South Carolina Named Semi-Finalist in Nationwide Competition

South Carolina Named Semi-Finalist in Nationwide Competition

 South Carolina has been named a top semi-finalist in the U.S. Department of Education’s Connecting Talent to Opportunity (CTO) Challenge – one of only ten states nationwide to earn this honor!

Columbia, S.C. – On behalf of the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development (CCWD), the S.C. Department of Education (SCDE) and the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) are proud to announce that South Carolina was selected as one of the top semi-finalists in the U.S. Department of Education’s nationwide competition, Connecting Talent to Opportunity (CTO) Challenge. Only ten states nationwide received this distinction, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Montana, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The CTO Challenge allows states to compete to receive funds to set up a talent marketplace, which is a digital platform utilizing advanced technology, providing resources to connect jobseekers with education and job opportunities. 

Being a semi-finalist in the CTO Challenge will provide additional assistance and resources in the development of the Find Your Future (FYF) portal, an interactive, virtual platform that helps South Carolinians connect to personalized education, training, and employment opportunities. The portal seeks to provide a single trusted starting point of access to South Carolina’s education and workforce resources. The development of the FYF portal will help reduce uncertainty about where to start, strengthen alignment between education and workforce initiatives, and help every South Carolinian find their future in SC while fostering economic growth and stability. 

“South Carolina is full of opportunity, so we are honored by our nomination and the chance to develop a united resource that allows employers and educators to pave the way for future growth,” stated Rebecca Battle-Bryant, Director of the Office of Statewide Workforce Development. “We created a plan to help bolster the workforce, and the CTO Challenge gave us a huge advantage that will not only benefit hard-working South Carolinians but also improve the talent pipeline throughout all corners of our state. This portal will be interactive, user-friendly, and allow all our state’s jobseekers, including students, veterans, and those in our most rural communities, to have a wide scope of opportunities outlined for them with the support they need to pave their own path in our workforce.” 

As a semi-finalist, South Carolina’s CCWD was awarded tailored support to complete two additional phases of required tasks, including implementing the proposed project and evaluating the success of the new portal after a fifteen-month period.

"We are proud to join our education, workforce, and industry partners in advancing innovative pathways that connect South Carolina students to opportunity and strengthen our state’s future,” said State Superintendent of Education, Ellen Weaver.

“While we continue to progress through the next phases of the competition, our main goal is to invite our workforce partners, educators, and business leaders to share their campaigns, programs, and tools they use to improve the strength of South Carolina’s workforce pipeline,” concluded Dr. Battle-Bryant. “We thank the U.S. Department of Education for the award and are excited to introduce a well-cultivated and well-rounded portal that will benefit so many.”

For more information, please visit the Find Your Future website, which currently serves as a repository of our state’s education and workforce resources.