Youth Employment Site with Lt. Governor Pamela Evette

In this episode, South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) Executive Director and Coordinating Council for Workforce Development (CCWD) Chair William Floyd welcomes South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette for an important conversation on youth employment and the growing demand for tomorrow’s workforce. Evette shares what she’s hearing directly from businesses across the state, why soft skills matter, and how the Youth Employment Site (YES) helps teens connect with seasonal and part-time work, as well as career exploration opportunities.

The discussion highlights the impact of internships, hands-on experience, and early exposure to career pathways—including a powerful story from a young apprentice at ZF Transmission whose on-the-job learning helped him discover his true calling in engineering.

For additional information about career pathways, workforce programs, and employment resources across South Carolina, please visit https://findyourfuture.sc.gov

Connect with Find Your Future SC on social media for updates, resources, and workforce initiatives:

Instagram: @fyf_sc
Twitter: @FYFSC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FindYourFutureSC/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/find-your-future-sc/
YouTube: @findyourfuturesc

Follow along to stay informed about opportunities supporting South Carolina’s current and future workforce.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:23

My name is William Floyd. I'm the Executive Director of the Department of Employment Workforce, and also it's my privilege to chair the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development, where we look at the workforce issue every day, both from a tactical perspective as well as a strategic perspective. We learn about the opportunities in South Carolina and how to connect workforce with those opportunities. During today's podcast, we're going to hear directly from the Lieutenant Governor about the things she has learned firsthand, both as a business person as well as being a lieutenant governor, who's going out to various employers, big and small, and talking about the importance of workforce development. It's such an honor to have our lieutenant governor here with us today, Pamela Ebbett. And the Lieutenant Governor is no stranger to the Department of Employment and Workforce or the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development. Because just a few months ago, she came and presented to the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development about youth employment and the importance of that, as well as soft skills. So, Lieutenant Governor, I want to continue that conversation and talk about how or why youth employment is so important for our state. And under your leadership, you are the ones who directed about the yes employment side. And it's something that we did in collaboration with you. And it's really helped connect young people with uh youth employment in various large businesses and small businesses throughout the state, and in particular during seasonal jobs. So thank you for your leadership there. Tell me what prompted you to go in that direction and focus on this area.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

I have the privilege of being able to travel around the state and talk to businesses of all sizes. And it's kind of the mom and pop businesses I kept hearing. Like, how do we get to these kids? If, if, if, how do we pull them in? We really need them. And that's when, you know, sitting down with do, it's like, how do we make this happen? You know, there's all kinds of great resources out there to post jobs, and but a lot of those require a lot of time. You have to go through and clear through applications. Nothing was really easy. And when you're a mom and pop business, I mean you're kind of the chief cook, the bottle washer, the one that opens the door and closes the door at night. It's hard to manage all those tools that are out there. And sometimes they cost a lot. And when you're a mom and pop business, you just don't have those extra funds. So this has created, um, I think it's filled a gap. You know, it's creating this website. Uh, we've been driving kids to look at it. And I want to sing your praises. Just the fact that do actually put those resources and wrap them around this yes website is invaluable. Giving them the tools they need to be successful when they go out to look for a job. We want to keep building on this. We want to keep getting the word out. If you're a small business, we have a resource for you to list a job for the summer. And, you know, we're gonna work with Alan Weaver again this year, work with all of our school districts to push out the information to their uh their students and really their students' parents, uh, of just how easy this is to get your child involved in the workforce, get them the skills they need, and help all these great businesses. Because we've all been there, right? Go to go to church on Sunday and can't go to your coffee shop because they have to close down on Sunday because I don't have enough workers. Go to get ice cream on a Saturday night, and you know, our favorite ice cream shop might be closing early because I don't have enough workers to keep it open. So we're solving a lot of problems.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Great leadership by the Lieutenant Governor in this field in so many ways. And uh we're talking about youth employment, and I just want to applaud you for being out there in the in effect the trenches, the small businesses, the large businesses, to emphasize the importance of getting engaged, take that first step to that first job. And it's and then it's a journey to all kinds of incredible careers. One one event that uh the lieutenant governor and I attended was at ZF Industries. And uh, could you share um that interaction we had with that young man who was an apprentice there and then an employee?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yes, like I talk about him and just he like those kinds of things make me feel, Doctor, like we are on the right path. So we were at ZF Transmission. Uh, we met this young high school student who had told us, he shared that his whole life he knew he wanted to be an engineer and was determined to go to Clemson for engineering and then a guidance counselor. The guidance counselor said, Hey, there is this great mechatronics program through our technical college system. You should like enroll in that and see how you like the engineering side of it, the more practical hands-on side. And so, you know, just by sheer grace, he decided to take them up on that offer. He went to ZF Transmission. And when he came up to us, he loved what he was doing, but realized he loved the hands-on side of engineering, which he didn't know if he would like the more design and conceptual part of engineering that he thought he was gonna go into. And so um he is gonna come, he was gonna complete his mechatronics degree, continue to work at ZF Transmission. So when he was ready to go to Clemson, ZF Transmission was gonna pay for him to get his engineering degree. And you're thinking, what a wonderful story. And he, you know, it kind of clicked for me, like how important, you know, we want him to get soft skills. But what about making career choices? How many times do you, you know, you talk to uh parents who say, Yeah, you know, my son or daughter always wanted to be this, made this investment in college, went through the program, got a job, and now they don't like it. It wasn't for them. Well, that's the beauty of internships. That's the beauty of getting out there and working at a young age. It's a try before you buy, you know. Um you get to test out where you think you'll fit in, you know. If you think you're a people person, but you go in and work in a restaurant or you're serving coffee and ice cream and you realize that I don't know that I like to work with people, then you probably don't, you probably want to look at something else. It's it's those things that make this so important. And for our young people who don't want to come out of college with college debt, just reinforcing the fact that here in South Carolina, you have so many opportunities to get to a career, whether it be through our technical colleges and then on to a university, whether it's through an apprentice program where an employer would be happy to move you through your career for the opportunity to keep you working for them.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Well, the Lieutenant Governor has been such a leader when it comes to workforce, be it at the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development, where she talked about the importance of soft skills and youth employment. We just need to increase awareness. And I appreciate you being here as part of this podcast as we share the good news of what's going on in South Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Well, thank you for having me. And, you know, I couldn't be more proud of what you are doing here at DU and helping our businesses, helping, you know, young people find the career that they think it's going to best suit them because South Carolina is not going to slow down.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Thank you again for being here. Tune in next time for our next podcast episode.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

To leave you with some helpful labor market information. Here's your LMI minute.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Hi, I'm Dr. Brian Grady, Assistant Executive Director for Labor Market Information at DU. Welcome to L My Minute, where I share some parting data from today's discussion to help you better understand our workforce. Today you heard from Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evitt, who worked with DU to create the youth employment site, or yes. Deaning work experience while in school can be a great way for students to learn about careers and acquire durable skills that will help them no matter what jobs they have throughout their lives. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports state-level data for demographic groups annually. In 2025, about 115,000 teenagers in South Carolina were in the labor force, which is above the national average on a per capita basis. This is the number of people working, plus those who are unemployed but looking for work. That's where yes comes in. You can find thousands of job openings across the entire state to get your foot in the workforce as a teenager. There are also resources for students and parents to help teams find jobs in their area, build a resume, and learn more about technical fields. And if you're a business owner looking to hire a younger workforce, go to listed and connected if you visit two. That's all for now. Until next time, thanks for joining us.