Rendering of the Columbia-class submarine
Governor Ralph Northam announced this morning a partnership with Newport News Shipbuilding to support the hiring of almost 7,000 people, including the creation of 2,000 new jobs, over the next five years.
These new hires will support shipyard contracts to build components for new Columbia-class submarines in addition to existing work such as construction of Virginia-class submarines, the refueling and complex overhaul and defueling of the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, and the construction of Ford-class aircraft carriers, according to a press release from the Governor’s Office.
Today’s announcement was part of a larger “Build Virginia” initiative to “connect workers throughout the Commonwealth with training and employment opportunities in the skilled trades.” This effort will focus initially on connecting jobseekers and employers in the shipbuilding industry, but will broaden to other industries such as construction and advanced manufacturing.
“Newport News Shipbuilding’s success is important not just for Hampton Roads, but for the entire Commonwealth. Therefore, it is critical that we support growth of this magnitude with an innovative partnership between state agencies that will address the company’s workforce and training needs and supply a pipeline of skilled talent,” said Northam. “We have a responsibility as a Commonwealth to ensure that every single one of these jobs gets filled with a skilled and trained Virginian who is ready to succeed.”
As the U.S. economy reaches full employment and critical skills shortages are hindering expansion in industry after industry, even major players such as Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, are having trouble meeting the demand for labor. The surge in hiring has overwhelmed the capacity of the company’s renowned apprenticeship school, where enrollment is limited to about 225 apprentices.
Virginia has a long history of state support for the giant shipbuilding company, an anchor of the Hampton Roads economy. In 2016, according to the governor’s press release, the General Assembly approved the Advanced Shipbuilding Production Facility Grant Program providing up to $46 million to help Newport News Shipbuilding upgrade its foundry and invest in facilities necessary to build Columbia-class submarines. The company will be eligible for these grants if they make capital investments of at least $750 million and create at least 1,000 jobs in the Columbia-class submarine program.
The governor’s announcement does not assign a monetary value to the initiative. While Northam describes the partnership as “innovative,” the only tangible new commitment noted in the press release is the appointment of Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball to “coordinate support from existing economic development programs.” These include:
- The Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s Virginia Jobs Investment Program will provide state-funded consultative services and funding to support-employee training activities.
- A GO Virginia grant and state funding will create the nation’s first workforce program in digital shipbuilding at Old Dominion University. The Virginia Digital Shipbuilding Workforce Program will develop a curriculum that can be shared with education and training partners statewide to prepare the current and future workforce for digital manufacturing jobs in shipbuilding.
- The Virginia Employment Commission will continue to support Newport News Shipbuilding’s job creation through its Career Works Centers in Hampton and Norfolk, which host hiring events, pre-screen applicants, and support employer interviews.
- The Virginia Community College System offers training and credentials pertinent to shipbuilding through FastForward, a workforce credential program.
- The New Economy Workforce Credential Grant Program (WCG) was developed during the 2016 Virginia General Assembly session to sustain a supply of credentialed workers to fill high-demand occupations. WCG funds supported 441 enrollments in welding, pipefitting, machining, milling, and electrical in fiscal 2017, and 767 enrollments in fiscal 2018.
- The General Assembly also provided funding from January 2012 through June 2014 for marine-skilled trades training. Under this program, Newport News Shipbuilding partnered with three regional community colleges to offer three-week pre-hire training programs in seven trades that have produced over 400 trainees to date, of whom 95 percent have been offered jobs at the shipyard.