Collaboration and Innovation Key to Delivering a Trained Workforce for Boeing North Charleston

CHARLESTON, SC – April 13, 2010 – Yesterday partners from across thestate came together to celebrate the grand opening of the Boeing NorthCharleston Training Center on Trident Technical College’s campus.  readySC™, a division of the SC Technical College System, hosted theevent which included a ribbon cutting and guided tour of the facility.

The 19,500 square feet training center consists of 13,200 squarefeet of training space with 6,300 accompanying square feet ofadministrative space.  The training center will be training as many as120 employees a day on two shifts and is designed to mirror the workenvironment training candidates will encounter once they enter theactual Boeing facility.  The training center also includes large testpanels of the upper and lower barrel sections of the plane that weredonated by Boeing to assist with training simulations. 
 
I’ve had experience with training across many of our facilities andwhat we have here in South Carolina is by far the best I’ve seen, saidTim Coyle, vice president of the Boeing North Charleston facility.  Boeing prides itself on 96 years of tradition. And, we like to thinkthat we are starting a new tradition here in Charleston — 96 years fromnow there will be generation after generation of experience buildingairplanes in South Carolina.

This is a very exciting time andTrident Technical College is pleased to be part of this partnership withBoeing and readySC™, said Dr. Mary Thornley, president of TridentTechnical College.  It all comes down to jobs and this is an excellentexample of collaboration among many different partners to bring jobs tothe people of our area.

The founding fathers of readySC™ wouldbe very proud of this event today, said Dr. Barry Russell, presidentof the SC Technical College System and executive director of readySC™.  Over the past 50 years we have worked with nearly 2000 companiesrelocating to or expanding in the state and have trained more than250,000 South Carolinians for jobs in the state. We’ve come a long waysince 1961 and it has been a real pleasure working with the team atBoeing North Charleston – it’s a partnership that I’m confident willproduce outstanding results for not only Boeing but also for the stateof South Carolina.

readySC™, founded in 1961 as part ofthe SC Technical College System, began working on the Dreamliner 787project in 2006 and to date has trained 1700 of the nearly 3000employees at the Boeing North Charleston facility. readySC™ provides atno cost to qualifying companies relocating to or expanding in SouthCarolina with recruiting and training services.  In order to qualify,companies must be producing new jobs for the state that offercompetitive wages and healthcare benefits.

readySC™.  For nearly50 years, readySC™ has been recognized as one of the nation’s premiereconomic development training programs. As an integral part of the SCTechnical College System, readySC™ helps organizations start-up quicklyand efficiently in today’s competitive environment providingcustom-designed solutions such as workforce recruiting and testing,curriculum and materials development, innovative training design anddelivery and experienced project management throughout the entireprocess.  readySC™’s services are available to qualifying companies atno charge.  In order to qualify, a company must, through relocation orexpansion, be creating new jobs with competitive wages and benefits.  For more information about readySC™, please call us 803.896.5331 orvisit our website at www.readySC.org.