NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — As tensions mount in the Middle East, Ukraine and the South China Sea, the Biden administration is taking steps to ensure Newport News Shipbuilding has the personnel to build the nation’s warfighting machines.
The aircraft carriers USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Abraham Lincoln remain on watch nearby following Hezbollah’s attack on Israel over the weekend.
With only 68 days until election day, dignitaries, including Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, got a sample of virtual warship construction at the carriers’ birthplace.
“OK I’m looking at a wall here … oh I’m painting,” said Del Toro while wearing goggles that simulate a ship’s hull.
In a visit that was a long way from the Beltway, policymakers received a sobering assessment on what it takes to attract workers to inherently dangerous jobs. The good news: technology can bridge the gap in the dangerous trade of welding.
“And if we turn around, look at these welders right here, we can weld in short sleeves, no gloves, and teach everything that you would want to teach a welder in a safe environment without putting up with the fire, the heat, the sparks and everything like that,” said an unidentified Apprentice School instructor.
According to the Hampton Roads Workforce Council, the maritime trades industry in Hampton Roads has a shortage of 10,000 workers — and that number could quadruple in five years.
That’s why the Biden administration, with a $6 million grant, has partnered with the Hampton Roads Workforce Council to expand registered apprenticeship programming.
“It’s incredibly important what’s happening here today. At this apprenticeship school, and across the country at places like this, is we’re actually a national call for maritime service. We’re actually asking young men and women from all over the nation consider the maritime trades. So that we could actually build the great ships that our sailors and marines depend upon all throughout the world,” Del Toro said.
If you are interested in the maritime trades, contact the Hampton Roads Workforce Council at 757-314-2370.