Group hires director, compiling asset map
Michelin North America chairman and president Pete Selleck says companies in the Upstate and South Carolina will find the people they need to fill today’s high-tech manufacturing jobs.
But whether those people come from Greenville County or surrounding counties will depend on the area’s ability to get children interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics at an early age.
“We’re opening a new plant in Anderson and we’re going to find the people we need,” Selleck said. “But we’d rather have them in our own community.”
Efforts to produce a workforce in the Upstate and South Carolina qualified for today’s jobs are getting a boost thanks to the Upstate STEM Collaborative, a collaboration between some of the Upstate’s biggest manufacturers, public school districts in Greenville, Pickens, Spartanburg and Anderson counties, Clemson and Furman universities and Greenville Tech.
The collaborative has hired a director, Nan Dempsey, to coordinate the efforts.
The partnership is also developing a website that will help parents and students find STEM-based activities such as after-school programs and summer camps that could help increase their interest and knowledge in those fields.
The website will include activities across the state, not just the Upstate.
“It’s the first of its kind in the nation,” said Marjorie Dowd, Greenville County Schools’ director of business partnerships.
The online asset map, similar to a Google map, is expected to go live in January.
The collaborative got its start two years ago when a group of African-American engineers from Michelin asked then-superintendent Dr. Phinnize Fisher to speak about the school district’s STEM efforts. Other companies and schools were invited to join, and those involved began meeting on a monthly basis.
The three founding partners – Michelin, GE and Fluor – agreed to fund the director position for three years, Dowd said.
Dempsey said the collaboration is important because business and industry have jobs to fill and schools need to know the skills they’re looking for in future workers.
“It’s all about bringing people together,” Dempsey said.
Dempsey said soft skills such as being able to solve problems and work in teams are just as important as technical skills in today’s workforce. STEM teaches both, she said.
“Employees need both soft skills and technical skills,” she said. “The world of work and business is all about solving problems.”
Dave Stafford, personnel director of Michelin North America and formerly the chief operating officer of Michelin Americas Research Company, worked with the African-American Network to form the STEM Task Force that studied what needed to be done in the Upstate and led to the collaborative.
“Companies and schools will work together to foster STEM education in the Upstate. It’s a daunting task and a great opportunity,” he said. “If we do this well, our counties, the Upstate and our state will flourish.”
