South Carolina Future Makers

As the only statewide organization committed exclusively to the interests of South Carolina’s manufacturing community, the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance is keenly aware that the key to future economic development and to the prosperity of our citizens will be developing a world-class workforce to staff the facilities that are being recruited to the state.

We began this effort with a whitepaper in 2013, wherein manufacturers identified finding a world-class workforce to be the key challenge for them going forward. The findings made it clear that due to the aging of our workforce, South Carolina would need more and more skill workers to fill existing plants. Additionally, with the dramatic success that the state has had in recruiting new facilities and expansions of existing operations, the challenge would only grow.

Beginning with the premise that this state can train a world-class workforce as well as any other state in the nation, we realized the challenge was to tell the manufacturing and technology stories to the state’s children and their parents. Our answer to that challenge is the South Carolina Future Makers program.

Future Makers is many things, but first and foremost it is a public-private partnership which fully engages South Carolina’s manufacturing and technology communities with middle and high school students, technical college students, and four-year college students. Working with Tallo, the South Carolina Department of Commerce, the South Carolina Department of Education, the South Carolina Technical College System, the Department of Employment and Workforce, the SC Council on Competitiveness and so many other key players in workforce development, we will tell the story of South Carolina manufacturing and information technology careers. We will show children and their parents the endless career opportunities available to them and pathways that they can follow to realize their dreams and make their futures come true.

What is the Goal of South Carolina Future Makers?

The goal of the South Carolina Future Makers initiative is to expose and connect the next generation in the state of South Carolina to all of the opportunities it has to offer, close the STEM skills gap, and ultimately retain talent for future economic development and regional prosperity.