Midlands Technical College President. Dr. Gregory D. Little was the speaker at the Greater Cayce-West Columbia Chamber Business Breakfast Tuesday. The meeting was held at the Airport Campus of Midlands Technical College.

C-WC Chamber President and CEO Tim James said, before Little spoke, that the Chamber and MTC will work to strengthen the relationship between Midlands Tech and the Chamber.

Little listed several statistics related to the MTC. He said the school has 90,000 alumni and it’s third behind USC and Clemson in student numbers. MTC serves 24,000 students annually and there are more than 150 degree, diploma and certificate programs at the school. Little also said 99 percent of MTC students are either employed of continuing their education after graduation.

“Graduates are job-ready,” Little said. And many of them walk into lucrative careers with a 2-year, affordable degree. He also said there is a shortage of trade-skill employees and MTC is expanding its programs to take more students in those programs because of the number of applicants MTC receives.

Advanced manufacturing, welding, HVAC, building construction, health sciences. and nursing are some of the most in-demand fields for Tech grads.

Little said there will be an even higher demand for employees because of the Scout plant opening in Richland County and the revival of the VC Summer energy plant in Fairfield County.