Southern Illinois University-Carbondale WED
468-3
Department of Workforce Education & Development
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26
SAMPLE OF A STATE MODEL
South Carolina Technical College System's Center for Accelerated
Technology Training
Technology and manufacturing processes have evolved exponentially over the
past forty years. Simultaneously, South Carolina's Technical College System
(SCTCS) has stayed ahead of the curve, continually developing new strategies and
processes to meet the evolving workforce/vocational training requirements of the
state's employers. Now named The Center for Accelerated Technology Training
(CATT), the Center is designed to provide tailor-made training to new and expanding
industries in South Carolina. The SCTCS's workforce/vocational training program has
been cited by many of the state's leading manufacturers (such as Roche
Pharmaceuticals, BMW, Siemens and Bosch) as a primary factor in choosing to locate
in South Carolina. SCTCS continually strives to provide businesses and industries
locating in South Carolina with a workforce/vocational training structure that meet the
demands of the world's leading manufacturers and technology innovators.
The college system was founded on the premise that the state would be better
served by providing a way to train its citizens and employ them in South Carolina with
jobs that the state helped to create. When the concept of technical education was being
proposed, many of South Carolina's young people were leaving the state to pursue
higher paying jobs in other geographic regions. There was a profound need to be more
proactive in recruiting business and industry into the state, in training citizens for the
jobs that those industries would create, and in maintaining a commitment to that training
should businesses want to expand and grow within our state.
The Center for Accelerated Technology Training program is the result of
legislation proposed and passed in 1961 with the help of U.S. CATT keeps as its main
purpose to offer trained employees to a company when the doors are first opened for
operation. Since 1961, 198,026 people have been trained for new jobs in 1,596
companies.