News

Vocational Solutions celebrates progress

A crowd of supporters from Vocational Solutions and the Chamber of Commerce celebrates ribbon cutting of the new print shop.

By Bill Moss, Published: February 7, 2014

Vocational Solutions celebrated two job-creating successes last week with a ribbon cutting and reception.
The agency that provides career and life skill training to adults with disabilities or other barriers to regular work added a print shop for screen printing and a clean room for packing surgical wash cloths in recent weeks.
As a result Vocational Solutions has added two full-time and eight 25-hour-a-week jobs.
The agency on Spartanburg Highway with the slogan "Helping Those in Need Succeed" now offers more than 20 categories of printed material, from T-shirts and hats to large promotional banners to pens and coffee mugs.
"We're doing OK on getting print jobs," said Allen Combs, the executive director. "We need to do a little bit better. I hired a sales rep. He's out making cold calls. Part of his job is to grow the print business."
In the clean room, workers pack four washcloths to a pack and ship 21,000 packs a week for Medical Action Industries.
"Both of those came as a result of getting a grant from the county commissioners," Combs said. The Board of Commissioners appropriated $25,000 for Vocational Solutions, which has been on a financial turnaround after a number of setbacks. "We wouldn't have been able to get the clean room without that for sure, and we were able to make a down payment on the screen printing equipment."
Aside from handicapped adults, Vocational Solutions also hires workers through a vocational rehab program that helps workers with injuries or mental illness go into or return to the workforce.