Almost as soon as we spring forward one hour, the extra daylight draws casual gardeners outside to begin prepping their yards for the season. A team of four Piedmont Technical College horticulture students led by PTC Horticulture Program Director Daniel Greenwell approached the growing season with a slightly more professional eye when they traveled to Alamance Community College in Graham, North Carolina, to compete in the 42nd annual National Collegiate Landscape Competition held March 14-17. After the pine straw had settled, PTC’s landscape plant installation team finished 16th out of 58 teams, even beating out teams from several large four-year institutions such as North Carolina State University, Mississippi State University, Virginia Tech and Michigan State University.
A study by Burning Glass Technologies and published last month by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found the country’s most profound workplace skills gaps exist in health care occupations. “This is particularly true among higher-skill practitioner roles where openings exceed available workers by more than 40 percent,” the study, titled Different Skills, Different Gaps, noted. “This is by far the most dramatically expanding skills gap in our research.”
The evidence is indisputable. Individuals who have completed at least some college fare better in terms of employment and earnings than those with only a high school diploma.
In past years, the term for a full complement of behaviors surrounding workplace integrity and productivity was “soft skills.” After a comprehensive study, Piedmont Technical College took up the challenge to form a Work Ethic Skills (WES) team, which developed a pilot system to integrate WES training into the curriculum of selected courses. That team ― comprised of PTC Humanities Department Head and Spanish Instructor Jennifer Lopes, Welding Instructor Tony Amos, English Instructor Rebecca Soppe, Associate Dean of Students David Rosenbaum, Computer Technology Instructor Coronicca Oliver, and Cardiovascular Technology Instructor Laura Boone ― has been selected as PTC’s Innovation Team of the Year for 2018.
For the most fortunate Americans, attending college is a given. But for far too many, the barriers to a college education can be wide and vast. A number of community and technical colleges ― including Piedmont Technical College (PTC) ― have special initiatives designed for those who face the most daunting challenges.
At Piedmont Technical College (PTC), scholarship options not only help pay for school, but they help recognize and distinguish students from other peers. When ready to enter the workforce, having been a scholarship recipient also can help someone’s resume stand out from the rest.
Pint-sized buses arrived with their adorably diminutive cargo at Piedmont Technical College’s Lex Walters Campus-Greenwood recently just in time for the early care and education (ECE) program’s fun-filled Literacy Day, an annual event now in its fifth year.
The next time you have to diagram a sentence or take a vocabulary test, just remember that good language skills ― and good writing skills in particular ― bring dividends both in life and, sometimes, in the bank account. Two Piedmont Technical College (PTC) students recently won their categories in the college’s Third Annual English Department Writing Contest.
Some 65 individuals, all with compelling stories to tell, graduated last week as members of the Greenwood County Adult Education Class of 2018. Eleven of the graduates sported the symbolic yellow stole indicating they were PTC Adult Achievers.
Summer is celebrated for many things, among them the amazingly plump and colorful fruits and vegetables that grace our tables this time of year. Not everyone is aware of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes before that fresh abundance is delivered to grocery stores and farmers markets. In celebration of June as National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month, Piedmont Technical College (PTC) gives a nod to those who devote their life’s work to agriculture. For those who aspire to work in agriculture or horticulture, the PTC School of Agriculture has programs to support that goal.
