THE MOC

Training, Building and Retaining our Shipyard Industrial Workforce

With all the challenges in the world today, it goes without saying that America, an island nation, needs a powerful Navy.  A lot of effort goes into our Constitutional requirement to “maintain a Navy,” and that means a robust warfighting platforms or ships and well-trained crews to sail them. Before we get there, however, we need a shipbuilding industrial base—shipyards and machines that bend metal and produce the finest warship in the world. In addition to the Sailors needed to fight these ships, we also need shipyard workers to build these vessels. This has been a constant challenge as the nation tries to level load our shipyards with new construction, repair, or modernization work throughout variations in strategies and Future Years Defense Plans (FYDP) across different administrations.

The military services are feeling the crunch in recruiting a future joint force. Just 23% of the American population meets the stringent requirements for military service, and our pool of applicants is shrinking as the job market is booming and we are competing with industry for top talent. The same can be said of our industrial base and shipyard worker base. Delays in completing work on time were highlighted by Secretary Ash Carter in the Obama administration and he tried to address shortfalls by adding a few thousand workers in public yards. This did nothing to assist the private yards, however, that produce all our new construction warships, while the public yards are responsible for maintenance, repair, and some modernization.

It seems to me that to address the shortfall of skilled labor in our private sector shipyards, the formula for success would be to offer educational opportunities, a competitive salary, a career with upward mobility for sustained superior performance, work-life balance, and a meaningful vocation that enables a craftsman to take pride in their endeavors. Newport News Shipbuilding has “cracked that nut” with its Apprentice School program one hundred and three years in the making. Founded in 1919, this program has matured over time into one of the most competitive trade schools in the country. Coursework is conducted in mathematics, physics, psychology, ship construction, and shipbuilding technology. The four-year program provides in-classroom training with on-the-job vocational experience on the waterfront and provides an associate degree and a guaranteed job upon completion of requirements. Apprentices go on to become Craftsmen and Tradesmen with additional opportunities to obtain advance education from partner academic institutions. The school is so popular, it averages 4,000 applicants a year for about 250 seats in the classroom. The Apprentice School has graduated over 11,000 skilled workers in its 100-year+ period of operation.

Unbelievably, upon graduation, there is no obligation to remain on deck in the shipyard. The majority of graduates, however, do just that.  Retention of program graduates in the shipyard 10 years later is an incredible 83% of the original graduates. Now that’s exceptional retention of the workforce.

While walking around the waterfront and chatting with personnel in the submarine repair program, I came across two supervisors at random—one who just completed qualification as one of the yard’s Master Shipbuilders and another who is Vice-President of Shipbuilding—coincidentally, both of whom were graduates of the Apprentice School years earlier. Now that’s upward mobility!

With USS GERALD R. FORD underway and getting ready for deployment later this year, USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CVN 79) pier side and preparing for her first voyage, and USS ENTERPRISE (CVN 80), whose keel was laid last weekend, the morale and attitude of the “builders” has never been higher. As we looked at the EX-USS ENTERPRISE on a pier across from JOHN F. KENNEDY, a ship that gave the nation 50 years of service and fought in every post-WWII conflict for the United States of America, I could not think of a better way of providing meaningful work and job satisfaction to the skilled labor force that bring these magnificent ships to life. 

That is the way to train, build, and retain a workforce in a time of the nation’s need. This model can be reproduced across our entire industrial base as we bring manufacturing home to America once again.

Published by CMS Staff

The views expressed in this piece are the sole opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Center for Maritime Strategy or other institutions listed.