S.C. Chamber of Commerce recognizes 3 companies for innovation

Listen to this article

The S.C. Chamber of Commerce has recognized three companies with its annual Workforce Innovator award for their efforts to address the skills gap with innovative, private-sector solutions.

The awards were presented on Tuesday at the 2018 Workforce Development Symposium.

Dennis Corp. was recognized in the small employer (fewer than 200 employees) category. The Columbia-based civil engineer offers on-the-job training through its student internship and business mentoring programs. Candidates for the student internship program are recruited from high schools, universities and career fairs, while business mentoring program candidates are recruited for specific core groups of disadvantaged and underrepresented individuals.

Volvo Car US Operations Inc. partnered with the S.C. Department of Commerce, Trident Technical College, readySC and Berkeley County to develop a curriculum to provide manufacturing training for employees. Those efforts won the company recognition in the medium employer category (200-999 employees).

MAU Workforce Solutions, which has S.C. locations in Aiken, Anderson, Charleston and Greenville, developed a Skill School to train candidates for material handling/forklift positions for its clients. A cross-departmental team help create the school and develop a curriculum for workers with and without previous experience in conjunction with clients. This initiative won it recognition in the large employer (more than 999 employees) category.