The REWARD is in the Pudding in Rural South Carolina

By Laura Corbin

With a painful unemployment rate sitting at around 20 percent in 2004, Marlboro County, S.C. already was suffering due to plant closings and job outsourcing. It hardly could have withstood plans by Mohawk Industries, a carpet manufacturer and one of the county’s largest employers, to close its Bennettsville plant and move to neighboring North Carolina.

The decision to move out of Marlboro County, officials learned, was based on the lack of a labor pool with the skills to operate the upgraded equipment that would be included in Mohawk’s plans for modernization of its manufacturing facility. A lot of persuasion and a huge promise that Marlboro County could produce those needed workers now have reaped a true REWARD for the rural region, and that REWARD has spread to four other South Carolina counties.

At the time Mohawk was making plans to move out of Marlboro, community leaders had partnered with the South Carolina Department of Commerce and other entities to create a new work force training program – REWARD, or Rural Economic Work force Alliance for Resource Development, funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development grant along with funds from the South Carolina Department of Commerce and the state’s Northeastern Technical College. Company officials were persuaded to give the county a chance to test the new program, which works with industry to profile job requirements and potential applicants, and provides those applicants with the necessary training for the jobs. Mohawk guaranteed a job interview to anyone who completed the REWARD job training program.

It was a resounding success – of the 501 people trained and referred to Mohawk, 85 percent were hired. Of the 698 people who completed the REWARD program, 603 became employed. By 2006, the unemployment rate in Marlboro County fell to 10.1 percent. Now, the program operates in five rural South Carolina counties – Chesterfield, Clarendon, Dillon, Marion and Marlboro.

The program, administered by the South Carolina Department of Education’s Office of Adult and Community Education, the South Carolina Department of Commerce, and Northeastern Technical College, is operated by a consortium of more than 25 members.

The REWARD program is a free, nine-week course of study designed to give graduates the skills required to succeed in today’s global economy. The mission is to unite all of the work force development providers in rural counties of South Carolina to provide non-duplicative, best practice work force development services to the citizens of the state in a unified strategic approach. Students can improve reading and math skills several grade levels with instructional class time and computer-based supplements designed to improve their individual skill levels. Graduates earn a certificate of completion, create a resume, assemble their WorkKeys test scores, and if earned, receive a WorkKeys Career Readiness Certificate. WorkKeys is a comprehensive system for measuring and communicating basic workplace skills that is widely becoming the nationwide standard.

Flexibility in the program allows for specific skills, such as forklift, workplace measurements or keyboarding, to be added into the program to meet specific employers’ needs. Throughout the program, instructors stress work ethics, job efficiency and customer service.

Marlboro County not only was able to hold onto Mohawk and its precious jobs by utilizing the REWARD program, in 2005, the carpet maker announced an expansion of its operations there that would add 300 new jobs to the company’s existing operation. Mohawk worked directly with the Marlboro, and later Dillon County, REWARD program to place graduates into the new jobs.

To date, 1,048 individuals have graduated from the Marlboro County program with a job placement rate of 80 percent. The startup program in Dillon County has graduated 74, with a 100 percent placement rate, and the Chesterfield County program has graduated 70 with a 54 percent placement rate.

"The curriculum for REWARD training is developed with industry input," says Sherrie Chapman, dean of continuing education at Northeastern Technical College. "In each of the REWARD counties, industry leaders were solicited for their input on what they were seeking in an entry-level applicant. REWARD training consists of soft skills, math, English, communication, team work, diversity, safety, CPR/first aid certification, measurements, statistical process control, customer service, lean manufacturing, personal budget and finance, management, blueprint reading, as well as Key Train tutorial, which helps the participants in scoring better on their WorkKeys assessment."

For WorkKeys assessments, the REWARD program can help by teaching, reviewing and refreshing skills for workers to achieve a higher score on the assessment, providing the opportunity for higher compensation for the employee and a higher-skilled worker for the employer, Chapman says. "So, the REWARD program is producing a more skilled applicant for new, expanding and existing companies to draw from."

Chapman says the REWARD program is a win-win-win opportunity for these rural counties, their work forces and the companies. "Because the industries were involved in the ‘birthing’ of the program, they are willing to hire from the REWARD student graduate pool."

In addition to Mohawk, industries that have hired workers through the program include Affinia (formerly WIX Filtration), Musashi South Carolina Inc., Screwmatics, INA Bearing, QVC, Beneteau, Walmart, and Johnson Controls. Musashi also has expanded in Marlboro County since the implementation of the REWARD program.

"REWARD serves the needs of individual job seekers and businesses and contributes to economic development," Chapman says. The REWARD program is a true collaborative approach to solving unemployment and work force challenges. "The approach taken by REWARD brings in all of the stakeholders in work force development in the communities where it is implemented as equal partners in the creation, delivery and evaluation of the training programs," Chapman adds.

Clarendon County started its REWARD program in September 2007, and in January 2008, the first class of 15 participants graduated. "The program is designed to help workers learn the skills necessary to find gainful employment," John Truluck, executive director of the Clarendon County Development Board, said at the time of the graduation. "The only way to compete today is with a more technically advanced work force."