Daniel Morgan Technology Center looking at future job fields

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) – The Daniel Morgan Technology Center (DMTC) is looking towards the job fields of the future.

Students from Spartanburg County School District Three and Seven are getting hands-on work experience before they graduate high school, giving them a head start.

Daniel Morgan instructor, David Thornton said that students are “getting opportunities and doors open for them that they normally wouldn’t have if we didn’t offer something like this this.”

One class that’s key in the future job market is cybersecurity.

“Cybersecurity was introduced as a course to pave the way for student success because as you know, our future is data containment and information technology is a growing fast field,” Thornton said.

He explained students in his class are learning things in the cybersecurity field that most students will not learn until college.

“We knew that as we go forward that cyber security would be a must in all fields all industries all things we did,” Thornton said. “Cyber security is continuously growing, and it will be around as long as we have a data flowing. It’s going nowhere as long as technology increases and software packages increase the attacks will increase.”

Thornton shared an example of one student who has benefited from his course. He said, “I literally had a student tell me the other day that Mr. Thornton I was chosen over another student at the Citadel just because I had my cyber security certification.”

DMTC Director, Nikki Honeycutt explained, “Cyber security is important for students because cyber security impacts every career field that they will ever attend to in life. Whether they’re in banking, finance, marketing, electronics, whatever they’re going to have that connection.”

She said taking courses like this makes students a preferred candidate when applying to jobs.

“They are coming with a purpose that these are the jobs that they want for the future, and they want to go ahead and have those hands-on real-world experiences so that when they are interviewing with employers that they have opportunities to impress them with the skills that they have learned,” said Honeycutt.

She said while cyber security is important because it touches so many other professional fields, there are benefits to any of their classes because they offer the same experience.

“They’re learning what job that they want and their purpose in the world,” Honeycutt said. “When they learn these skills and they have industry partners who are willing to take them under their wing and nurture them, they’re ready on day one.”

Honeycutt said students and faculty are excited about next year’s new course, global logistics. The course will be important for students, as many warehousing and distribution centers continue to pop up along the I-85 corridor.

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