‘Skill Up’ Connects Upstate Residents with Career Pathways
November 1, 2024Upskilling resource promotes technical training programs
With its robust technical college system and industry-informed K-12 STEAM programs, Upstate South Carolina is home to a network of powerful resources that drive our workforce development pipeline.
To enhance this growth, we launched Skill Up as a one-stop shop to inspire unemployed and underemployed Upstate residents to seek higher paying, in-demand careers.
The Skill Up platform connects individuals with short-term training programs in their communities and showcases key information on featured job types, including median salary and earning potential, number of openings and projected growth. From June 2023 to May 2024, in-demand occupations featured on Skill Up saw 11,203 job postings with an average earning potential of $81,501.
Users can explore simplified enrollment paths for specific training opportunities at Upstate technical colleges. These training programs can be completed in 12 months or less — and in many cases, financial support is available.
“Our goal is to inspire individuals to acquire new skills for better paying, more resilient in-demand jobs and connect people with programs available at the Upstate’s technical colleges that can launch their careers,” says our President & CEO John Lummus.
Skill Up’s website showcases 15 of the top in-demand careers that can be achieved with a short-term certificate or training program. Featured occupations range from information technology specialist to pharmacy technician to commercial truck driver. From September 2023 to August 2024, the Skill Up website experienced 42,609 sessions and 4,513 user clicks leading to technical college program pages.
The Upstate SC Alliance created the Skill Up platform in 2020 in partnership with the Upstate’s technical colleges: Greenville Technical College, Piedmont Technical College, Spartanburg Community College and Tri-County Technical College.
Skill Up is an extension of Move Upstate SC, which launched in 2019 to attract individuals to professional jobs in Upstate SC. Do you work with unemployed or underemployed individuals who could use Skill Up? Request Skill Up rack cards for display at your facility.