Hundreds of jobs could be coming to the Upstate. Anderson County is trying to get Michelin to expand its operations in the county. It's not a done deal yet. 7 On Your Side is helping prepare you for what you can do now to qualify for a wide array of jobs in manufacturing.
Tri-County Tech student, Jacquard Hunter, says, “I like fixing stuff. It makes me feel good if I can fix stuff that other people can't do.”
Hunter is working toward a degree in Mechatronics. The program teaches students how to fix machines.
Instructor Danny Stovall says, “Sometimes it's thousands of dollars a minute to have an assembly line shut down, so it's like a Nascar race today. The technicians have to do what they have to do to get the equipment up.”
Anderson County council is working on a plan that could bring more than 125 manufacturing jobs to the Upstate. Michelin is the company they want to strike a deal with. The company already has plants in Starr and Sandy Springs that employ around 900 people combined.
John Lummus, VP of Institutional Advancement at Tri-County Tech says, “The days of someone coming straight from high school and going to work in manufacturing environment without any training or schools are really over. They need at least some training in manufacturing, different skills to be successful.”
Mechatronics is a two year degree. Officials here at Tri-County say graduates leave the program making $20 or more an hour, which is double what they might make if they didn't have these skills.
Stovall says, “We can't supply the need (for skilled manufacturing workers) right now in our area. And it's not just one company. It's all types of companies.”
That's pretty good job security for Hunter. He says, “I feel like I could be doing more, and this (technician work) would be the more that I would like to do.”
For more information on admissions and financial aid at Tri-County Tech, click here. For Spartanburg Community College, click here. For Greenville Tech, click here.
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