HGTC to offer first-of-its-kind boat building program to students

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) – Horry-Georgetown Technical College will be offering a new program for those interested in boats and how they’re built.

The HGTC Commission called a special meeting on Monday where they approved a new boat-building program.

It will be the first program of its kind in South Carolina.

The program will be offered starting in the fall of 2023 on Georgetown’s campus and will last three semesters.

“We’re excited about offering the program. We have a faculty member that we’ve hired who is an expert in composites and in boat building. The program is already being developed with the courses in it. Students can come in in the fall and be out the summer of next year,” HGTC President Marilyn Murphy Fore said.

It took several years for HGTC to develop the program with the help of the South Carolina Boating and Fishing Alliance.

Fore said over the next five years there will be 800 job openings for boat building. She added that there are 30 boat-building companies in South Carolina.

“Our mission is to support employers and to put people in the workplace, to give students good careers. I am very excited that we are taking this venture to develop these brand new programs to help industry and give good jobs to our students,” Fore said.

HGTC is in the process of having a new building built on the Georgetown campus that will house the boat building program and its outboard marine technology program.

The building will be 25,000 square feet and will take about two years to build.

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