SC Lt. Gov. stops in Upstate, highlights teen workforce

GRAY COURT, S.C. – South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette made a stop in the Upstate to highlight the importance of young people entering the workforce.

Lt. Governor Evette along with the state’s Department of Employment and Workforce visited ZF Transmissions Tuesday. The manufacturing business employs hundreds.

Evette highlighted why working in a place like ZF benefits young people.

“Advanced manufacturing is really cool and we have to figure out as adults how do we talk to our middle schoolers how do we talk to our high schoolers about the cool things that happen in facilities like this,” the Lt. Governor explained.

It’s all a part of the Lt. Governor’s “ Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders ” initiative.

“Really encourage young people to get off the couch, put their cell phones and video games down and learn important skills that will make them successful in their future careers,” Evette said.

The Lt. Governor added that young people’s first job is where they develop skills that cannot be replicated in the classroom.

“The first job teaches us everything we need to know, it teaches us those soft skills, about how to we communicate with our fellow employees and our customers,” Evette said. “Things that businesses not just in our state, but across our country have been begging us for. Those soft skills that people coming out of college and entering the work force just don’t have.”

Preston McCreary is in an apprentice at ZF. McCreary said what he is learning there will make a positive impact on his future career.

“In today’s world it seems that education is very important, but experience might be more important,” McCreary said. “You need to know what to do, instead of how to do it.”

DEW tells us that they are actively helping to connect young people like Preston to employers across the Palmetto State.

“We have more people working today than we ever had, but we need more of them and tomorrow’s workforce is coming out of the schools right now. At DEW, we have regional workforce advisors who come along side parents, teachers and educators and put them together,” said William Floyd, the Executive Director at DEW.

ZF Transmissions offers an apprenticeship progra m so young people enrolled in a technical college can earn credits while they get on-the-job training and experience.

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