Eleven juniors and seniors from six Charleston-area high schools signed up Wednesday as the first class of the Youth Apprenticeship Program in Manufacturing, The Post and Courier reported. Trident Technical College and the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce run the program together.
Starting in August, the students will work as paid industrial mechanic apprentices at Bosch, Detyens Shipyards, Hubner Manufacturing, IFA Rotorion and VTL Group, according to the newspaper.
Organizers said the program is meant to build a pool of skilled workers for manufacturers in the tri-county region.
“It will provide a pathway for our youth and better prepare Charleston to compete not against Alabama and North Carolina but to compete in the global marketplace,” Trident Tech President Mary Thornley said, according to The Post and Courier.
The students will take high school classes in the morning and Trident Tech’s industrial mechanics courses in the afternoon twice a week. At the end of the two-year program, each will have earned a high school diploma, an industrial mechanics certificate from Trident Tech, a journeyman credential from the U.S. Department of Labor and two years of paid work experience, the newspaper reported.
The employers will pay the students $10 an hour, and the chamber is covering the roughly $3,500 cost of tuition and books for each participant, The Post and Courier reported. The youth program extends apprenticeships that Trident Tech has offered adults since 2007.
The same day, the chamber unveiled a study at a summit at Trident Tech that projects 25,000 new jobs in the Charleston area over the next five years, WCIV-TV reported. The report, “Charleston Region Talent Strategy,” highlights gaps between the education and skills of potential workers and the needs of local businesses, including in industrial production, according to The Post and Courier.
