪ maintaining and refining feedback from the business community to understand needs as they relate to workforce, competitiveness, and other issues

▪ using that feedback to work with secondary and higher education systems to develop curriculum and programs that prepare the workforce to meet the needs of business

▪ providing the best delivery possible of career related information to youth and adult populations to ensure their understanding of requirements, opportunities, and paths for a range of career options

▪ building strong sector-based work force development programs to ensure a solid pool of skills available within target sectors.

“We operate in a globally competitive environment today, one in which workforce requirements are continuously being raised,” said Hank Hyatt, chairman of Greenville Works and Vice President of Economic Development of the Greater Greenville Chamber of Commerce.  “To thrive, we need a better, more productive workforce geared to the demands of business today and tomorrow.  Greenville Works provides us the focus and platform to accomplish just that in Greenville County.”

For more on Greenville Works, visits its Web site. www.greenvilleworks.com