Daniel Prince
Spartanburg Community College included in the scholarship opportunity
Governor Henry McMaster announced an additional $25 million investment into Workforce Scholarships for the Future. The program, which McMaster announced last November, provides scholarships to cover the cost of tuition and required fees at any of South Carolina’s 16 technical colleges, which includes Spartanburg Community College. Any adult or recent high school graduate can use it to pursue an industry credential or associate degree in high-demand career fields like manufacturing, health care, computer science, or logistics.
In early 2021, the governor invested $12 million in Governors Emergency Education Relief funds into the SC Technical College System to train South Carolinians for the available, high-demand jobs in the state. By the end of the year, the program had 5000 citizens reskilled and employed. Last November, Governor McMaster created the Workforce Scholarships for the Future program with $17 million in Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund money. The General Assembly supplemented that initial investment with $39 million in this year’s budget. With the additional $25 million announced this week, approximately 40,000 South Carolinians will be trained or retrained.
To date, 6198 South Carolinians have been trained through the program, including 825 nursing assistants, 775 commercial drivers, 616 emergency medical technicians, 478 welders, 392 phlebotomists, 208 forklift operators, 107 electrical lineman technicians, and 87 ManuFirst SC, a manufacturing certification designed to provide a foundation for South Carolinians needing entry-level skills for manufacturing employment.