South Carolina Business Review

Advanced mfg workforce development in full swing in S.C.

By Mike Switzer

Published October 25, 2023 at 6:30 AM EDT

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Our state has definitely built up a solid reputation as a manufacturing state over the past several decades, and that reputation has been built on the success of our technical school system and its workforce development programs. That’s something our next guest is thick in the middle of. Mike Switzer interviews Laura Hutchinson Davis, chair of the School of Advanced Manufacturing and Skilled Trades at Midlands Technical College in Columbia, S.C.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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