College Leaders Visit Service Thread to Present Award of Excellence

Richmond Community College President Dr. Dale McInnis and Board of Trustee Dean Nichols visited Service Thread last week to officially present the company with the Distinguished Partners in Excellence Award from the State Board of Community Colleges.

Service Thread received the award for being an exemplary industry that has demonstrated decisive involvement and firm commitment to the professional development of its employees and to the development of North Carolina’s workforce through its partnership efforts with RichmondCC.

“In our largely rural region of North Carolina, we’re fortunate to have Richmond Community College as a primary educational and training partner,” Service Thread Chief Operating Officer Jay Todd said. “Service Thread and RichmondCC work on a continuous basis to identify training opportunities that benefit our people individually, as well as very specialized training for new equipment and processes.”

Service Thread partnered with RichmondCC to provide a comprehensive training program for employees to meet the required levels of competence as determined by the Work Keys Job Profiles. This training allowed 95 percent of their employees to obtain the Silver Career Readiness Certificate. Additionally, Service Thread has utilized Customized Training at RCC to develop pre-employment training, create 15 new jobs, and retain 108 jobs in Scotland County over the past three years.

“In order to remain competitive in our global economy, U.S. manufacturers like Service Thread make significant continual investments in advanced equipment and systems. What we’ve realized is the importance of the same continual investment in our people through general education and customized training,” Todd said. “This emphasis on workforce education has proven to provide a return on investment through better than expected returns in operating efficiency, production scrap, quality, and other metrics we analyze to measure our success, while empowering our people and providing opportunity.”

McInnis and Nichols met many of the employees at Service Thread during their site visit to deliver the award.

“Service Thread has continuously supported RichmondCC’s efforts to strengthen Scotland County,” McInnis 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.”

Todd said he hopes that partnership between Service Thead and RichmondCC will serve as an example and model for other business and educational institutions in North Carolina.

“We don’t accept the idea that our workforce is unable or unwilling to learn the skills needed to compete. Instead we work together with RichmondCC on the ‘How’ to make it happen,” Todd added.