New federal funding will support the establishment of a regional apprenticeship hub in Hampton Roads, part of a nationwide effort to promote technical job training and meet the need for workers in the maritime industry.
“The jobs it offers are plentiful,” Newport News Mayor Phil Jones said. “Filling them is going to be crucial for industries like shipbuilding and the U.S. Navy. Our city’s future depends on it.”
Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su and Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro visited the Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding Wednesday for the grant award. Four-hundred thousand of the $6 million awarded to the Hampton Roads Workforce Council will go to the school.
“The proposed Hampton Roads Regional Apprenticeship Hub will provide structure and alignment to the system, helping employers develop new and expanding existing pathways to pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeships across southeastern Virginia,” said Shawn Avery, president and CEO of the council.
“The hub will focus on augmenting existing pathways to registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship, as well as supporting the growth of new registered apprenticeship models for in-demand, local careers,” according to the grant application’s abstract.
The money comes from more than $244 million distributed by the Biden-Harris administration through two grant programs aimed at expanding and diversifying apprenticeship programs in growing industries, including shipbuilding.
“I think of registered apprenticeships as the superhighways of our nation’s opportunity infrastructure,” Su said. “If we make sure that industry needs are met and we make sure that individuals complete programs with the skills both to get the jobs and to do the jobs, … it solves multiple problems all at one time.”
The U.S. Navy and shipbuilding industry expect a need for tens of thousands of new workers over the next decade, with Newport News Shipbuilding aiming to attract 20,000 new hires in that span. Officials hope apprenticeship programs can play a part in achieving that.
Del Toro said hitting that mark is crucial for the economic security of the U.S., noting that 90% of the world’s trade travels by sea.
“We have a growing need for a techno-industrial workforce to build and assemble the ships, the munitions, the parts and pieces that our Navy and our Marine Corps – and, indeed, our nation – needs to promote peace around the world,” Del Toro said.
But Su also homed in on the potential to shore up a family’s economic security through paid apprenticeships and the job opportunities they open up.
“What we have to do is make sure that folks who have been left out before from real opportunity – whether it’s communities of color, young people, veterans, women – that we close that gap,” she said.
For Del Toro, bolstering the U.S. maritime industry is as important as ever with more than 10,000 sailors and marines deployed in the Mediterranean and Red seas. He sees Hampton Roads, Newport News Shipbuilding and the Apprentice School as key cogs in the effort.
“We were once [the] leading shipbuilding nation,” he said. “I am confident that we will once again be the world’s leading shipbuilding nation as well.”
Congressman Bobby Scott was in attendance and commented on the importance of apprenticeship programs to funnel potential employees into available jobs in industry.
"This Congress, I reintroduced the National Apprenticeship Act of 2023, which would create 1 million high demand apprenticeship opportunities over five years,” Scott said. “This legislation doubles down on the overwhelming success of registered apprenticeship programs.”
The funding will be administered through the Hampton Roads Workforce Council. Avery, with the Council, said the money adds to more than $30 million the organization has received since 2022 to promote job training programs.
“What we’re doing here that’s unique in Hampton Roads is we’re braiding those funding streams together and are empowering our training providers and our educational partners – from K-12 through four-year institutions – to ramp up their classes and programs,” Avery said.
“The result of this infrastructure, these investments, will be more than 3,000 plus new job seekers per year trained in critical job skills and earning credentials, mostly in the maritime [industry].”
