Changes will help S.C. tech schools quickly respond to industry

Horry Georgetown Technical College will face fewer hurdles in creating training programs for industry under an agreement that was recently approved by higher education officials.

The college, which on Wednesday celebrated the graduation of more than 1,300 students, has long sought to be nimble in adjusting to the educational needs of employers.

The new arrangement is expected to shorten the approval process for some vocational degrees at HGTC and the state’s other 15 technical schools, allowing them to quickly develop programs for businesses that are opening or expanding.

“We’re constantly looking for ways to be flexible,” HGTC President Neyle Wilson said. “That’s been really the foundation upon which the technical college system has been so successful.”

The two state organizations involved in the discussions are the S.C. Commission on Higher Education and the State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education.

In 2009, those groups agreed to streamline the approval process for associate’s degrees, with both agencies signing off on proposals.

But technical college presidents found that waiting for the education commission’s blessing prolonged the process for months, causing headaches for companies that needed to train workers quickly.

“When you do have industry coming and they say they’re going to need machine tool graduates, if we have to wait a year to get the program approved and then two more years before we graduate them, that becomes problematic,” Wilson said. “You want to train your local citizenry to take these jobs so they’re not recruiting them from out of state or out of the area.”

The tech school presidents asked for help from the state board, and in March the state board chairman Ralph Odom Jr. wrote the higher ed commission asking that the step of commission approval be removed from the process for new associate degrees in applied science. Those programs, he wrote, are not typically designed to transfer to four-year institutions and are mainly aimed at helping graduates find jobs fast.

“The primary goal of our State Board is to ensure that we are upholding an important component of our core mission — to provide education and training for prospective employees for new or existing industry in a timely manner,” Odom wrote.

Initially, the education commission was surprised by the tech board’s proposal. But in recent weeks both groups have hammered out the details.

Last week, the commission signed off on an agreement that provides a concurrent approval process involving both organizations, said Julie Carullo, the commission’s interim executive director.

Under this arrangement, the tech board will notify the commission about proposed training programs and both agencies’ staffs will review the details simultaneously. They will follow a clear schedule that allows the commission to ask any questions.

The contract has been sent to the tech board for signatures, but no objections are expected, Carullo said.

Although the change may seem like a simple procedural matter, it’s important when it comes to recruiting jobs, said Jim Moore, president of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC).

HGTC is one of his selling points for companies eyeing Horry. Moore said he tells them the school can customize training programs to their industry’s needs.

He said the new policy makes the area, as well as the rest of the state, more attractive to businesses.

“It’s a fantastic idea,” Moore said. “Our technical college program in South Carolina is already so well regarded by industry around the country ... Across the state, if our system can respond like that, it’s only going to help ramp us up even more, make South Carolina even more competitive than we already are.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 9:02 PM with the headline "Changes will help S.C. tech schools quickly respond to industry."