THE WORKS Podcast
The Works podcast is hosted by William Floyd, the Executive Director of the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) and Chair of the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development (CCWD). The purpose of this podcast is to provide a platform for short, impactful conversations with CCWD partners, workforce leaders, industry experts, and public officials who help strengthen our state’s economy and labor force.
THE WORKS Podcast
Episode 12: The Value in Collaboration
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n this episode, South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) Executive Director and Coordinating Council for Workforce Development (CCWD) Chair William Floyd welcomes back Dr. Rebecca Battle-Bryant, Director of the Office of State Workforce Development (OSWD), for an engaging retrospective on the most recent CCWD meeting. Dr. Battle-Bryant shares how the reinvigoration of the Coordinating Council has increased collaboration between educators and employers, and how staying aligned with the Unified State Plan continues to strengthen South Carolina’s workforce.
The conversation showcased the progress made by the CCWD, starting with the status of the Find Your Future (FYF) portal – a virtual, interactive platform that helps South Carolinians connect to personalized education, training, and employment opportunities tailored to them – and the progress each committee is making on its annual deliverables.
Dr. Rebecca Battle-Bryant and Chairman Floyd shared insights from a thought-provoking panel discussion with three young men now employed by the businesses where they interned, who discussed how their early internship experiences helped them develop the foundational skills necessary for long-term career success. Dr. Battle-Bryant shared how the panelists highlighted the importance of durable/soft skills and how educators can connect curriculum to skills employers are seeking, and the impact of mentoring the younger generation.
Watch now on YouTube at youtu.be/vNICffsmLOg and explore all episodes at findyourfuture.sc.gov/theworks.
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.
Welcome to the Works Podcast. My name is William Floyd. I'm Executive Director of the Department of Employment and Workforce, and I chair the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development. We're in for a treat today. We have Dr. Rebecca Battle Bryant, who is the director of the Office of Statewide Workforce Development. Come and listen about the great work the CCWD is doing. Well, welcome, Dr. Rebecca Battlebryant, who I call Rebecca. So it's so great to have you back again.
SPEAKER_02Thank you very much for having me.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're here to talk about a really incredible meeting that you and I were involved in recently, the third quarter CCWD meeting. And we really got a lot of insight into the workforce. Incredible things going on. So I'd like to take this opportunity to kind of walk through some of that.
SPEAKER_02Sure.
SPEAKER_01Because good things are happening in South Carolina.
SPEAKER_02Yes, they are.
SPEAKER_01Well, one of the uh original big projects of the Coordinated Council for Workforce Development was the development of the Unified State Plan for Workforce and Education. And uh it's been going strong. You've uh invigorated it as well. So update us about the Unified State Plan.
SPEAKER_02Well, the Unified State Plan is what I consider our strategic North Star. And we I'm always referring to it and make sure that anything we're trying to tackle always goes back to that. So in that Unified State plan, we are centered around building awareness of jobs. That is awareness is the first pillar. And then the second is what are the skills needed to do the jobs in South Carolina? And then the third is what are the barriers to employment? So first things, um, we did update it as we're asked to do annually, and one of the things that we did was we added some values, and those values mirror what America's talent strategy is at the for a federal level. Right. And I want us to show synchronicity with what other strategies are being implemented at the national level, and it does that. So one of those values is that everything we do is led and ended with the employer in mind and their voice included. It also talks about what can we do for worker mobility, how do we have integrated systems, which is where our portal is, how do we bring accountability to our actions, which I'll explain. And then also how can we be flexible and innovative, which those two words are often a little bit not associated with government, but we're trying to change that.
SPEAKER_01No, the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development has existed, as you know, for a while in South Carolina, but it was newly reinvigorated about three years ago. And what's really interesting is that the hard work that you and the fellow committee members have done and are doing must have gotten some attention because the U.S. Department of Labor's values, as you noted, uh and initiatives are echoing often what it was already going on in South Carolina.
SPEAKER_02Well, South Carolina is leading the way, and I'm really pretty excited about that. And I like to say, is this divine intervention or fortuitous or coincidence, whatever you choose? The bottom line is our three pillars, awareness of jobs, what skills are needed for those jobs, and what barriers to employment exist, we're almost mirrored identically in those five values that were provided at the federal level.
SPEAKER_01You know, in South Carolina, we're harnessing the power of collaboration through the C CWD, and it's making a difference. And thank you so much for your involvement with that, your your hard work and leadership. So let's shift uh quickly to kind of a teaser, a teaser about the Find Your Future uh portal. And uh just give us a quick update about that, and then I want to talk about a panel discussion that you led.
SPEAKER_02Sure. Well, the but the portal is what we call it in South Carolina, but basically what it will ultimately be is a one-stop shop. I call it a talent, the national level calls it a talent marketplace, but I call it the market square. But it the portal will be where everybody can join and find each other. And it will allow what we call earners and learners, which are job seekers and and yet students in college or high school, to find the employer. Those are the three key tenants of workforce development, and all of us are the support behind the scenes. So we want those three groups to find each other in this town square, which is the portal. The exciting news about the portal is that first we brought in a portal product manager earlier this year who's done a phenomenal job with his background in procurement and IT of basically working with our partners. It has been a very collaborative and proactive uh year for him to get it ready for us to put out a request for proposal for vendors to build the system.
SPEAKER_01Great progress is being made with regard to something that's pretty complicated and really hadn't been done as far as we know in the U.S. Others are are striving to do it now. But reflecting on this, it the insight of the General Assembly several years ago to know that we need to be doing things from a workforce strategy perspective and doing them bigger and better. So thank you for your leadership there and the team. One of my favorite moments uh during our recent CCWD meeting remains that panel discussion. Because we we uh through your leadership, we're focusing on internships and apprenticeships. Uh I call it the not-so-secret sauce about workforce uh development from a strategic perspective. And you assembled three young people and it led them in an engaging discussion about lessons learned from that. So could you share that with us?
SPEAKER_02Yes, well, I would like to mention that the year 2026 has been the year of internships, which the CCWD has decided is the best way we know to address some of our statistics. The statistics are that 20 percent of high school students that we, you know, find that don't don't necessarily go to college right after high school and they don't get a job. So we're trying to make that connection for our high school students, but we're also seeing an increased number of our college graduates leaving our state, which we don't want. We want them to stay here. We think the secret sauce is internships or apprenticeships. What bottom line is whatever it takes to get somebody a job. And so, with that being said, all of our meetings this year have had a focus on internships, and what my passion is is to bring in the South Carolina to the CCWD. Right. I call it voices from the field so that y'all can hear what's happening in the world because we get so busy in our agencies or our organizations. So the panel was comprised of three outstanding young men. Um we had Tripp Burke, who is with Dominion Energy, he is in media relations. We had Kyle Cawthon, who is a CPA with BA CPAs and advisors in Rock Hill, and then we had uh Marshall Douglas, who is with Abacus Planning Group here in Columbia. So we brought them in through recommendations from various partners to talk about their internship experience and what they learned in it and how it helped them. The point I would like to make before we talk about what they shared is that all three of them interned with the company where they now work full-time, which proves our point that internships create retention for employers. And we need our employers to understand that. And that's the number one reason they should be investing in this. It builds their talent pipeline.
SPEAKER_01You've referred to stickiness, and I think that's a great term about the power of internships.
SPEAKER_02Well, we we bring those people in in these panels, but then we let the CCWD go to work with what they heard. Right. And then what can we do to affect this? So with that being said, um, we are with this panel, we asked them what skills did you acquire? And what skills they talked about were mainly communication, how to actively listen, how to speak, that they didn't feel prepared for that, and their internship helped them, um, how to take notes, how to ask intentional questions. They also talked a lot about building relationships and being on a team. All of them mentioned that they learned how to learn, that you don't stop learning because you graduate from college or high school. And one of them said at the culture at his company is seek mastery. And I think that's important for all of us that we just in this day and age with the technological innovations will never stop learning. So the internship provided them much needed people skills to navigate and then feel comfortable enough to stay with them to join them for full-time employment later.
SPEAKER_01It was just a very inspiring panel discussion. And uh you got the CCWD involved. Yes. So the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development has everything from pre-K to post PhD, as I often say, employers, agency heads, policymakers, and you got us all involved. Tell us about that.
SPEAKER_02Well, we um asked the interns to tell us what skills they needed, what does education need to do to help students going forward? But we also asked the panel, what do employers need to do better? And it's to have very intentional internships, don't ghost them when they apply, you know, audit your application process because a lot of times they don't hear. But then we planted those interns into breakouts of the CCWD. So we get those CCWD members out of their chairs and collaborating with each other and the voice from the field. So we actually had an intern per group answering questions related to what we heard and what is it that we need to do as a body to guide these initiatives for skill building and growing internships.
SPEAKER_01The C CWD meetings happen once a quarter. Yes. And uh we've all been to a lot of meetings in the past, but I'll tell you uh with Rebecca's guidance here, these meetings are more engaging and informative, really are helping shape what we're doing, working collaboratively with our CCWD partners to help with workforce development of South Carolina. Thank you so much for your leadership there. Now, if someone wants to know more about how to uh uh virtually connect with the CCWD meetings or more information about this recent meeting, where do they go?
SPEAKER_02Well, if they want to be involved in the meetings, which are public, and we welcome and are excited to see the numbers of viewers growing with each meeting because this is the public's meeting to see what we're doing and and talk to us. So they can reach us through the Office of Statewide Workforce Development, they can go to our Find Your Future social media channels, they can come to our website. And I do want to add, a lot of our members that come or non-members that watch are online and we are engaging them too. This can't be done without all of us. It is too complicated for one agency, one organization, or one employer to do. We all have to work together as South Carolinians to improve the lives of our fellow citizens.
SPEAKER_01Well, this is a great summary of all of the impactful work going on. And you, as the director of the OSWD, do an incredible job. So thank you so much for what you do each and every day. And uh I look forward to our next very insightful uh CCWD meeting. So thank you.
SPEAKER_02Yes, sir. Thank you. To leave you with some helpful labor market information. Here's your LMI Minute.
SPEAKER_00Hi, I'm Dr. Brian Grady, Assistant Executive Director for Labor Market Information at DU. Welcome to LMI Minute, where I share some parting data from today's discussion to help you better understand our workforce. Today, you heard once more from OSWD Director, Dr. Rebecca Battle Bryant. The LMI team works in close collaboration with OSWD to turn raw data into actionable insights for our state's employers, job seekers, and policymakers. One of the ways we're doing that is with our new Workforce Outcomes dashboard. This dashboard is designed to provide a quick snapshot of what happens to workers in South Carolina after receiving a particular degree or certificate. Using data from the Commission on Higher Education and Du's unemployment insurance wage records, we can chart the economic trajectories of the last 15 years of college graduates as long as they're working for a UI covered employer in South Carolina. Once you select a particular field of study and education level on the left side, you'll see charts and tables that tell the user how much they're likely to make after graduation, how likely a student is to stay in South Carolina, and what industries and occupations they're most likely to be in if they do. This dashboard is available now on the Find Your Future website at findyourfuture.sc.gov. That's all for now. Until next time, thanks for joining us.