Education Edition - 1736 Magazine, Fall 2019

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An example is the Students2Work
program, in which chamber members offer
students a two-month paid internship at
their places of business to expose students
to the workplace environment and
strengthen the “soft skills” students will
need for workplace success.
“We’ve heard from the business community,”
Bradshaw said. “And their goal
is to retain our students in the workforce
and to have an educated workforce that
can actually transition from high school to
work.”
Richmond County School System’s
CTAE program incorporates 16 program
areas and 34 career pathways in 11 high
schools throughout the district.
The district’s most visible program is
arguably the four-year-old RPM campus,
located in a former county-owned warehouse
at 2950 Mike Padgett Highway.
RPM, short for “Reaching Potential
through Manufacturing,” is a school-towork
partnership with Augusta-based
Textron Specialized Vehicles that gives
at-risk students part-time jobs building
components and sub-assemblies
for E-Z-GO golf cars and other Textron
vehicles as they work toward graduation.
Students earn $8 an hour on the manufacturing
floor – which is housed in the
same building as the classrooms – while
learning marketable skills and a work
ethic. The main goal, of course, is for the
student to earn their diploma.
RPM principal Dr. Jason Moore said the
program has grown to 100 students and
is annually graduating about 60 students,
nearly all of whom were potential
dropouts.
“It has increased the (county’s) graduation
rate 1.8% alone,” Moore said. “The
message we send to students is ‘You come
in behind, but you leave ahead.’”
Many graduates end up working full
time for Textron’s assembly plant on
Marvin Griffin Road and its newer facility
at 3646 Mike Padgett Highway, earning
$40,000 a year with benefits building the
company’s growing line of utility and offroad
vehicles.
Moore said one RPM graduate who went
to work for Textron, a teenage dad, was
recently approved for a mortgage.
Other RPM graduates have enrolled in
Augusta Technical College to further their
skills. Some have gone to work for other
RPM-Textron student-employees assemble golf cart components at the RPM campus on Mike Padgett
Highway, which lets potential dropouts earn their diploma while earning $8 an hour for their work.
area manufacturers, such as Kellogg and
John Deere. From Moore’s perspective,
any student who graduates is a success
story, as dropouts account for roughly
80% of the incarcerated population.
“Our kids just get out and work,” Moore
said. “Even though they may not have
gotten that job at that specific place that
they want to be, they’re out there working
and contributing.”
FUTURE JOBS, FUTURE SKILLS
Georgetown University’s recent study,
“Recovery: Job Growth and Education
Requirements Through 2020,” shows
nearly two-thirds of all jobs do not require
a bachelor’s degree.
Many of these jobs are lucrative to those
with the right skills, such as automobile
repair technicians, who can earn up to sixfigure
salaries working on complex hybrid
vehicles, computer-laden luxury cars and
high-tech driverless vehicles.
Turning students on to “blue collar”
jobs is challenging because for years
parents and students have been told the
only path to a meaningful career is through
four-year universities, said Al Young, the
district’s CTAE coordinator.
The result has been a worker shortage
in many skilled-trade industries. U.S.
Department of Labor figures show an
excess of 1.1 million available jobs in building
trades and craft occupations such as
HVAC, plumbing and electrical – none of
which require four-year degrees.
“None of these jobs are menial jobs –
they’re all well-paying jobs,” Young
said. “You can make a nice life and, if you
still want to go to college, you have the
opportunity.”
The newly constructed Marion Barnes
Skilled Trade Center at T.W. Josey High
school offers HVAC, electrical, masonry,
welding, plumbing and cosmetology for all
district students seeking marketable skills.
Dr. Jamie McCord, the principal at
Marion Barnes, said students at the center
can earn forklift operator certificates and
other Occupational Safety and Health
Administration credentials that many area
employers seek.
“If you call up these businesses, the jobs
are readily available,” McCord said.
Young said the school system is trying to
boost CTAE participation by elevating it to
the level that other, more highly-regarded
high school activities enjoy.
“We’re trying to make it ‘cool’ to train
toward a workforce-specific skill, just
like athletics is ‘cool’ and ROTC is ‘cool,’”
Young said.
One of the “coolest” programs in the
district is cybersecurity, which grew
out of the industry’s increased presence
in Augusta because of the relocation of
Army Cyber Command to Fort Gordon,
and the numerous cyber-related companies
located in Augusta, such as Unisys,
Raytheon and Parsons.
Richmond County is the only
system in state offering a K-12 computer
science curriculum. It also has a
stand-alone cybersecurity program, the
Cyber Academy of Excellence, which
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