Jeff McKay is the executive director of the North Eastern Strategic Alliance (NESA). NESA is a nine county regional economic development alliance that works with county allies – Chesterfield, Marlboro, Darlington, Florence, Dillon, Williamsburg, Marion, Horry and Georgetown Counties – and potential clients to facilitate the creation of jobs and capital investment in the northeast region of South Carolina.

Over the past five years, the NESA (North Eastern Strategic Alliance) region of South Carolina has changed dramatically. It’s not just the fact that we’ve added new industries, more jobs and more capital investment, though.

It’s the way our region has undertaken this growth.

Since 2011, we’ve added 8,944 jobs along with $1.5 in new capital investments to our part of the state. From one year to another, we’re continually trending upwards. Though our region is not unfamiliar with the grindstone, we’re also trying to apply our efforts in a more efficient manner.

From refocusing on one of our region’s most historically important industries – agribusiness – to extending our region’s reach across the world through face-to-face meetings with international companies, we’re showing the fruits of a more comprehensive approach to economic development.

With the resurgence of agribusiness throughout our state, our region has been at the forefront of some of the most important advancements pertaining to farming and agribusiness over the past five years.

Five years ago, our region became the first to reevaluate the importance of agribusiness and how we approach the industry with not only our marketing, but with how we generate sites and buildings to house industries dealing with agribusiness.

Now, our region contains more than 12,600 agribusiness and food processing workers and claims annual sales of more than $4 billion, accounting for 21 percent of the state’s total agriculture revenue.

A focus on food processing has led to a number of success stories in Florence County specifically. McCall Farms and Ruiz Foods, two family-owned companies, have both made a tremendous impact on Florence County with both expansions and new projects respectively.

Our region possesses the only two certified “Shovel Ready” sites for the food processing industry – in Florence and Marion counties – giving our region a leg up in providing adequate sites for potential agribusiness projects.

Though we’ve embraced our historical standing as an agribusiness hub, we’re not forgoing our future.

Over the past five years, we’ve increased our global standing by carrying our region’s brand throughout the world to places such as Hanover, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Brussels, Farnborough and Nagoya.

As foreign economies expand, they are able to take advantage of new markets to grow into, providing our region with a valuable opportunity to meet the needs of growing international companies.

With a workforce possessing proud history of manufacturing some of the world’s most high quality goods, international companies from around the globe have found they can be successful in our region.

From Nan Ya Plastics, Honda Manufacturing, BauschLinnemann, Accent Stainless, Beneteau, Shaeffler – INA Bearing to DSM Nutritional Products, our region is home to numerous international companies that have found prosperity in our part of the state.

While we continue to develop our international marketing efforts, we are also improving our existing industry focus, preserving relationships with companies and ensuring their success. In 2015, NESA continued its existing industry outreach visits to companies in our region, providing economic development assistance to further their growth.

Considering our region’s success over the past five years, it’s hard to argue that we haven’t been making progress both in terms of putting our region back to work, as well as helping introduce large capital investments to our local communities.

As our state continues to improve economically, our region has mirrored that success. Over the past five years, we’ve seen our region’s unemployment rate drop precipitously from 15.1 percent to its current standing of 6.7 percent.

Though our region has been a part of some major success stories, there’s still more work to be done. In the first quarter of 2016, our region’s counties have made headway on number of projects and estimate the upward trend set over the past five years will continue into this year.

As we progress into the future, the NESA region will continue to reinforce our standing as an agribusiness hub and we will continue to seek foreign direct investment, but our region will also explore need ideas and methods in order to stay on the cutting edge of economic development, to the betterment of the entire northeastern region of South Carolina.

NPR Photo by Mike Belleme

Several years ago, South Carolina had a problem: a shortage of skilled workers and no good way to train young people for the workforce. So at a time when apprenticeship programs were in decline in the U.S., the state started a program called Apprenticeship Carolina.

“We were really, really squarely well-positioned at the bottom,” says Brad Neese, the program’s director.

From the beginning, South Carolina took apprenticeship beyond the building trades — that’s the traditional route for apprentices — to fields like nursing, pharmacy and IT. As the number of apprenticeship programs has fallen nationwide, it has taken off in South Carolina.

“When we started this back in 2007, we only had 90 companies that had apprenticeship programs,” Neese says. “We’ve hit 670, which, by the way, we only had 777 apprentices in 2007. And we’ve now serviced nearly 11,000 apprentices. So it’s been a phenomenal growth.”

What’s the secret sauce? A state tax credit for companies doesn’t hurt — but at $1,000 per year per apprentice for four years, it’s pretty modest. A big factor is Germany. Companies like BMW and Bosch have plants in the state and brought with them the German system of apprenticeships.

“I think that the German influence has been great,” Neese says. “But we also have seen that it’s just a process that makes sense.”

You can see the process unfold at companies like Cooper Standard in upstate Spartanburg, S.C. The company makes sealing systems that keep wind and noise out of cars and trucks.

John Harris is a new apprentice there, fresh out of the Air Force. In the military, he dealt with his share of challenging situations, some of them in Afghanistan. But when he left the Air Force last summer it was pretty scary. He and his wife were moving to a new state, and he had no job prospects. Civilian life was a giant unknown.

“I’m an adult, I’m disciplined, I have leadership skills,” he says. “I knew I had all these skills to offer. But I didn’t know if anybody would want me. Everybody says they’ll hire veterans, but that doesn’t mean they can hire you if there’s no jobs open.”
At Cooper Standard, Harris is using his Air Force background as an electrician to learn an occupation called mechatronics. It’s a fairly new kind of job in manufacturing — a utility player on the factory floor with myriad skills.

“They know a little about programming, they can work with automation,” says Warren Snead, Harris’ boss. “They know the basics of wiring, hydraulics, pneumatics — so really a Superman or Superwoman who can do everything.”

In other words, it’s someone who’s able to fix just about anything at a plant — and the kind of job that can’t be sent to a faraway country. Recently, Harris installed sensors for an alarm system. Four nights a week he attends a welding class. And he’s feeling pretty good about the direction his life has taken since leaving the Air Force.

“You only have a short amount of time on this planet; you better make the best of it,” Harris says. “And that’s what I’m going to do. So, yes, I do feel confident that I’m going to make the best that I can for my family.”

Starting Early
Many manufacturing companies are at a crossroads. They have converging needs. For example, there are the machining skills of veteran employees — think tool and die making — and there’s the Information Age know-how of workers who can operate complicated computer-operated equipment. That’s the case at United Tool and Mold in Easley, S.C. The company repairs and re-engineers molds that stamp out plastic parts for cars, trucks and refrigerators.

So why does the company have an apprenticeship program?

“Because every day, your workforce gets older,” says United Tool and Mold manager Jeromy Arnett. “We’ve been walking around here for 20 minutes, and our workforce aged 20 minutes. We can’t go back and get the time from the employees that are growing older.”

So the company followed the German system of starting apprentices off early. They start here after their junior year in high school, combining classwork with on-the-job training. “We didn’t go over and take verbatim what their model is, but a lot of how we set up our apprenticeship is based on that German model,” Arnett says.

Brandon Richards is a youth apprentice at the company who just started at the local technical college. In class he studies computer-aided design. “I get paid for my hours at work when I’m here, and I get paid while I’m in class, so I stay on the clock even at school,” he says.
Graduates of the company’s apprenticeship program make around $16 an hour and can earn up to $24 as they get more experience.

Arnett says in this area that’s enough to live pretty well.

“These folks in here are making a living so they can buy a house for their family, they put food on the table, they take that family vacation,” he says. “They get the car that they want. Take care of their kids. To me, that’s middle class.”

‘Apprenticeships Are Win-Win’
An apprenticeship isn’t a cure-all. Companies can still make the wrong hire and squander their investment. Apprentices can wind up in a field they don’t like and find it hard to switch. But everyone interviewed for this story — regardless of ideology or geography — from employers in the red state of South Carolina to economists to a Cabinet member in the Obama administration — all say the same thing: The apprenticeship system is an economic plus.

“Apprenticeships are win-win,” says Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. “Apprentices are opportunities for young people to punch their ticket to the middle class and for employers to get that critical pipeline of skilled labor.”

Given all that, you’d think they would be commonplace. Far from it. In 2003, there were about 489,000 registered apprentices in the U.S., according to the Labor Department. Last year, there were only around 288,000. Some of that can be chalked up to the recession and companies investing less in training. But people involved in apprenticeships see something else going on: the belief that somehow it’s a failure when a young person doesn’t go from high school to a four-year college.

“It’s a stigma that we’re trying to get over, especially in our schools,” Arnett says. “Just because they don’t have a sheet of paper hanging on the wall saying they went to school for four years doesn’t mean that they’re any less important to our country and the economy of our country than anyone else.”

Perez says apprenticeships can be a sleeping giant for the U.S. economy. But some of the toughest converts are parents. “When you talk to people in the manufacturing context and you say, ‘Hey, your son or daughter should be an apprentice manufacturer,’ too many parents look at me and say, ‘Tom, my kid’s going to college.’ ”

Perez says apprentices can always get four-year degrees while they work — and employers will often foot the bill.

• SCANA Insights Newsletter:  https://www.scana.com/docs/librariesprovider15/insights/scana-insights-winter-2016
• The SCANA Economic Development Letter:  https://www.scana.com/docs/librariesprovider15/pdfs/scana-letter—april-2016.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Dominion Resources (NYSE: D) said it completed the $492.9 million transaction to acquire Carolina Gas Transmission (CGT) from SCANA Corp. (NYSE: SCG).

CGT owns and operates nearly 1,500 miles of FERC-regulated natural gas pipeline in South Carolina and southeastern Georgia. The transaction excludes working capital adjustment and includes no assumption of debt. Dominion expects to contribute CGT into Dominion Midstream by mid-year 2015 subject to board approvals by Dominion and Dominion Midstream GP LLC. Dominion said it would continue employment for CGT’s approximately 120-person workforce.

McGuireWoods LLP was Dominion’s legal adviser for the acquisition.

A local program that certifies workers have the skills for certain jobs recently got some national exposure. The city’s National Career Readiness Certificate — an effort that came about through the Elgin Development Group Workforce Committee — was profiled in the Jan. 22 edition of “PBS NewsHour.”

Visitors to Bennettsville can now listen to a tour of key sites in the city with a new cell phone tour. Based on the city’s current historical walking tour, the cell phone tour is accessible by calling 843-309-3024 (not a toll free number).

Marlboro County High school recently participated in the Xtreme Technology event competition hosted by Benedict College’s School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Columbia on Friday, the 8th of November.

The event is one of the fastest growing scientific competitions, designed to expose high schools students to the vast world of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The first team, with Tyrone Abraham as team captain and Kayla Hilton, Curtis Hubbard, Tierra Leggette, Aaron Thompson as members, won 1st place in Physics with a perfect score.

The second team, with Samantha Inglis as team captain and. members Eric Littles, Jacey Stuckey, Taylor Bryant, and Monica Woods as members, won 5th place in Environmental Health Science.

There were twenty two teams from twelve high schools in South Carolina who joined this competition.

The participation of MCHS to this event is sponsored by Domtar Paper Company.

This article first appeared in the Thursday, November 14th edition of the Marlboro Herald Advocate.

The Breeden Inn Bed and Breakfast, 404 East Main Street, in Bennettsville has been selected as a Top 10 Garden Inn by BedandBreakfast.com.

Breeden Inn Bed and Breakfast is recognized as a top inn around the world providing the best travel experience in this category.

BedandBreakfast.com is the most comprehensive global site for finding bed and breakfast properties around the world, with more than 13,000 properties worldwide representing nearly 80,000 rooms.

Each November, Bedand Breakfast.com names 30 overall top inns based on the quality and quantity of traveler reviews from the past year.

Starting in December 2011, Bedand Breakfast.com decided to recognize more of the world’s best inns and began a monthly awards program to honor 10 more B&Bs every month in a special category.

“These award-winning inns, including Breeden Inn Bed and Breakfast, really showcase bed and breakfasts and inns that often become a destination to discover and not just a place to stay, says Gregory Sion, general manager of BedandBreakfasts.com.

“Travelers select bed and breakfasts because they enjoy staying in a one-of-a-kind place that offers not only character, special amenities, and unmatched hospitality, but also enables them to discover new experiences,” he added.

“It is a true honor to be chosen for the Garden Inns awards, and we are thrilled that our hard work has set us apart,” say Wesley and Bonnie Park, Breeden Inn innkeepers.

“The Breeden Inn is celebrating our 26th year! During this time, we have restored four 19th century houses and developed wonderful gardens with winding walks connecting the houses. The inn is truly situated in the midst of a large garden setting. Our focus remains to provide many areas where guests can experience a delicious breakfast, Southern relaxation, comfortable bedrooms, outdoor recreation, and much more,” they said.

For a complete list of Best of BedandBreakfast.com Award winners, visit bedandbreakfasts.com

This article first appeared in the Thursday, November 14th edition of the Marlboro Herald Advocate.