South Carolina Bet $11.5 Million on Getting High Schoolers Dual Enrollment Credit -- Five Technical Colleges Are Delivering

Five technical colleges, 23 school districts, and $8 million in direct investment: the CTE component of South Carolina's partnership between the Department of Education and the Technical College System is not a pilot program or a proof of concept. It is a deliberate structural investment in the dual enrollment infrastructure that connects high school CTE coursework to college-level credentials in industries the state needs to fill.

The partnership's college-side breakdown reflects how differently workforce needs are distributed across South Carolina's geography. Piedmont Technical College covers 11 districts -- the largest footprint -- with an explicit equity focus on underserved populations. Central Carolina Technical College works with five districts to increase the number of students graduating with college credits or technical certificates. Northeastern Technical College, serving three rural districts in the Pee Dee region, focuses on providing academic credit for industry certifications already embedded in the CTE curriculum. Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College covers two districts with an emphasis on licensure and credential completion. The Technical College of the Lowcountry partners with three districts to build dual enrollment programming that can sustain itself after the initial funding period ends.

All five programs share a common model: classroom instruction integrated with hands-on experience, mentoring, industry visits, and paid internships. The dual enrollment design means students earn high school credit and college credit simultaneously, reducing the cost and time required to complete a postsecondary credential after graduation. For manufacturing technology students specifically, the credentials available through the pathway -- MSSC Certified Production Technician, MSSC Certified Logistics Associate, and NIMS Machining Level 1 -- can stack directly into technical college programs at institutions like Piedmont Tech, where the partnership creates a structured continuation pathway.

South Carolina's manufacturing sector provides the labor market context. Production technicians in the state earn a median of $59,710, and production supervisors reach $74,950, both growing at 2.5% nationally. The state's advanced manufacturing base -- BMW, Volvo, Boeing, and a network of automotive and aerospace suppliers -- consistently recruits from South Carolina's technical colleges, which now have a more direct line into high school CTE programs through this partnership.

Funding came from the American Rescue Plan's Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Fund, which means the three-year investment window has a defined endpoint. The Technical College of the Lowcountry's stated goal -- building programming that is sustainable after the initial period -- points to the real test of the initiative: whether dual enrollment relationships between school districts and technical colleges can outlast the federal dollars that seeded them.