The grant will be used to purchase machinery and equipment for the manufacturing and health sciences labs to be set up at the career center.

Stethoscopes, mannequins, digital thermometers, and other equipment that will support courses — such as Introduction to Health Sciences, Health Technologies I and II, Medical Terminology, and Pharmacology — will be purchased.

Rob Colones, president and CEO of McLeod Regional Medical Center, said the grant will allow Florence 1 to provide programs and training to expose students to health careers that will meet the needs of the marketplace.

“The need for health-care workers is a national issue,” Colones said. “As our region grows and the population in the region ages, it will continue to be a challenge to train and support the health-care needs of this region with people.”

The grant also will help the district develop a Mechatronics curriculum. Mechatronics is the combination of mechanics, electronic engineering and software engineering.

The curriculum will use specialized equipment to enhance instruction in electrical wiring, circuit breakers and fuses, hydraulics, pneumatics, robotics, electrical blueprints, and other topics.

When students get ready to take their next step after high school, they already will have the hands-on experience and be better prepared for careers in manufacturing, said Dr. Frank Cox, president and general manager of Roche Carolina Inc.

“To compete in today’s global economy, we need students who not only know the theory, but they can demonstrate hands-on and apply the theory,” Cox said. “We saw a gap in electives (for) students who wanted to pursue a career in manufacturing. That gap primarily was no laboratory courses for these students.

“We will now have a state-of-the-art laboratory where students will go in and work in a team-based, collaborative environment using critical reasoning skills to solve problems,” he said. “They will have hands-on opportunities with modules such as robotics, automation and electronics.”

The grant was a joint effort between the Florence 1’s Career Center and the Florence Education and Business Alliance (FEBA). FEBA is working with the district to implement Personal Pathways to Success, which was created by the Education and Economic Development Act (EEDA).

The EEDA requires students beginning in the eighth grade to develop an Individual Graduation plan, which requires post-graduation goals, core academic courses and a designated area of study or cluster. All school districts in the state are required to offer at least three of the 16 career clusters determined by the state by July 1.

Florence 1 has chosen Manufacturing, Health Sciences, and Business Management and Finance.

Students still are required to have the state’s high school graduation requirements of 17 academic core courses and seven electives.