Building on Our Successes

A Message from the Business Community

By: Pamela Lackey

A veteran television executive once told a young reporter, "There are two ways to cover every story. You can do a story about downtown dying and half the buildings vacant, or you can do a story about how the merchants are working together to draw new businesses downtown. How you cover it says a lot about you and about our station."

That wisdom can be applied to education and workforce development in South Carolina. While much remains to be done in improving South Carolina’s education system, much progress has been made in recent years. Telling the story of the state’s success is the goal of the SC Minds@Work campaign. This is not an inconsequential issue, for incorrect perceptions of public education can hinder economic development.

The SC Minds@Work initiative stems from discussions at a South Carolina Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors meeting a few years ago. At the meeting, we talked about the importance of creating jobs and how success is tied to the image of our state’s workforce. The room was buzzing with ideas of how we could help correct the Palmetto State’s sometimes tarnished image. We realized the answer was to begin telling the true stories of our education accomplishments.

Research was the first step in increasing awareness of South Carolina’s actual education position and establishing a consistent message and brand for the state’s workforce. In 2010, we conducted national and statewide surveys to gauge perceptions of South Carolina. The results showed that much of our state’s brand image is influenced by our Southern geography, with 44 percent of U.S. residents identifying the Southern region of the country as having the worst image. A positive finding was that South Carolina lacks a distinct image, which gives us the opportunity to build favorable awareness of South Carolina.

Participants’ perceptions improved significantly when they learned positive facts concerning South Carolina’s education and workforce. For example:

• South Carolina’s Personal Pathways to Success program – which is now a national model – provides educational and career planning resources and brings together students, parents, educators, adult job seekers and employers.
• Companies like BMW, Boeing and Michelin have major operations in South Carolina.
• The national report card Quality Counts 2010 ranked South Carolina No. 11 in the nation for academic policy and performance.

Business leaders understand that advances in education and workforce development will lead to a stronger future workforce. But in the meantime, we do not want new and expanding businesses to be influenced by ill-formed or incorrect impressions of our state’s achievements. Therefore, even as we support continual improvement in the education of our students, we must also work together to tell the true story of education in South Carolina.

Business leaders have been traveling the state discussing the positive developments in education and workforce development. You have likely heard some of these presentations. The SC Minds@Work project is just getting started, and we look forward to working with you and your business. Together, we can share the many reasons South Carolina is a great place to be and  do business.

Pamela Lackey is president of AT&T South Carolina, the 2011-12 chair of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce Excellence in Education Council and serves on the South Carolina Chamber Executive Committee.

More than 800 fewer students dropped out of state high schools in 2010 than in the previous year. (SC Department of Education)

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