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For more than 60 years, Greenville Technical College has been a cornerstone of the upstate's educational landscape. With a new president at the helm, what's next for the institution, and how will it tackle one of the biggest challenges facing our community? This episode explores the critical connection between Greenville Technical College and economic mobility, revealing a bold new vision for the future of workforce development. With nearly half of high school graduates in Greenville County not immediately pursuing college, Dr. Larry Miller, the new president of Greenville Technical College, lays out his strategic plan to ensure no student is left behind and that every individual has a pathway to a family-sustaining wage.
In this in-depth conversation, Dr. Miller joins Catherine Schumacher to discuss his ambitious goals for the college and the community. He explains why achieving the Lumina Foundation's goal of 60% credential attainment is crucial for Greenville's success and how strategic Greenville community and education partnerships are the key to getting there. A major focus is the groundbreaking free dual enrollment Greenville program, a partnership with Greenville County Schools that removes financial barriers for high school students, allowing them to earn college credit - or even an associate's degree - at no cost. Dr. Miller details how this initiative is moving from a focus on access to one on completion, aiming to dramatically increase the number of students graduating high school with a head start.
The discussion also dives into the high-demand, high-wage world of skilled trades, highlighting hundreds of current job openings in fields like HVAC and welding. Dr. Miller explains the shift from an "either/or" to a "both/and" mindset, where students can enter the workforce with a valuable credential and continue their education affordably. This strategy is central to improving Greenville Technical College and economic mobility. Furthermore, Dr. Miller shares how GTC is leaning into the future by integrating AI in workforce development, with innovative applications in dental hygiene and automated welding that are preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow. By partnering with national organizations like Complete College America and the Aspen Institute, GTC is transforming its advising and support systems to ensure student success, addressing challenges like food and housing insecurity head-on.
Episode Resources:
Introduction
Catherine Schumacher: For more than 60 years, Greenville Technical College has helped open doors to economic mobility through the engine of education. And this year, it has a new leader. What's next for this critical component of Greenville and the upstate's educational landscape? I'm Catherine Schumacher with Public Education Partners. And today on Simple Civics Ed Talks, I'm speaking with Dr. Larry Miller, who became the third president of Greenville Technical College on July 1st.
For the last several years, Dr. Miller served as vice president of learning and workforce development at GTC, where he led transformative efforts with strong results, including a 238% increase in credentials awarded in just one year. With that experience and strong community partnerships in place, Dr. Miller is excited to share with listeners how technical education continues to evolve and how Greenville Tech is ready to build the workforce of tomorrow today. I am very excited to be joined by my friend, Dr. Larry Miller, who is the new president of Greenville Technical College. We're excited to have a little bit of conversation about what's next for Greenville Tech. Larry, thanks so much for being here.
Dr. Larry Miller: I'm excited to be here. Great to see you, Catherine.
Dr. Larry Miller's Vision for Greenville's Economic Mobility
Catherine Schumacher: New leadership always brings so much excitement to an institution. And your presidency is a perfect example. Literally every time I open a magazine or go online to see a newspaper or anything like that, there is a story about your new role. I know the community is really excited. Why are you excited about assuming the leadership of Greenville Technical College in this particular moment?
Dr. Larry Miller: Greenville is on the edge of greatness. We're getting top 10 rankings in a myriad of national polls. And I think we're on our way to number one in many of those. So it's just exciting to be a part of that overall landscape of growth and success.
When I dig into it more and I talk about education specifically, one of the things I'm really excited about is here in our community, Catherine, as you know, we've focused as a community on hitting that Lumina target, that 60% of our community has a college degree or credential of value by 2030. And to see us move from 39% back in 2009 to a very respectable 51.4% in 2023, we can see that that goal is now in our sights and potentially achievable with a lot more work.
The reason that matters is because we know that communities that hit that target have much bigger economic pies and more people get a slice of that pie. And that gets into some of the economic mobility work that we're involved in here at the college that I think we'll get into more in our conversation. But just being in the mix of those elements of changing people's lives and reshaping this community in a positive way, that's what's got me excited.
Forging Strategic K-12 Partnerships and Free Dual Enrollment
Catherine Schumacher: It does feel like there's some really fantastic synergy and energy and excitement and some really dynamic leaders like you who are really committed to moving things along. You've been here for six, seven years. You've been at Greenville Tech during that time. What have you learned about the educational landscape that you are a part of over these last few years that's informing your strategy, your leadership strategy and your vision for what you're going to prioritize going forward?
Dr. Larry Miller: I think there's three things I'd learn. First, that our K-12 sector has really improved dramatically under Dr. Royster's leadership. And to see grad rates go from somewhere in the 50s to in the 80s now is incredible. And I know that his focus on ensuring that graduation plus exists, that you have a credential. Either a college course or a workforce credential when you graduate high school is a brilliant and simple strategy to explain. And I know that we can build on that and make that even better.
Going from things like having a few dual enrollment courses to actually earning a certificate from Greenville Tech in high school or even a college degree, an associate's degree, we produced about 70 of those last year. We'd like to see that number get to about 700. We want a lot of students to come out of high school with an associate's degree, junior standing, going to another public institution so that a bachelor's degree becomes much more affordable and attainable for a wider swath of the community we serve.
That's one big thing I've learned. I've learned that partnerships are critical in that space. Working both with the charter sector and with Greenville County Schools to grow our dual enrollment program, we've seen that move from about 1,600 students when I got here to over 3,000 today. And one of the things that was critical about that is the dollars and cents of this, pocketbook issues really matter.
Coming together with Dr. Royster and figuring out a way to make dual enrollment free for all students, including books, inclusive access materials, tools, equipment, uniforms, and even transportation in some cases has really lowered the barrier to traditional populations that didn't see dual enrollment as an option for them. We've seen growth in pockets of the community accessing dual enrollment that hadn't accessed it before. We're proud of that.
And now we've got to move from an access frame to a completion frame. That's the next challenge. It's a cycle of continuous improvement. And as a leader, I get excited about that. That's what gets me out of bed every morning is how can we get better today?
Defining Future Success: From Graduation Rates to Skilled Trades Careers
Catherine Schumacher: The dual enrollment piece is so amazing because completely free dual enrollment is new. And for listeners who don't understand how big that is, it used to be that if you were a public school student in Greenville County, you had to pay to do dual enrollment. And now because of your leadership, because of commitments that the district has made and because we were really so smart about how we're thinking about our community investments, dual enrollment is free.
If you're enrolled in dual enrollment classes, that's a huge investment in students and in their ability to rethink what post-secondary could look like for them and where they're going to be even when they cross the stage with a diploma. Obviously, from what you've already said, you and I know you, we've hung out a fair amount. You are a data guy, you are a data-driven, results-oriented leader. I know that you're going to use numbers when I ask you the next question. What does success for Greenville Tech look like in five years? Let's say five years.
Dr. Larry Miller: That's a great question. I would love—we've seen our over the past five years, our own graduation rate double. And I've challenged my leadership team to do that again. Now, that's a tall order, and everything we did to double it once is not going to work to double it again because you start to get into ceiling effects and other things. But to me, that's first and foremost on my mind.
And then this new partnership we have being admitted and accepted into the Aspen Unlocking Opportunity Cohort, which is a program that is designed to make sure that we're meeting our mission of ensuring that all of our graduates have an opportunity to achieve economic mobility, which basically means you're earning a family sustaining wage either when you graduate from us or within about five years post-graduation. We do a good job of that now. They provide us a lot of technical assistance and thought leadership to do an even better job.
We know in this community, over the past 10 years, we've gotten better at economic mobility. But that's one area that we're really focused on is grad rate and then wages.
Our placement rates are already insanely high. We're at 93 percent graduates placed in the field they trained in. Really hard to get much better than that. Our licensure exam pass rates are at 97 percent. But we're doing well in a lot of key indicators.
And then I would say access. Going back to our core mission, we really need to focus on the half of students in Greenville County who are deciding not to go to college after high school. They are setting themselves up for a lot of challenges in life going forward that we can help them with. One thing I often say, just back to the dual enrollment point I made earlier, is instead of asking a student who feels they have to go to the workforce immediately after high school, trying to convert them to go to college, I just ask them, would you go to college while you're in high school?
Increasingly, we have partnerships like a program called Accelerate U that's designed for students who are interested in careers in areas like skilled trades, where we want them to come on our campus and earn a certificate in that field while in high school. Again, with Dr. Royster, we're buying you all your tools and equipment. We're handing you that skill set. Then you're going into the workforce. There are 590 openings in HVAC alone right now with an average wage of $54,000.
And this is the most important thing, Catherine, you and I grew up in an era of either or. It was either you went to university or you went to the workforce and potentially some vocational education program. We're in a world now where it's both and. I sink my hooks into you as a student. I don't mean that literally, but I want to help change your life in high school, get you into a skilled trade or other area where you get into the workforce and you meet your economic needs.
And I want you to stay with us, finish that associate's degree. You might stay with us and enroll in our advanced manufacturing bachelor's degree. That program articulates, the HVAC program articulates into that. Or you transfer to one of our partners, you get a four-year degree. You transfer to another partner, get a master's. You can end up with a doctoral degree if you want to. You get off that train at the station that you choose. I'm just laying out a pathway that's really affordable, that helps you hit your education and career goals.
Catherine Schumacher: That's so powerful. And I think that flexibility, you and I recently, we went on a trip to Estonia. We did this benchmarking trip together. There's also an Ed Talks podcast about that, listeners. And one of the things that we really came away from that trip feeling was that one of the things we do really well, particularly in South Carolina and particularly in a place with a strong technical college system and an opportunity for that certification, two years associates, moving around, creating a path that's right for you.
I think the skilled trades piece is very powerful right now because, AI is looming. You and I've talked, I had a fantastic Greenville Tech grad fix the air conditioner at my house. And he's been working for a local HVAC company for six years, went to Hillcrest with Greenville Tech. Those jobs don't go away. We need them more than ever. It's so smart the way in which that path can be customized to the person's needs.
Expanding the Partnership Ecosystem: From Employers to Nonprofits
Catherine Schumacher: You touched on partnerships a little bit, and I know that's a big component of your vision for Greenville Tech's future. We met, you worked with Greenville County Schools. You talked about that already. What are some of the other partnerships that you're putting in place that you think have the potential to have that kind of major impact on economic mobility in Greenville?
Dr. Larry Miller: In addition to the K-12 sector that I hit on, I think the next one is the Economic Development Organization. The five EDOs that serve Greenville County, along with our top 15 employers, I made it my mission to make sure I'm meeting with all leaders from that group of 20 in my first 100 days. It's pretty easy because I serve on a lot of their boards already, but it's important to have those new conversations from my new seat.
Because if I'm responsive both to the current workforce demands of our 15 largest employers, and I'm hearing who's moving here, who's investing in the community and what their needs are three years before they start hiring, then I can get programs started up and approved through our accreditation process, get students enrolled and have graduates coming out of our facilities, out of our programs, and ready to move into those new job opportunities.
The fact of the matter is, when you look at what matters to companies when they choose to relocate, talent wasn't in the top 10, 15 years ago. The past two surveys, they're five years apart. Talent was number two for 10 years in a row on that survey. We know if we build the new model of economic development is you build the workforce and you attract the capital investment. And we're a key linchpin in that. But you have to have your ear to the street, three to five years out. I can't produce a graduate in three weeks or three months. It takes several years to design, build a program, recruit a student through, and prepare them properly.
And so some of the ways we do that are technical and facility related in nature. For instance, Isuzu is building a large truck manufacturing plant here in Greenville. And they are on our site. They're on our Brashier Campus with their first temporary line to train initial workers. They're hand in glove with us from day one here. But at the same time, they're a Japanese company that's new to Greenville. We have to become aware of their culture and expectations and how they do business. We're looking at soft skills training to support the technical skills that their workforce also needs. It's kind of fun to do a combination of the two.
And then I'll finally just add two other components. The nonprofit sector is critical to our success. Here at Greenville Tech, just like all community colleges, a majority of our students come with economic challenges. About 62 percent of our students report having food insecurity in the past 30 days. And that's not unique to Greenville Tech. We are on par for the national average. We run a caring corner and a food pantry and we help sometimes students have trouble paying utility bills or their rent.
A quarter of our students are parents themselves. They are facing some life challenges. We've got a budget of 117 million. We serve 25,000 students on that budget. We need to make sure that our nonprofit sector is coming in here to help us support our students so that they can be successful. They can fill all the jobs that we know we're in a community where there are more jobs than people. Helping our students stay the course and finish their degree program really helps everybody.
And then the last thing is I'm big on national partnerships. We not only did I mention Aspen, but Complete College America is an organization that received a hundred million grant from the Gates Foundation. They are an intermediary for institutional transformation at scale. We don't receive direct funding from them, but we do get technical support from that organization to reform things like advising and developmental education. And these reforms are literally transforming our institution and changing many lives.
It's important to get best practices here, implement them, and then celebrate our teams when they do a great job. That's my favorite part of the job. And celebrate our students as they win in the education marketplace and in their careers.
Catherine Schumacher: And I completely agree with you. The local partnerships and the national partnerships, because we've had a lot of conversations with colleagues about how much good stuff is percolating in Greenville. And I think any opportunity to have the national eyes on what's going on here is really valuable. We're going to need that outside investment and support and all of that to accomplish some of the goals that you've laid out. And that's something that as one of the nonprofits in the mix, we're really excited to support from our platform where we are supporting Greenville County schools.
I do want to give a quick shout out to the Greenville Tech Foundation. Greenville Tech has its own foundation. And if listeners are curious and if you want to support the work, particularly to help some of those students who are facing housing insecurity or food insecurity, I bet 62 percent was a pretty astonishing number to me. I actually didn't know that. Check out the Greenville Tech Foundation. I'll give a shout out for that.
The GTC Value Proposition: High ROI and an AI-Ready Workforce
Catherine Schumacher: You alluded to the fact that technical education looks different than what many of us have in our minds. We talk a lot about education as the engine for economic mobility. And you've referenced that. Why is a successful Greenville Technical College so important to this community, particularly in this moment?
Dr. Larry Miller: First, thanks for plugging Ann Wright and our foundation. They do great work. And I do want to share that this year, because of our donors' contributions, 100% of students who applied for scholarships from our foundation received one. I think the number was over a thousand students and they received over a thousand dollars on average allocation. So definitely over a million dollars there.
The value proposition of higher ed has been questioned now for many years, and people rightfully so are saying, what's the return on my investment, both in terms of my time and effort, as well as how much I'm paying in tuition? What I think is important for your listeners to know is that we have, I think, the best value proposition in higher ed.
If you are a resident of South Carolina and you meet a couple of other very easy to meet qualifications, you're eligible for an SC WINS scholarship, which is up to $5,000 a year. Our tuition runs, depending on the program you're in, somewhere between $5,200 and less than $6,000. And that's just one funding source.
Your listeners need to understand most of our students are receiving Pell Grants. They are receiving LIFE Scholarship. They're receiving lottery tuition assistance. And then they're also receiving SC WINS. In many cases, our students actually attend college tuition free. Knowing that and then knowing that they are earning in our last economic study about a 42 percent wage premium over a traditional high school graduate, you can see the ROI is plain that you're going to come out making a lot more money than if you don't choose us.
Moreover, we keep options open to you. We have articulation agreements with every public institution in the state of South Carolina. We have out-of-state articulation agreements for transfer. We'll set you on a pathway to success, whatever your preferences are. I think value proposition is important. And then I would finish with this stat. I read last year, 70% of recent college grads said they did not know enough about how to use AI to do their new job.
I think it's our responsibility and mission to make sure that our graduates know how to use all the technical tools available to meet workforce needs. And I hear a lot of other leaders of colleges and universities talk about AI with fear and trepidation. We look at it the opposite. We're investing in things like Dentrix Detect AI so that our dental hygiene students and our dental assisting students learn how to use AI to assess a patient's mouth. We have AI coming to welding. I've mentioned that to you before.
So AI is infiltrating and changing jobs in very positive ways. In the welding sector, it will make the job healthier. The machine is doing the work instead of someone being on a ladder, extending and putting themselves at risk for falling or hurting their back. New equipment keeps them safer in the workforce. That gives them a longer career, more longevity in that industry.
And the demand right now for welders, there are 400,000 openings. Someone who's trained to use AI welding, the laser welding that we're putting into our new center for welding and automation excellence, our robots and cobots, our graduates will have the skills that the best employers are going to be looking for. And we're really proud of that.
Catherine Schumacher: You are the right person in the right place at the right time. It's a really, it's an exciting time for Greenville Technical College. It has such a long, strong history here in Greenville, and I know what an important engine it is. And I know we, all of us at PEP, are excited to continue to work with you and look forward to seeing what comes next. But thanks so much for sharing a little bit with Ed Talks listeners today, and I'm looking forward to seeing you soon, Larry.
Dr. Larry Miller: Thank you so much, Catherine. Bye-bye.
Catherine Schumacher: Simple Civics Ed Talks is a joint project of Greater Good Greenville, Greenville First Steps, and Public Education Partners Greenville County.
Credits
Simple Civics: Greenville County is Produced by Podcast Studio X.
A Greater Good Greenville project.
