12 for Life is a state and nationally recognized program created by Southwire Company and Carroll County Schools that offers students the opportunity to work in a Southwire manufacturing facility while completing their requirements for high school graduation. All students enrolled must be 16 years old, pass a drug screening, and be identified by their counselors as needing the program. The 12 for Life facility operates three daily, four-hour shifts that are supervised by Southwire personnel. Students are expected to work Mondays through Fridays, one Saturday each month, and summers. Students earn competitive wages while learning the life skills they need to be successful. Bus transportation is available for those who need it at a minimal round-trip fee.  

Upon successful completion of 12 for Life and earning a high school diploma, students are placed on a preferred hiring list for Southwire Company. Interested students should see their school counselors to complete an application for the program.

12-for-Life Program:  Carroll County Schools

The 12-for-Life program is in its 18th year and was founded as a partnership between Southwire Corporation and Carroll County Schools, located in Carrollton, Georgia. Our program seeks to identify high school students who are in jeopardy of not graduating from high school. The main factors that influence students to drop out of high school are poverty, single-parent homes, teen homelessness, teen pregnancy, lack of motivation to learn, and credit deficiencies in academic courses counting toward high school graduation. However, the number one reason students drop out of high school is to get a job.

The name 12-for-Life was developed from Carroll County Schools' purpose, which is to positively change students' lives. If we can get a student to complete 12 years of school and graduate, their life will be positively changed. Hence, the name 12-for-Life.

First and foremost, our goal for each student is to ensure they graduate high school. We do this by providing students with a high level of accountability through certified teachers in classrooms where students can earn academic credit toward graduation. Some of our students attend our STEM school, which is housed in a two-story school building within Southwire's 12-for-Life factory. STEM school offers students face-to-face instruction in math, science, English Language Arts, and social studies. Once our students are back on track to graduate high school, we then want to empower them to graduate high school ready to be enrolled in college, enlisted in the military, or gainfully employed and engaged in their local communities.

We do this by offering our students the opportunity to earn GaDOE-certified pathways in Manufacturing Technology, Youth Apprenticeship in Manufacturing Technology, OSHA 10 certifications, and a pathway in Mechatronics/Industrial Maintenance.

Students who are identified and then enter the program are hired by Southwire Corporation to work in a manufacturing facility. They earn an hourly wage of $12.00 per hour base pay. If students work their assigned 20 hours per week, they receive a $1.00 per hour attendance bonus. Students entering their second year in the program will receive an additional $1.00 per hour. 12-for-Life students entering their second year in the program can earn $14.00 per hour. All 12-for-Life students have the opportunity to receive an incentive bonus that is tied to their semester GPA. Students who have a cumulative 4.0 GPA will receive a $400.00 bonus, and students who have a cumulative 3.0 GPA receive a $300.00 bonus. These academic bonuses are received at the end of each semester they are in the program.

At the Southwire facility, students either work in the reel shop, where they build bulk reels and spools, or in Retail, where students operate a rewinder cutting down bulk wire into specific lengths. These smaller lengths of wire are bagged and boxed by students. Once the process is complete, the wire is shipped to Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Menards, or Walmart. In the reel shop, our students produce 35,000 to 40,000 reels and/or spools per month. In retail, students produce 1.3 to 1.7 million pounds of copper wire per month.

12-for-Life has played an important role in increasing the graduation rate of school districts that participate. Carroll County Schools has seen an increase in their high school graduation rate for all students from 65% in 2007 to a current graduation rate of 94%. Additionally, the graduation rate of our Economically Disadvantaged students has increased from 54% to 96.9%.

An additional benefit that 12-for-Life provides is the development of a competent workforce. In the last three years, we have graduated 117 students, and Southwire has hired 62 of them into full-time employment at Southwire. Southwire has 12-for-Life graduates working in many departments throughout their company, including human resources, production management, information technology, plant management, supervision, and production leadership

Joel Grubbs, site supervisor for Southwire's 12-for-Life program in Carroll County.

joel.grubbs@carrollcountyschools.com.

Their future is our mission.