HAMLET — The North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges recently announced Richmond Community College and Service Thread were named Distinguished Partners in Excellence for 2017.
The Distinguished Partners in Excellence Award was established by the State Board of Community Colleges in 2006. This award recognizes an exemplary employer, business or industry group that has demonstrated decisive involvement and firm commitment to the professional development of its employees and/or to the development of North Carolina’s workforce through its partnership efforts with one or more of the 58 community colleges in the North Carolina Community College System.
Service Thread is an innovative manufacturing company located in Laurinburg that produces high-quality, hard-to-process yarns. Service Thread partnered with RichmondCC to provide a comprehensive training program for employees to meet the required levels of competence as determined by the WorkKeys Job Profiles. Through this training, 95 percent have obtained their Silver Career Readiness Certificate.
Service Thread continues to set up testing on a regular basis, allowing employees an opportunity to increase their scores in addition to increasing their hourly pay rate. Service Thread covers the initial cost of testing for employees who would like to improve their scores.
This model of incumbent worker training developed by RichmondCC and Service Thread is now being used by many local businesses to increase the skill level of employees and more accurately assess their employees’ educational and training needs.
Service Thread has an Employee Education Assistance Program that pays 100 percent of tuition and related education expenses for qualified courses of study from Adult High School Diploma through graduate education.
Service Thread partnered with RichmondCC in developing pre-employment training that prepared individuals for the application process and the culture of employment at Service Thread.
In addition, the company sponsors and participates in college job fairs, and has provided significant and generous financial support for college events and activities.
“We appreciate Richmond Community College and all the hard work the college puts into helping Service Thread,” Service Thread Chief Operating Officer Jay Todd said. “We are grateful to have the best community college in the State of North Carolina in our backyard!”
In the past three years, RichmondCC has helped Service Thread secure $34,000 in customized training funds, creating 15 new jobs and retaining 108 jobs. This funding has been critical to Service Thread remaining competitive, allowing it to invest in modern equipment and insure its employees are as efficient and effective as possible.
“Service Thread has continuously supported RichmondCC’s efforts to strengthen Scotland County,” Dr. Dale McInnis, president of RichmondCC, said. “We are proud of our partnership with a company that is committed to meeting the educational needs of its employees and investing in an educated workforce.”
Wylie Bell is director of marketing and communications for Richmond Community College.