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Lt. Gov. of South Carolina Pamela S. Evette is flanked by the Calder Brothers team and high school students attending Bonds Career Center High School in Greenville, S.C.
Calder Brothers Corp. welcomed South Carolina's Lt. Gov. Pamela S. Evette April 16, 2024, to its Mauldin Paving Products factory in Taylors, S.C., to speak about manufacturing career opportunities available locally at the Bonds Career Center high school in the nearby town of Greer.
The Greenville County school offers a range of technical courses for approximately 450 students in grades 10-12 to prepare them for careers after graduation. Included among its courses are those that train young people for jobs in the state's ever-expanding manufacturing sector.
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Evette opened her remarks by saying that she is South Carolina manufacturing's "biggest champion."
"When it comes to talking to our kids about getting into trades and getting into advanced manufacturing and what that means for us as a state, this is something I love to do, and I talk about it all around our great state," she said, adding that she enjoys extolling the virtues of these careers to school districts, students and parents to let them know what fantastic jobs are available.
Evette, a second-term lieutenant governor from Travelers Rest, just outside Greenville, added that the state's experienced workforce and access to young people eager to work in trade jobs is what has attracted so many companies to build factories in South Carolina in recent years.
"Businesses from all over the globe see our amazing technical schools, our four-year colleges and the resiliency of our workforce," she said. "So, we are continuing to grow, but we couldn't have that growth if it weren't for all of you.
"If I could give you one thing to do, it would be to talk about what is happening here — to let parents and grandparents understand that advanced manufacturing is cool, because if they understand it, they won't talk negatively about it," said Evette, an entrepreneur and founder, in 2005, of Quality Business Solutions, a payroll, human resources and back-office solutions software firm.
"My dad was a tool-and-die maker, and, as I was building my business, I didn't realize how far society had over-corrected itself about how cool it is working with your hands, building things and making things happen.
Evette's eyes were opened when her smart middle son decided he did not want to attend a four-year university, but to nearby Greenville Technical College, instead.
"When I was out on the lacrosse field one day with friends of ours whose kids played [the sport] with him in high school, they asked me where [he] was going to go to college and I said, ‘Well, he's going to Greenville Tech.' They all looked at me and said, ‘Oh my God, did he not get into Clemson?' Even my mom, who lives with me and is 95 years old, had the same mentality because manufacturing was seen as being dirty, dark and dangerous."
As a result, Evette said, "the commitment to change that stereotype and to make sure kids understand how great this work is" rests upon the shoulders of all South Carolinians.
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She added that third graders often visit her office in Columbia where she asks them to think of a great house that they may want to live in, where it might be and who could live there.
"And they come up with all the normal answers like doctors, lawyers, CEOs, and I say, ‘No, its [the home of] a welder, a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter' because there is not one person in this room that would not write a check for any amount in August when your air-conditioning goes down.
"It is just important to us to let our kids understand what trade jobs do for everyone," Evette said.
Therefore, one of her critical missions, as she sees it, is to "shamelessly" promote the need for more youth employment in the state.
"If you have kids and they are sitting on your couch and the summer is coming, get them out there and get them working because South Carolina needs them, our small businesses need them and all of you need them as we bring them up through the ranks," said Evette. "They need to have the experience and [learn] how to work with other people as well as learn fiscal responsibility. The only way for them to get that is to actually dig in and start to work." CEG
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