TransformSC – Profile of the Graduate
Fact Sheet: Profile of the Graduate. APPROVED BY SCASA SUPERINTENDENT’S ROUNTABLE AND SC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Fact Sheet: Profile of the Graduate. APPROVED BY SCASA SUPERINTENDENT’S ROUNTABLE AND SC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The term “infrastructure” is well understood to refer to the basic, underlying foundation of our built environment: roads and bridges, water and wastewater, power, communication, etc. The most important component of our economic infrastructure is the Transportation, Distribution and Logistics (TDL) cluster which forms the very foundation of South Carolina’s economy.
For more than a century, manufacturing has been the major economic driver in South Carolina. While many naysayers have predicted the demise of domestic industry in the State and in the nation, South Carolina’s manufacturing sector continues to be a major component of the State’s economy – representing more than one-fifth of the State’s gross domestic product.
Each day in South Carolina, a child misses a chance that may never come again. Whether she lives along the back roads of the Midlands, or in splendor along the coast, or in the hill country of the Upstate, it makes no difference. A missed chance cannot be replaced.
South Carolina is competing for job creation in a global economy where 85% of jobs will require education beyond high school and a workforce with 21st century knowledge and
skills. America’s education system is badly outdated and cannot produce the results our students deserve and their future employers need. South Carolina must radically change its PK-12 system to dramatically increase the number of students graduating ready for career and college without remediation and with globally recognized knowledge certifications.
“Workforce development.” It is a phrase you hear often when people are talking about competitiveness and economic development, but what does it really mean? Workforce development is all about people. It is about bringing to the economic development table the human resources that a state, a company, or an economic cluster needs to succeed.
South Carolina, like many Southern states, is faced with the loss of her traditional economic base and a shortage of workers prepared for the jobs of the twenty-first century. For nearly three hundred years, South Carolina’s economy has depended upon the low wages that characterize agriculture, textiles and tourism industries.