Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Local leaders gathered Tuesday to celebrate the beginning of “Made in Beaufort County,” a Rivers East Workforce Development Board marketing package designed to encourage people to live and establish their careers within the county.

With the help of partnerships with local educational entities, businesses and officials, the initiative encourages people to “live, work, and play” in Beaufort County. The initiative highlights the various manufacturing career paths available locally in areas such as woodworking, welding and fabrication, plastics and injection molding and boatbuilding.

“The idea behind this was we know Beaufort County is a great place to live and a great place to work and a great place to play,” said Brandi Bragg, career pathways facilitator with Rivers East. “But we want to make sure that people outside of Beaufort County know that, and everybody in Beaufort County gets that idea.

“We’ve got lots of great companies here and we ride past them every day and we have no idea what it is they do, or what kind of jobs you could do there so that you could get a job and stay right here in Beaufort County” Bragg added.

The initiative’s website is madeinbeaufortcounty.com.

“The reason this is so critical is probably 50%, over the next 10 years, of our labor force is going to retire,” Beaufort County Economic Development Director Martyn Johnson said.

Johnson said economic development workers and other local officials are willing to work with entities that want to help spread the word about Made in Beaufort County, or want to utilize the program to facilitate economic and workforce development.

“We want to be able to share with our students in the school system, in the community college and with the community at large what there is to do here, what kind of jobs do we have in Beaufort County.” Bragg said.