Tressa Gardner

Associate Vice President, SiMT and Gould Business Incubator
Florence-Darlington Technical College

How do you feel South Carolina colleges and universities are preparing students to meet the state’s future workforce needs?

Colleges and universities across South Carolina are fortunate to have strong ties to manufacturers and employers across a wide range of industries – automotive, aviation, steel, heavy equipment and machinery, healthcare and life sciences – who constantly provide feedback on their workforce needs. Every two-year college has Advisory Committees for each academic program who meet regularly to offer insights into changes in their industries’ training needs and hiring requirements.

How is your institution preparing for the looming drop in traditional college-age students and the so-called “enrollment cliff?”

FDTC has been preparing for the “enrollment cliff” for several years. We’ve expanded our admissions team, who provide tours of the college and SiMT Manufacturing for high school groups through our TECH Days programs. We also work with school district partners to engage potential students. For example, Darlington County School District’s ASCEND program brings 8th graders on visits every month, to FDTC and to Nucor, Darling Fibers, and other companies, to learn about job opportunities in the local community. We collaborate with industry partners, such as HAAS / Philips Corporation and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), for career awareness demonstrations and events.

What can be done to counteract government funding cuts and reduced federal research grants?

FDTC will continue to seek and apply for federal, state, and private foundation and other grant opportunities, and to partner with other SC colleges and universities when opportunities arise. Fortunately, SC WINS (Workforce and Industrial Needs Scholarship) provides funding for students to enroll in high-demand fields at our technical colleges across the state. A silver lining of the recent funding changes is the expansion of Pell grants to cover high demand workforce programs, such as CDL (Commercial Drivers’ License), which were not previously covered.

What is your institution’s strategy in addressing the increased integration of artificial intelligence and automation and the expansion of online and hybrid learning models?

Our president, Dr. Jermaine Ford, faculty and staff are learning about and integrating AI together to prepare our students. Instructors are incorporating ethical AI considerations into their classes to teach students how to use it for good. FDTC has offered online and hybrid classes for 20+ years, and we are expanding programs now to incorporate automation. Our graduates are the technicians who keep the automated lines up and running.

What is something people might be surprised to know about you?

I have an unusual memory for faces. You and I will be introduced at an event and I’ll say, “We shared a table at a SCRA Workshop in Greenville four years ago at the Convention Center.” It can be unnerving sometimes, at least at first. But I think we all like to be remembered.