April  2008

South Carolina Group Promotes Engineering Opportunities

A coalition of more than 100 organizations, including the South Carolina Society of Professional Engineers, is promoting the state's reputation for quality engineering.

In a U.S. economy some say is in recession, efforts to promote business and secure contracts are increasingly essential to local and state markets. In South Carolina, a newly formed group is working to highlight the state's engineering promise.

Although South Carolina had the third highest unemployment rate in the country in January, Lee Stogner, chair of the new South Carolina Engineering Cluster, says that business in the state is booming. That business is being driven by energy, chemical, and infrastructure projects. More publicity, he believes, can't hurt in the long run. "We've got a great [business] reputation, but there are still some companies that are unaware of this," Stogner says.

The cluster springs from the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness's New Carolina Initiative. The group has more than 100 member organizations, including the South Carolina Society of Professional Engineers. The goals of the cluster are to promote the services and products of engineering organizations and firms, promote continued investment in the economy, provide a forum to discuss engineering issues, recognize the accomplishment of South Carolina engineers, and encourage young people to pursue engineering careers.

Joe Jones, executive director of the South Carolina Society of Professional Engineers, believes that the cluster has great potential to spotlight the strength and diversity of South Carolina engineers. "Having engineers grouped with other groups should show that the state has many qualified engineers and engineering firms," he says.

The cluster's steering committee has participation from firm leaders, college faculty, professional societies, and economic advisors, many of whom Stogner says have not had the opportunity to work together in the past. "The cluster not only promotes the industry, but also provides the industry a forum to work together on common issues such as helping students to get into engineering, safety standards, best practices, and all of the things that we need to be on top of," he says.

To be eligible for inclusion in the cluster's directory, engineering firms must have offices in the state. "It's a tool to help deliver what the customer needs," he says, "and it's better to partner with a fellow South Carolina company to allow for a closer and tighter project and bring the money back to South Carolina."

According to the group's Web site, there are more than 45,000 engineers in South Carolina based on the latest U.S. Census data. But Stogner believes that number is not the most accurate. This has led the cluster to start its first formal project, a survey to get an accurate count of engineers in the state.

Education will also be a top priority for the cluster. "The industry can't survive unless we have a constant supply of good, sharp students who want to be engineers," says Stogner. "We've got a generation of kids that have been told that engineering is real hard and we've got a big job with convincing them that engineering is something that they can do."