PORTSMOUTH, Va. — How do you build a 355-ship Navy? One worker at a time.
That's where Tidewater Community College's Center for Workforce Solution's new Skilled Trades Academy will come in handy. The program will give the local shipyard workers of tomorrow the skills they'll need today.
The new 20,000 square foot facility on Arline Boulevard in Portsmouth will teach students everything from welding to pipe fitting, marine coating, and pipe laying.
The hope is to take someone with no background in skilled trades, and put them through a three-week pre-apprentice program that could result in an $18-per-hour job at one of the area's shipyards.
"If we're going to build a 355 ship Navy, we're going to have to train an awful lot of people," said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia).
Tecnico Corporation President & CEO Ray Wittersheim is excited.
"If we're going to try to handle 355 ships in the future, a combination of new construction and repair and maintenance on those already in the fleet. We've got to have more people in the industry, and this is a great start fo that," he said.
Virginia Ship Repair Association President Bill Crow agrees.
"That will be huge in regards to continuing to grow the workforce, so we can answer the bell for the Navy in regard to repairs out there," he said.
The Navy's latest shipbuilding plan submitted to Congress in February, calls for 301 new vessels to be purchased between 2019 and 2048.
The service announced it also wants to extend the life of its destroyers while boosting the service lives of attack submarines.
Such extensions could get the Navy to 355 ships by 2034.
Meaning, the industry needs the workers ASAP because the ships of tomorrow aren't going to build and maintain themselves.
Tidewater Community College will play a crucial role.
"We were invented a little over 50 years ago because we were willing to do what no one else would do, and that is to simply give everyone a shot at the American dream," said Virginia
Community Colleges Chancellor Glenn DuBois.
Rep Bobby Scott (D-Va., 3 rd District) said the academy will be good for the Navy and will be great for the local economy.
"The Skilled Trades Academy will provide the kind of transformational education that can change a minimum wage worker into someone comfortably in the Middle Class," he said.
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