Columbia, SC (WLTX) -- In his state of the state address last month, Governor Henry McMaster stressed the need for more workers in skilled trade jobs like plumbing, masonry, carpentry and manufacturing.
"Right now in South Carolina, we have around 70,000 jobs looking for people," said McMaster. "South Carolina is ranked in the top 5% nationally for high potential job growth - especially in the manufacturing, technology, health care and engineering fields."
They're high paying jobs, he said, but businesses are struggling. McMaster said businesses don't lack customers, they just can't find enough staff.
The need is so great, many businesses are recruiting from out of state.
News 19 set out to learn what's being done to fill the gap and hire more employees from the Palmetto State.
Inside the Advanced Manufacturing and Skilled Crafts Center at Midlands Technical College, for example, students are preparing to fill the state's vacant jobs at the rate of 5,500 a year.
Officials with Midlands tech say over the past three years, they have enrolled on average about 5,500 students each year in the 30 advanced manufacturing and skilled trades programs.
"We've just had this long period of time where we haven't had a lot of students or employees or people interested in entering the field, and over the period of time we've had an aging of the workforce. So some of those folks are retiring now," said Ray Thomas, Program Director for Industrial Technologies and Trades at Midlands Technical College.
Many students get their education at Midlands Tech with financial help from their future employers.
"Oftentimes they'll create apprenticeships, so the students are actually working in the industry at the same time they're going to school here," said Thomas.
On top of apprenticeships, Midlands Tech partners with high school counselors and employers in the area to help identify students who wish to enter the manufacturing or skilled trades fields. From there, they can figure out an organized pathway to go from high school, to Midlands Tech, to the workforce.
"They're gonna be in industrial plants, manufacturing facilities, they may be on a job site doing commercial construction, they could even be building a new site or maintaining an existing site," said Thomas. "They're a very, very important and valuable part of the company as a whole."
A big misconception is that manufacturing or skilled trade jobs are "dirty jobs". Thomas says that's far from true. Many workplaces make it a point, he says, to create clean environments and high wages.
While touring Midlands Technical College, we met Luis Campos. He is a veteran with the goal of starting his own business related to electrical engineering at residential properties.
He has a Bachelors degree in Business Administration, but chose to switch his career path to something a little more exciting for him.
"I like to work with my hands," said Campos. "After 20 years in the Army, I was a logistics specialist so I did a lot of hands-on [work] moving things and ordering equipment."
We watched Campos and his classmates run electrical wires and put outlets on the wall, among other tasks in their lab.
The work these students are doing in class is exactly what they'll do in the field.
"In the military, they'd just be like, 'Here, go do this', and you'd have to learn on your own," said Campos. "So this has been great where we actually get to do a lot of hands-on work and learn that way...You learn in a week over here what you learn in a classroom in six months."
Many of these skilled trade jobs don't need a traditional 4-year degree.
"Everyone's doing the traditional college now. It's really being pushed more. So that leaves a lot of jobs and a lot more opportunity in a field like this," said Dalton Miller, a student in Midlands Tech's 1-year Industrial Maintenance Program.
Miller graduated with his Associates in Biology at the University of South Carolina, but thought a more hands-on career would be a better fit.
"They're just preparing us, when we get done with this, for an entry-level mechanic for an industrial plant," said Miller.
At Midlands Tech, 89% of graduates are employed or will continue their education within six months of graduating.
"I've already had a couple of jobs from job fairs around here, and they hear I'm in the class. People are interested in giving me their cards," said Miller. "So even though I'm not set up for a job right now, I think it's going to be pretty easy once I finish this program."
Midlands Tech officials tell us many students end up working close to home. 82% of graduates live and work in Richland, Lexington, and Fairfield counties.