Keeping with our goal of advancing the Charleston Metro area,
the Chamber released a Talent Gap Analysis in June 2014 and an
update in 2016 that showed a rapidly expanding employment base
in the Charleston region and projected employment growing seven
times faster than the previous five years.

The study demonstrated two of the biggest challenges facing the region:

• Our economy transformed from a service-based economy to a STEM-based economy (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)
• Our students and workforce lack the needed skills
  to be employed in new, high-demand jobs

One of the study’s most startling statistics showed that a majority
of these new jobs were being filled with residents moving into
the region that have the needed skills and credentials being
demanded by employers.

The school districts and Chamber are working in partnership on putting into place programs to prepare local students for local careers. As a next step, the superintendents asked the Chamber to identify a set of career readiness standards/competencies related to the fastest growing sectors and high demand jobs in the region. The goal: to identify a common set of minimum skill standards for every high school student and then, working with public schools, build a curriculum and structure throughout the K-12 system to support the development of the standards.