Greenville Technical College Announces Partnership with STEM Premier
July 6, 2015
GREENVILLE, SC – Greenville Technical College (GTC) has partnered with STEM Premier to provide GTC students access to the online platform that showcases students’ academic and technical skills and connects them with companies and job opportunities. The partnership includes all campus locations along with students taking classes through the Corporate and Career Development division.
STEM Premier acts as a virtual hub, bringing together students of all ages (13+), technical colleges, universities, companies, and organizations. Students showcase their talents through digital profiles, discover resources and scholarships, receive guidance and coaching, and connect with talent seekers who can view student profiles and recruit them directly via internal messaging. GTC students will have access to the premium level services at no cost.
This partnership is one of the many ways in which GTC is committed to filling a skills gap in the Upstate by training students and connecting people to STEM jobs. It is critical to South Carolina’s advanced manufacturing employers, which are leading the economy, that young people be encouraged to pursue careers in this area so future jobs will be filled. Students and their families are often unfamiliar with the high-tech world of advanced manufacturing, where information technology and robotics rule the production floor, and workers have a solid foundation in STEM skills.
Another effort includes last month’s announcement of a CoderDojo club in Greenville to introduce middle school students to computer programming and advanced manufacturing through a free after school program. The club will be supervised by a GTC faculty member with assistance from volunteer coaches and funding provided through a grant from Duke Energy Foundation.
The Center for Manufacturing Innovation, opening in 2016, will provide for deeper integration with the K-12 sector, with options for coursework starting in K-12 that will transition to Greenville Technical College and then to Clemson University. There, future technicians and tomorrow’s engineers will work side-by-side to solve problems critical to advanced manufacturing processes.
“We are working to narrow the skills gap through many different initiatives. STEM Premier gives us another tool that should benefit students, employers and our economy by bringing people with STEM skills and people who need them together,” said Dr. Keith Miller, president of Greenville Technical College.
