Greenville Technical College (GTC) and Greenville County Schools (GCS) signed an agreement today that allows the school district’s Golden Strip Career Center to expand welding capacity by using space at GTC’s Brashier Campus that formerly housed the college’s Welding program. The GTC Welding program moves across campus to the newly constructed Center for Welding and Automation Excellence (CWAE) in August.
The 44,000-square-foot Center for Welding and Automation Excellence will be one of the largest and most advanced welding facilities in the nation, addressing the critical welding shortage head-on. Currently, there are 400,000 welding job openings nationwide and only one new welder prepared to enter the workforce for every four who retire or leave the field.
The agreement expands opportunity for career center students, who will complete two years of classes on the Brashier Campus, while gaining special access to hands-on class activities at CWAE, using the facility’s robotics lab; non-destructive testing lab; MIG, pipe, and laser-focused spaces; and AI welding lab, the first such lab in the nation. Career center students, who are juniors or seniors in high school, can follow a number of pathways:
- Complete their high school diploma and receive industry certification through the school district’s Graduation Plus initiative, making graduates career- and college-ready.
- Participate in dual-enrollment classes through the career center and the college, earning credits toward an associate degree.
- Participate in dual-enrollment classes to graduate from high school with both a high school diploma and an associate degree.
- Earn an associate degree, which articulates into GTC’s bachelor’s degree in advanced manufacturing technology.
- Use the bachelor’s degree to transfer and earn a master’s degree or beyond.
“Greenville County Schools is one of the college’s most important partners,” said Dr. Larry Miller, president of Greenville Technical College. “Time and time again, we work together to create opportunity for students. By partnering with the district to use our former welding space, we expand access to welding education and give students a seamless way to follow pathways that advance their professional credentials and earnings.”
Greenville County Schools currently has 100 welding booths across the district with an average of 300 students applying to fill them. Greenville Technical College’s former welding space will provide 120 additional welding seats. Those seats combined with the 300 welding seats created by the new Center for Welding and Automation Excellence provide a total of 420 welding seats, a 350% increase in capacity to meet workforce demand.
“Our partnership with Greenville Technical College continues to represent exactly what public education and higher education should look like when we work together to meet the needs of students and our community,” said GCS Superintendent Dr. Burke Royster. “By expanding access to welding education at a time when skilled trades are critically important to our economy, we are creating more opportunities for students to graduate with valuable industry credentials, college credit, and clear pathways to high-demand, high-wage careers.”
Equipment used at the GTC Welding lab was obtained using Perkins Funds, federal dollars intended for career and technical education. Thanks to the funding’s flexibility, the equipment can now be used by Greenville County Schools, giving it a second life and allowing Greenville County Schools to expand offerings to meet demand without additional expenditures for teaching tools.
The Greenville County Welding program at Greenville Technical College is open to students from any of the district’s 15 high schools. Students must provide their own transportation. To apply, go to https://bit.ly/4fqzMnS