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Tag: Newport News Shipbuilding

Making do

Todd Estes, vice president of workforce development and innovation at Virginia Peninsula Community College, says the college’s new Toano trades facility is more accessible for students. Photo by Mark Rhodes

A flat tire can mean different things to different people. Maybe it’s a postponed appointment and a call to AAA. Or maybe you have to get a ride to work from your spouse.

But for some folks, a flat tire can start a snowball effect.

“For so many, that flat tire, that’s the end, right? It means they’re missing a shift at work. If they miss a shift at work, and they’re an hourly employee, they’ve lost a day’s pay, and they still have to repair that tire. And, ‘Oh, am I going to school now, too?’ That’s how quickly it can unravel for far too many people,” says Paula Pando, president of Reynolds Community College, based in metro Richmond. “I’m going to say in our region — but I would say across the country — that they’re one life emergency from being completely derailed from fulfilling their potential.”

Meeting students where they are and helping them succeed is part of the mission behind the Virginia Community College System, which has 23 state-funded colleges with 40 campuses serving more than 200,000 students across the commonwealth.

People attend community college for many reasons, but getting certifications and training for desirable careers is a major motivation for many, especially students who are older than average college age and often juggle family and work responsibilities with their educations. Pando says the state’s community college students often are the ones who view a flat tire as a major obstacle, not just an inconvenience.

Similarly, community colleges are working with shoestring budgets, with relatively tight state funding.

Do community college students need English as a Second Language classes? Of course. Do they need remote learning classes? Sure thing. Scholarship money? Yep.

And at many of the state’s community colleges, leaders are figuring out other ways to bring learning directly to students, or at least within a bus or shuttle ride. Virginia Highlands Community College offers free bus trips to the Abingdon college from the city of Bristol and Washington and Smyth counties, while Eastern Shore Community College reimburses toll payments to students who commute via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Most other schools have agreements with local public transportation systems that allow students to ride for free or at reduced fares.

For Pando, accessibility also means offering more classes at Reynolds’ downtown Richmond campus, which is convenient to the regional bus line, and offering free shuttle service to its Parham Road campus in Henrico County.

For Virginia Peninsula Community College, which covers the region of James City County, Williamsburg, Hampton and Newport News, it means building new satellite classrooms.

“If I want to get to a program that’s only offered on one campus, or I don’t have the classes I need at my Williamsburg campus — if you had to rely on public transportation, you now have to figure out two different bus companies and what their schedules are,” says VPCC President Towuanna Porter Brannon. “If you’re traveling what for me is a 25-minute ride in my car from Newport News to Williamsburg, it could possibly [take] two hours for a student who is relying on public transportation.”

Answering student needs

To respond to these challenges, VPCC opened a trades center in Toano in 2023, offering welding and commercial driver’s license classes, which previously were only offered in Hampton, about 37 miles away.

But building new classrooms and hiring faculty, especially for specialty workforce programs, is not cheap — and community colleges can’t rely on tuition to pay for them.

At $163 per credit hour, Virginia’s community colleges offer the lowest-cost postsecondary education in the state. For most of VPCC’s students, tuition is affordable, Brannon notes, but transportation has been a big roadblock for some students when classes are offered in only one location, especially for hands-on skills training classes.

“The individuals in [the Toano] part of our service region, it’s just probably impossible for them to train at our Hampton campus,” explains Todd Estes, VPCC’s vice president of workforce development and innovation. “We were able to open that facility and offer four different trades training courses in 2023 with the help of a U.S. [Department of Labor] grant, and we also are in the process of opening another facility in southeast Newport News, which is the other end of our service area, and a historically underserved community.”

Elsewhere in the state, colleges have purchased or leased older buildings to convert them into classrooms. Wytheville Community College opened WCC WEST (standing for workforce, education and skills training) in Marion, in a former auto dealership purchased by the Smyth County Economic Development Authority. And next year, Paul D. Camp Community College is set to open a new nursing and allied health facility in the former Tidewater News building in Franklin, a project funded in part by the Sentara Foundation.

In October, Danville, Southside Virginia and Patrick & Henry community colleges signed an agreement to expand building trades programs in Southern Virginia, collaborating with K-12 schools and regional business partners. 

Tidewater Community College, VPCC’s neighbor to the southeast, partners with the Virginia Ship Repair Association on its maritime trades program, says Laura Hanson, associate vice president of corporate solutions at TCC. Students complete training in welding, pipefitting, marine painting and other trades in two or three weeks.

“One of our motivators at TCC … is accessibility for our students, and our current skilled trades academy is in Portsmouth,” Hanson says. “So, when you factor in tunnels, [students] have a hard time with that, especially if you’re unemployed. So, our next goal is to acquire a location in Norfolk. And then the next step, we are renovating a building on our Virginia Beach campus,” which will also host skilled training courses for maritime trades, including offshore wind.

Set to open in June 2025, VPCC’s Newport News satellite center is a response to achieve “geographic accessibility” in a community that “historically has had transportation issues,” Estes says. “That community is not as far as, say, Toano, but if you’re talking about public transportation, it’s still an hour and a half or two hours to get to our Hampton campus, which is just prohibitive for anybody in that area.”

The Newport News facility will offer training for three maritime trades and four construction trades, and its proximity to major employer Newport News Shipbuilding will be a big benefit to students, Estes says. “So, that community will have that direct connection of training within their community, and then employment less than a mile away.”

Newport News Shipbuilding is one of multiple large employers with big expansion plans in Virginia, hoping to hire 19,000 people over the next decade for its nuclear shipbuilding workforce. And that’s just one work sector. Across the state, businesses and other institutions need to fill vacancies in health care, vehicle repair, teaching and child care, as well as in the growing industries of renewable energy, cybersecurity and manufacturing, among other fields. Many employers and state officials are looking to community colleges to train the next generation of these employees.

A heavy responsibility

The community college system is tasked with a large segment of the state’s workforce development strategy. The Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a collaboration between VCCS and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, trains workers for specific job duties at no cost to businesses relocating or expanding in Virginia.

Additionally, the community colleges’ FastForward and G3 programs, created in the past decade, are specifically geared toward people training for in-demand careers, and some courses take less than a month to complete. According to the college system, more than 53,000 students have completed FastForward programs, seeing average wage increases of more than $11,000 within 12 months of receiving their new credentials.

Total enrollment in Virginia’s community colleges has grown for six consecutive semesters, after about 10 years of declining enrollment. Approximately 230,000 students enrolled in 2024.

The state has nearly 250,000 unfilled jobs, according to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration, and a big reason is a dearth of relevant job skills among Virginians. In a February op-ed published by Cardinal News, VCCS Chancellor David Doré and Virginia Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Barry DuVal noted that 3.2 million Virginians lack postsecondary credentials that would qualify some of them for open jobs.

Community college students, many of whom stay in their communities after completion, are often a good fit for these jobs, but Doré and DuVal note that for every dollar spent on students at four-year public universities in Virginia, the state invests only 57 cents per community college student, which impacts how many classes community colleges can offer and leaves institutions pursuing outside funding.

The community college system, Doré says, plans to ask for $90 million in one-time funding from the state for the 2025 fiscal year, going toward facility improvements, equipment and program startup costs. VCCS also expects to request an additional $46.2 million in recurring state funding, which would go toward hiring additional faculty and support staff, as well as other costs associated with expanding educational programs.

Additionally, VCCS is asking the state to increase its investment in nondegree program FastForward by $32.5 million, Doré says. He also hopes legislators will change the funding mechanism in Virginia so that the state automatically allocates more money for higher-cost workforce programs that train in-demand professionals such as nurses, dental hygienists, welders and mechanics.

In the meantime, private and public sector partners are a crucial funding source for new projects and expansions.

“I would love to get more funding, but I can just say that I’m really very impressed by how entrepreneurial our presidents are,” Doré says. “Our presidents are really looking for every opportunity to get investment to build these workforce centers, but … it’s my hope that we’re going to make our case to the General Assembly to get funding for these programs.” 

Reynolds Community College now offers HVAC and other skilled trades classes at its downtown Richmond campus, which is on the city’s bus line. Photo courtesy Reynolds Community College

‘Rob Peter to pay Paul’

As Pando and Brannon note, to fill the state’s open jobs, community college students need training courses available and accessible to them, and that’s not always easy, especially when its costs a lot more to build a welding training workshop than a traditional classroom.

“When we start talking about needing to triple the number of welders, OK, that welding job — that’s a million-dollar lab,” Pando explains. “Finding a welding instructor who is going to take a pay cut to come teach welding is another challenge, and that story is replicated in virtually all of our programs — HVAC instruction, health care programs, our automotive program.”

Asked how her college affords new high-tech facilities, Brannon replies with a laugh, “Begging,” as well as applying for “tons of grants.”

In Virginia, “there’s not a lot of infusion of state funds that help us buy new equipment … to stay competitive with what someone may be experiencing in the workplace,” Brannon adds. “And so, a lot of the ways that we have been getting funding is to ask [for donations] from our local businesses — people who are actually interested in hiring, who have a high demand for those positions.”

Ultimately, Pando says, “the way we do it is through aggressive fundraising. I mean, we’re constantly hat in hand. I had to raise money and do a song and dance and rob Peter to pay Paul to build our automotive tech building, which is modest but beautiful.”

Reynolds has partnered with Richmond city government, Loyalty Toyota and VCU Health, among other institutions, to staff and fund workforce training programs to produce auto mechanics, nurses and truck drivers. The community college’s automotive program includes a specialty master technician course for Toyotas and Lexuses, and students work at Loyalty Toyota service centers around the Richmond area, earning wages while learning on the job.

“Then the other three days are in lab with us,” Pando says, “and those students are pretty much guaranteed a job interview because they’ve been [essentially] interviewing for a few years. It’s an excellent example of an earn-and-learn program that keeps students from having to work a job at McDonald’s.”

Similarly, VPCC has received funding from Newport News Shipbuilding and other partners to help them hire and retain more faculty members, as well as advising the college on what skills employers need.

“I don’t believe we’ve gotten a generous donation from a donor in a while. We’ve been really lucky to have a community of business partners to support us, but we’re all dealing with a very similar, small profit margin,” Brannon says. “So, a lot of what we’ve been doing is trying to advocate at the state level for some sort of parity and funding when it comes to these high-cost programs.”

Freelance writer Courtney Mabeus-Brown contributed to this article.

At A Glance: Virginia Community College System

Founded

The Virginia Technical College System started in 1964 with two schools: Roanoke Technical College and Northern Virginia Technical College. In 1966, it was renamed the Virginia Community College System, and by 1972, it had expanded to all 23 community colleges in existence today. In 1987, the system began offering dual enrollment courses, allowing high school students to earn college credits at community colleges, and in 1996, the system launched online classes. In 2016, the General Assembly created the nation’s first short-term, pay-for-performance workforce training program, now known as FastForward. Today, VCCS has 40 campuses across the state, with approximately 230,000 students enrolled in 2024. 

Enrollment*

Total enrollment: 207,108
Full-time students: 89,338

Student profile**

Male: 42%
Female: 56%
Unknown: 2%
Students of color: 47%

Academic programs

VCCS offers hundreds of programs of study at its 23 colleges statewide. They include two-year associate degrees, one-year certificates and career studies certificates. Some programs offer college credits that are transferrable to four-year colleges and universities, and others offer noncredit programs geared toward training for specific careers, including welding, auto mechanics and HVAC technology.

Teaching Faculty*

Full-time: 2,052
Part-time: 4,168

Tuition**

$163 per credit hour

*2023-24 academic year
**Spring 2024

NNS aims to grow workforce

Virginia’s largest industrial employer, Newport News Shipbuilding, hopes to grow its 26,000-person workforce by 3,000 this year to tackle its backlog of projects.

NNS, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is building modular components for 12 Columbia-class subs and then handing them off to partner General Dynamics’ Connecticut-based Electric Boat, and the two companies have a similar construction-sharing agreement to build Virginia-class subs. Meanwhile, NNS continues overhauling Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and building a Ford-class aircraft carrier expected to be delivered in September 2029.

According to an April report from the Navy, the completion of subs and carriers are now delayed between one to three years. With these setbacks, the Navy has postponed some purchases, which weighs on NNS and other shipbuilders.

In the meantime, though, NNS is focusing on recruiting skilled workers to complete existing Navy contract work worth billions. Xavier Beale, the shipyard’s vice president of human resources, says NNS is focusing its recruitment efforts within a 100-mile radius of Hampton Roads, as far west as Danville, and within the next two years, the company plans to extend its outreach into other states.

It’s more than just a “Help Wanted” sign, Beale says.

To make it easy to apply, the shipyard holds “Walk-in Wednesdays.” Each week, those interested in skilled-trade positions can apply at the Newport News Shipbuilding employment office at 5200 W. Mercury Blvd. in Hampton without an appointment, Beale says. For professional positions ranging from human resources to engineering, the shipyard has 200 college internships and recruits recent graduates from William & Mary and Christopher Newport, Hampton, Norfolk State and Old Dominion universities.

To attract experienced professionals, shipyard recruiters attend industry conferences year-round.

The Hampton Roads Regional Workforce Council plays a significant role with the Regional Maritime Training System, a collaborative initiative focused on filling approximately 11,000 skilled maritime job openings across Hampton Roads, council President and CEO Shawn Avery says.

NNS salaries are competitive, Beale says, although amounts are not made public, and full-time employees receive medical benefits and access to job training, an on-site health center and financial literacy programs. He also points to proximity to the beach and other amenities, as well as an affordable cost of living compared with other Virginia regions, although home prices statewide have risen in recent years.

“We want our employees to have a healthy mind, body and wallet,” he says.  

Subs going Down Under

A 2021 agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States should reap benefits in Hampton Roads soon.

Dubbed AUKUS for the three participating nations, the international agreement calls for the U.S. and the U.K. to share nuclear propulsion technology with Australia, with the Royal Australian Navy set to acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines, including three to five Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s.

That means more business for Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries, the Fortune 500 shipbuilder and parent company of Newport News Shipbuilding, as well as the prospect of Australian shipbuilders setting up shop in Virginia.

“AUKUS is a defense-focused alliance to promote economic prosperity and regional stability in the Indo-Pacific with Australia, which has always been one of our best allies, and the U.K., which has historic ties to Australia,” explains U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia. “Its goal is to develop joint capacity so we can promote stability and defer aggression by China or anyone else who wants to create trouble in the region.”

Kaine, who serves on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, was instrumental in passing provisions to implement and strengthen the agreement, which he says will create jobs in Virginia over the next decade.

AUKUS has two pillars, the first laying out a roadmap for Australia to develop the capacity to operate, build and maintain nuclear subs over the next 30 years. As a signatory to the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Australia currently does not have a well-developed nuclear industry, but the U.S. and the U.K. have shared nuclear propulsion technology for more than 60 years and now share that information with Australia under the new agreement.

Nuclear-powered submarines, being quiet, faster and less detectable, are highly preferred to diesel-powered subs, Kaine says.

The second pillar of AUKUS is more of a carte blanche for collaboration among the three nations in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, hypersonic capabilities and aerospace investments, and that in particular excites Kaine.

“I think there are going to be a lot of opportunities for Virginia companies and universities on this more open-ended ‘pillar two’ side,” he says. “We have a lot of innovators in Virginia. I think there’s a role for Virginia companies that have space assets. There will be a lot of opportunities to innovate in some of these areas like cyber and AI, and there’s going to be some great opportunities for Virginia businesses in that as well.”

What’s happening now

With decades of nuclear shipbuilding experience, HII is already collaborating with leading defense companies in the U.K. to support AUKUS and has engaged with more than 200 Australian companies hoping to qualify to become HII suppliers, according to Michael Lempke, who heads HII’s Australia business efforts.

While the greater goals of AUKUS are defense-oriented, the agreement is “an unprecedented opportunity for the integration and expansion of industrial capacity” across the three nations, explains Lempke. “We are well-positioned to leverage our longstanding expertise in nuclear shipbuilding, workforce development, supply chain analytics, industrial maintenance and sustainment, and other related defense technologies to support our trilateral partners.”

Quality Maritime Surveyors (QMS), based in the suburbs of Adelaide, Australia, is one of the pioneering companies to take the plunge into Virginia’s waters. The company, run by CEO Crystal Kennedy and her husband, Director Shaun Kennedy, specializes in nondestructive testing and inspection of materials used in marine vessels, typically metals.

In mid-April, QMS announced it would start a training school for Australian shipbuilders in Norfolk temporarily, with plans to find a permanent facility in Newport News, so Australian students can learn from Hampton Roads experts. Although the Kennedys opened a U.S. head office in Thomasville, Georgia, in February, this is their first venture in Virginia.

“We put about 10,000 miles on the car in the little bit of time we were here, visiting potential partners and locations,” Crystal Kennedy says. “There were many places chasing us to lay our heads there, but Virginia really, really shone bright for us, especially Hampton Roads with its naval center of excellence.”

AUKUS’ success hinges on preparing a skilled workforce capable of supporting Australia’s long road to sovereign nuclear-powered submarines, Lempke notes, and HII is already partnering with several academic institutions in Australia toward that objective.

QMS is also part of this larger international effort, Crystal Kennedy says, and she hopes the Newport News facility, where hundreds of Australian technicians will be trained each year, will be open and operating by the end of the year.

“As of right now, America has different standards from Australia and the U.K., so we need to train people in all the procedures and requirements as we start to share information and [are] able to test any components in the whole of the trilateral agreement,” she says. “So, there won’t be any sending back parts or not being able to fulfill needs in the supply chain because the technicians coming out of our training facility will already have that knowledge.”  

This story has been updated since publication.

Riding the silver tsunami

As a registered nurse unit coordinator and charge nurse at Sentara CarePlex Hospital in Hampton, Andrea Samuel spends her days communicating with doctors and nurses in addition to administering direct bedside care.

A Miami native, Samuel entered nursing school at age 19 and has worked for Sentara since 1991. She celebrated her 78th birthday in March and has no plans to slow down.

“At this stage in my life, this is where I need to be,” says Samuel, who’s been a registered nurse for more than 50 years and earned her bachelor’s degree when she was 73. “I believe as long as you’re breathing, you should be able to make some contribution, and it just so happens that I’m able to work, my health is pretty good, and so I decided to stay where I am for now.”

Samuel isn’t alone in choosing to work later in life. According to a December 2023 report from Pew Research Center, nearly 20% of Americans 65 and older are still in the workforce, nearly twice the percentage of older workers from 35 years ago. And nearly two-thirds of today’s older workers are working full time, compared with nearly half of older workers in 1987.

Healthier and, if they’re still employed, making more money than previous generations when adjusted for inflation, today’s older Americans have various reasons for working later. For some, it’s simply because they enjoy it. For others, concerns over economic disruptions and rising interest rates have made it a necessity.

A record 4.1 million Americans are turning 65 this year, part of a surge expected to continue for the next five years, according to analysis by Jason Fichtner, chief economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center and executive director of the Retirement Income Institute at the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Roughly 11,200 Americans turn 65 each day, according to estimates from the Retirement Income Institute, and the percentage of people 65 and older has doubled from what it was 35 years ago.

This so-called “silver tsunami” is having a major impact on workplaces as companies contend with the eventual retirements of seasoned employees who are often in senior and management positions.

The graying of our country is also playing out in national politics. President Joe Biden will turn 82 two weeks after this November’s presidential election; his GOP opponent, former President Donald Trump, turns 78 this June. According to a February ABC News/Ipsos poll, 86% of Americans think Biden is too old to serve another term as president; 62% feel the same way about Trump.

As our country ages, what does this mean for its workforce?

“I still need good benefits,” says nuclear pipe welder Johnnie R. Rainey, 74, with Newport News Shipbuilding. “It’s a good company, and I just enjoy coming to work every day.” Photo by Ashley Cowan/Huntington Ingalls Industries

Silver lining

For 52 years, Johnnie R. Rainey has worked as a welder at Newport News Shipbuilding.

“I’ve been blessed,” says the 74-year-old nuclear pipe welder for Huntington Ingalls Industries. “I still need good benefits. It’s a good company, and I just enjoy coming to work every day.”

Rainey says his job at the shipyard allowed him to put his two sons through college, and that he wants to work as long as the quality of his welding holds out. Plus, “if I’m not working, I’ll just have a lot more chores around the house,” he says.

In some ways, Rainey is a throwback to bygone times. Back in 1880, nearly three-quarters of men 65 and older worked. Over time, that share slowly declined, reaching as low as 11% in 1987, according to Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew who has studied America’s older workforce. Ever since 1987, the percentage of older Americans in the workforce has been on the rise for several reasons, including fewer employers offering pensions and the fact that some workplaces are intentionally making changes to accommodate older workers.

Demographers say older Americans will make up a large percentage of the workforce for the foreseeable future. Generally, baby boomers had fewer children than their parents did, and boomers’ children have had fewer children than their parents.

Recent labor shortages also are fueling the demand for older Americans to remain in the workforce.

“Employers are facing a dearth of workers,” Fry explains. “The working-age population is not growing very fast. Not as many immigrants are coming in. The fact that more older Americans are working, that is an important contributor now to labor force growth.”

Employment estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics project that 57% of labor force growth between 2022 and 2032 will come from older working Americans.

“You want to have a growing economy?” Fry asks. “You need more workers.”

Hamilton Lombard, a demographer with the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, says that nearly all of Virginia’s population growth since 2010 has come from its 60 and older population, largely due to birth and death rates and people living longer. During the 2010s, Virginia’s 18 to 59 workforce grew by just 1%, while the share of workers 60 and older rose by 46%.

From 1990 to the present, the share of Virginians in the labor force between ages 65 and 69 rose from 23% to 37%. And between 1990 and 2022, the share of working Virginians in their 80s rose from 2.7% to 4.6%.

“There’s basically no growth happening in the workforce unless you’re talking about people over 60,” Lombard says. “A lot of it is people who are retiring later than they have in the past, which is helping keep the labor force going.”

Other factors also are leading today’s Americans to work longer than previous generations. Jobs have become less physically demanding, contributing to longevity, and remote work has made it easier for older workers to keep punching the virtual clock. Not only are they healthier than prior cohorts of older workers, but they’re better educated, meaning more of them occupy white collar jobs that allow them to work longer.

The changing nature of retirement plans is also a factor. The pensions of yesterday have given way to 401(k)s, individual retirement accounts and other retirement plans without mandatory retirement dates. Changes to Social Security in the 1980s effectively moved the retirement age for full benefits from 65 to 67. And a 2022 survey by Retirement Living found that nearly 70% of boomers were worried that they wouldn’t have enough savings to be able to retire, leading them to work longer. Participants in the survey reported having an average of $680,000 in retirement savings, far from the $1.2 million they said they would need to feel secure for retirement.

These converging trends may also be setting the stage for greater societal pressures. According to U.Va., the average American will be 38.6 years old in 2049, meaning that nearly half of the country will be in their 40s or older. This could pose a problem because when older people drop out of the workforce, it adds pressure on pensions, health care systems and entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

As the share of the population over the age of 65 won’t decline anytime soon, Lombard says, these challenges are here to stay, given that many boomers may live another 30 years. (The population of Americans over age 100 is expected to more than quadruple by 2054, growing from 101,000 now to about 422,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections.)  This is why Lombard takes issue with the term “silver tsunami.”

“It’s accurate in the sense that it’s a huge wave hitting us,” he says, but adds it might be more fitting to think of it “like a glacier. It’s coming and it’s not going to go away. It’s going to be permanently different, because we’re going to have a much larger share of population over 65 than we do now.”

Jean Moses, 76, left retirement to become director of estates and trusts at accounting firm Carmines, Robbins & Co. “I stayed at home for four months and was bored,” she says. Photo by Mark Rhodes

‘Unretiring’

Jean Moses retired once before. She didn’t like it.

“I stayed at home for four months and was bored,” says the 76-year-old director of estates and trusts at Newport News-based accounting firm Carmines, Robbins & Co. “The only thing that came out of my staying home that four months was the knowledge that our 2,600-square-foot house was not big enough for my husband and I to be [together] 24/7.”

After that brief flirtation with retirement in 2014, Moses returned to a workforce that desperately needed her.

Because becoming a CPA requires coursework beyond a bachelor’s degree and passing a difficult exam, and historically has not paid as well as jobs in tech and finance,  fewer young people have been entering the profession in recent decades. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants reported in April 2023 that 75% of working CPAs were expected to retire in the next 15 years. Meanwhile, between 2010 and 2021, the number of CPA exam candidates dropped by 36%. Moses says it’s common for “retired” CPAs to work during tax season.

“There’s a tremendous drain rate in the public accounting industry,” Moses says. “Staff are extremely short, so there’s lots of older people.”

While the accounting industry’s labor shortage is particularly acute, it points to a larger trend. An estimated 56% of retiring baby boomers hold leadership positions. When they retire, that’s a lot of knowledge walking out the door.

With most having worked for at least 39 years, older workers have been called the backbone of the U.S. labor force; many quit their jobs only three times on average over the course of their careers. Compare that with millennials, who have an average tenure of 3.2 years at each job.

According to a March report from T. Rowe Price, the pandemic led to 2.4 million excess retirements in 2020, but by March 2022, about 1.5 million retirees had re-entered the workforce. Roughly half of these “unretired” workers reported feeling the financial need to return, while 45% said they chose to work because of social and emotional benefits.

By 2030, most boomers will have left the workforce, and there is concern whether younger generations will be ready to take over those jobs. A report by management consulting firm Korn Ferry forecasts that by 2030, more than 85 million jobs will go unfilled because there won’t be enough skilled people to take them, a talent shortage that could mean $8.5 trillion in unrealized revenues annually.

Carly Roszkowski, vice president of financial resilience programming at AARP, says it’s important for employers to consider ways to encourage mentorship, transfer knowledge and plan for succession at their companies.

Becky Sawyer, executive vice president and chief people officer for Norfolk-based Sentara Health, says that the health care provider has been examining these issues for some time.

“We’ve put into place mentoring programs,” she says. “We’ve created opportunities for senior colleagues to cultivate younger talent. We’re doing lots of talent calibration that allows us to identify people who are in early career tracks to put them through leadership development.”

Sentara recognizes the value of its older workers, Sawyer says. When the pandemic hit, the health care corporation reached out to all of its retirees to see if they would return to the workplace. Many did.

“Older workers are highly productive,” Sawyer says. “They’ve got valuable perspectives, problem-solving skills, institutional knowledge and skills and abilities that our newer workers … don’t always have.”

“There are huge benefits of older employees remaining active in their professions,” says Bill Crutchfield, 81, CEO of Charlottesville-based electronics retailer Crutchfield. “We have far more institutional knowledge about our organizations than younger employees.” Photo courtesy Crutchfield Corp.

No expiration date

At 81, William G. “Bill” Crutchfield Jr., founder and CEO of Charlottesville-based electronics retailer Crutchfield Corp., regularly works eight to nine hours each weekday and several hours on weekends.

“Retiring at a fixed age like 65 is a terrible myth,” Crutchfield says. “I will continue to work as long as my physical and cognitive health remains strong, and as long as I am making positive contributions to my company. There are huge benefits of older employees remaining active in their professions. We have far more institutional knowledge about our organizations than younger employees.” 

Instead of retirement, Crutchfield’s company tries to move older employees to part-time schedules to give them flexibility while still being able to access their expertise and labor.

“We encourage folks to stay and work as long as they can,” says Chris Lilley, Crutchfield’s chief human resource officer. “In our IT department, that’s really the place where the brain drain hits the hardest. We try to make sure that we’re promoting a ton of succession, and we’re moving people through the ranks and giving them opportunities.”

The company recently brought back three former copywriters to work part time after an employee went out on emergency leave. Two of the three returning workers are in their 60s.

“When we have an opportunity and we have work for [older workers] to do, we’ll take them back,” Lilley says.

Flexibility in the workplace, such as allowing older employees to transition to part-time work, is one way employers can keep older workers engaged. Career breaks and sabbaticals can also help prolong careers.

Erika Payne, senior employment program manager for Central Virginia nonprofit Senior Connections, says she constantly fields calls from employers seeking older workers. Often these employers are adult day centers, assisted living facilities, child care facilities and medical facilities that need drivers to deliver prescriptions.

On occasion, Payne has run into age discrimination from employers, mentioning one particular grocery chain that seems to ignore résumés submitted from older workers.

“There are simple things that we can do in the workforce to encourage older workers to stay in the workforce,” Payne says. “If we change our mindset, offer some small tweaks or accommodations, [we can] bring those individuals that are wanting work into the job market.”

Carolyn Clements, 71, retired from a career in banking and finance, but decided to return to work part time as Ball Office Products’ business development manager. Photo by Caroline Martin Bookbinder

For Chesterfield County resident Carolyn Clements, the realization she needed to return to the workforce came to her while vacuuming her attic.

In 2012, after decades of working in banking and finance, including for SunTrust, Bank of America and NationsBank, Clements decided to retire. A few months into her retirement, while vacuuming, she received a call from Melissa Ball, owner of Ball Office Products in Henrico County. Clements’ attic cleaning served as evidence that she had run out of things to do.

“[Ball] said, ‘Carolyn, people don’t vacuum their attic,’” Clements recalls. “My comment was, ‘That may be the reason why I was having such a hard time finding a place to plug that thing in.’”

The following January, Clements started a management job at Ball; now she’s the company’s part-time business development manager.

Clements wants to work as long as possible.

“I don’t have an expiration date. I’ve looked on my wrists. I’ve looked on my ankles. I went to my dermatologist and had her check me out,” says the 71-year-old. “As long as I can continue to learn, and as long as my mind is sound and my body is functioning, I want to keep working.

“I feel like I’m giving back now, and that’s a really good feeling.”  

Newport News Shipbuilding expands to Norfolk

With the largest workload it’s had in four decades, Newport News Shipbuilding has had to get creative about how to use the limited footprint at its shipyard in Newport News.

So when an opportunity to set up a second campus not far away — on the other side of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, in Norfolk — popped up, the wheels started turning.

The shipyard, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries that employs about 25,000 people, has started production at a satellite campus at Fairwinds Landing in Norfolk to support its main shipyard.

The Norfolk campus of NNS will span eight acres at Fairwinds Landing, a new maritime operations and logistics hub supporting Hampton Roads’ offshore wind, defense and transportation industries. Fairwinds Landing is located at Lambert’s Points Docks across from Portsmouth Marine Terminal and is a joint venture between The Miller Group, Balicore Construction and Fairlead Integrated. Norfolk Southern owns the property.

“HII’s continued investment in our community is a testament of the strength of our local workforce,” Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander said during an event at Fairwinds Landing on Monday to celebrate the satellite’s opening.

For the past few months, about 20 shipyard workers have been constructing steel panels that will make up units on the future USS Enterprise, the third ship in the Navy’s Gerald R. Ford class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

By the end of the year, the campus expects to have 80 employees, and next year it will grow to 150, said Les Smith, vice president of the Enterprise and Doris Miller aircraft carrier programs. Doris Miller is the Navy’s fourth ship in its Ford class. The Enterprise and Doris Miller are under construction at the shipyard, which is the country’s only builder of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

So far, Newport News Shipbuilding has invested about $25 million, but NNS is going to work with the Navy to look for opportunities for future expansion. That could be upwards of $100 million over a five-year period, Smith said.

Though panels for the Enterprise will be produced and stored at Fairwinds Landing, the satellite campus will help free up space at the shipyard’s main campus to support other programs, such as nuclear-powered submarine production. Shipyard executives say they have not ruled out the idea of expanding the campus at Fairwinds Landing.

Workers demonstrated moving one of the panels Monday at Fairwinds Landing. It weighs 8,200 pounds and is 3/8 of an inch thick.

It’s the first time NNS has set up a satellite campus of this kind.

“There is a great need right now,” Smith said. “We’ve got more work than we’ve had over the last four decades … we’ve got 20 ships and boats at the shipyard right now in some form, being built or repaired. So the more that we can expand and augment our footprint frees up our footprint there for other work to be done. So, this is innovation. This is an opportunity for us to think outside the transactional box that we have done in the past and s that’s why we’re starting here …We’re two months into this process now.”

Smith noted that the shipyard already works with about 70 suppliers based in Norfolk and has spent upwards of $309 million in the city during the past five years.

“The new Norfolk campus will help us to grow our business and positively impact Hampton Roads,” he said.

Fairwinds Landing is making waves in its own right, and the addition of NNS is bolstering its early success.

Last week, Norfolk’s Economic Development Authority learned it will receive $39.2 million in federal funding to assist in transforming the property into an offshore wind logistics facility.

The funding was awarded through the Port Infrastructure Development Program of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The EDA jointly submitted the application. The funding will assist in financing the restoration of the aging waterfront infrastructure.

Fairwinds Landing in June broke ground on its Monitoring and Coordination Center, an offshore wind energy monitoring and coordination facility occupying 7.5 acres. The MCC will include two buildings — a 31,167-square-foot operations and maintenance center and a 17,280-square-foot warehouse. The operations center will be used by Dominion Energy to monitor maritime activities, analyze asset performance, provide strategic planning and ensure regulatory compliance around the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project under development off the coast of Virginia Beach.

It has deep-water access to the Elizabeth River and is across from Portsmouth Marine Terminal. Expected to be completed in 2025, the MCC is expected to support more than 200 construction and engineering jobs. Dominion Energy has 45 shore-based personnel there and more than 60 vessel-based personnel who will be deployed to the offshore wind farm, which is expected to start construction in May and wrap up in 2026.

Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries, the parent company of Newport News Shipbuilding, is the largest industrial employer in Virginia and the nation’s largest military shipbuilder. The Fortune 500 company employs more than 44,000 workers. Newport News Shipbuilding plans to expand its workforce to 28,000 during the next decade.

NNS funding helps launch ODU engineering program

Newport News Shipbuilding will be the lead industry sponsor of Old Dominion University’s program to graduate more engineers, the two organizations announced Tuesday.

NNS, a division of Newport News-based Fortune 500 military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries, will make a five-year financial commitment to the Monarch Accelerator Program to Engineering (MAP-to-E), ODU’s program to increase its number of full-time engineering and engineering technology majors and graduates,  particularly from underrepresented and underserved communities in Hampton Roads, enrolled in the public university. The university declined to provide the amount of the gift, citing NNS company policy.

The donation allows the university to launch MAP-to-E in fall 2024, according to a statement from Kenneth Fridley, dean of the Batten College of Engineering and Technology and interim vice president for research. After five years, ODU can request another five-year gift to support the program and potentially expand it.

NNS says it plans to hire more than 300 entry-level engineers in the next 12 months, so the program will ultimately benefit the shipbuilder. Currently, ODU graduates comprise more than 22% of its engineering workforce.

“As we grow our already strong partnership with Old Dominion University, the MAP-to-E program is a logical extension of that work,” Dave Bolcar, NNS vice president of engineering and design, said in a statement. “We’re designing and building the highest-quality aircraft carriers and submarines for the U.S. Navy at NNS, and we can’t wait to welcome more ODU students to that important national security mission.”

MAP-to-E works as an “academic redshirt program” for students who need more math education before they major in engineering. According to Fridley, MAP-to-E students will take two math classes before taking calculus, which is part of the engineering major.

“MAP-to-E will provide academic support, career preparation for early internship and co-op opportunities, and direct financial support for these students,” Fridley said. “Therefore, the MAP-to-E program aims to promote student success and development while also supporting students so that they do not accrue additional debt during their first year. Now to the redshirting analogy:  The MAP-to-E program is designed to welcome these students onto the ‘team’ while recognizing they need a little more ‘coaching’ to have them ready to succeed in engineering.”

The program will be cohort-based, and ODU’s initial goal is up to 20 students in the first cohort, according to Fridley.

“These are largely talented students with unrealized potential who have the ability, aptitude and desire to be successful in engineering or engineering technology but have not had the opportunity to take the necessary math and science classes while in high school,” Fridley said in a statement.

NNS has previously donated funds to ODU, partnering with the school in 2019 to establish the NNS Scholars program. Between 10 and 20 ODU junior, senior and graduate students majoring in programs related to engineering analytics, information technology and computer sciences receive scholarships of up to $5,000 annually. For the first five years, a yearly donation from NNS funded the scholarships, but beginning in 2024, an HII-endowed fund will become the source of funding.

Newport News-based HII is the nation’s largest military shipbuilder and Virginia’s largest industrial employer, with approximately 43,000 employees. Newport News Shipbuilding is the United States’ only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier manufacturer.

Located in Norfolk, ODU is a four-year public university with an R1 ranking. It has more than 23,000 students.

Newport News Shipbuilding names trades VP

Newport News Shipbuilding has promoted a third-generation shipbuilder to vice president of trades.

David Horne has served since 2022 as senior director of trades. His promotion comes following a split of the shipbuilder’s human resources and administration department and trades department into two standalone groups. Xavier Beale, who held both roles, will continue as vice president of human resources and administration.

“Each part of this organization is critical to our success,” shipyard President Jennifer Boykin said in a statement. “Our human resources and administration team must focus on hiring, retention and development of employees, while the trades team must focus on safely and efficiently executing our work volume. Based on these changing dynamics, I am restructuring these teams back into standalone organizations to reflect the scope of responsibility and leadership bandwidth required for each.”

Horne began his shipbuilding career in 1983 as a welder prior to entering the Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School as a pipefitter. He has also worked at the shipbuilder as a production department refueling manager, refueling trade superintendent, trade director and program trade director. Horne is a 1989 honors graduate of the Apprentice School and has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Christopher Newport University and a master’s degree in engineering management from Florida Institute of Technology.

Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries is the nation’s largest military shipbuilder. The Fortune 500 company employs more than 44,000 workers and is Virginia’s largest industrial employer. Its Newport News Shipbuilding division is the United States’ only manufacturer of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

Propelling forward

A massive building is rising on the northernmost point of Newport News Shipbuilding on the James River, physical evidence of the shipyard’s ambitious plan to build the Navy’s next generation of Virginia-class submarines as well as components for a dozen Columbia-class boats.

Not as visible, but just as important as the new Multi-Class Submarine Production Facility, is the regional effort to ensure that the shipbuilder, the state’s largest industrial employer and a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, has the manpower it needs to meet the Navy’s aggressive timeline to build two Virginia-class boats annually, as well as manufacture six modular components for every Columbia-class submarine.

It’s a daunting task, given delays that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, when no Virginia-class submarines were delivered to the Navy. Record low unemployment across the state has contributed to the challenge to staff production lines.

“We’re laser-focused,” says Xavier Beale, Newport News Shipbuilding’s vice president of human resources. “We’re committed to delivering on that backlog [of work] to our customers.”

With Newport News Shipbuilding responsible for building two submarines in the current block of the Virginia class and up to eight of the next iteration, while also constructing components for the Columbia class, as well as ongoing construction of two Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers and supporting refurbishment of the carrier USS John C. Stennis, the company has ramped up recruitment and training efforts. It’s working with the Navy, the Hampton Roads Workforce Council, local high schools and community and state colleges to grow its workforce.

Newport News Shipbuilding plans to expand its workforce to 28,000 — up from 25,000 — during the next decade, but with a rash of retirements expected in coming years, as well as normal attrition, the shipyard believes it must hire about 21,000 workers in the next decade, shipyard spokesperson Todd Corillo says. That will include 19,000 skilled trades workers like welders, pipe fitters, electricians and machinists, plus a few thousand professionals, such as program managers, engineers, recruiters and human resources experts.

The goal is to train a new generation of shipyard workers, taking a “holistic” approach to ensure that the company doesn’t remove workers from one project to meet the needs of another, Beale says.

Pandemic delays

Shipbuilding and repair generated an estimated $6.4 billion economic impact in Hampton Roads in 2022, plus $4.3 billion in employee earnings and benefits, according to the Virginia Ship Repair Association, which represents more than 300 area businesses.

With the region’s unemployment rate at 3.1% and other planned regional projects underway, including Dominion Energy’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, the competition for recruiting and hiring workers is formidable.

Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics’ Connecticut-based Electric Boat have a construction-sharing agreement to build much of the Virginia class and have alternated construction of the submarines. As of June 2022, the two shipyards have delivered 21 of the boats to the Navy, with its next submarine, the USS Hyman G. Rickover, expected to be commissioned Oct. 14. That’s fewer than expected, with the pandemic and related workforce and supply chain issues delaying Newport News Shipbuilding’s construction and delivery of the future USS New Jersey and slowing the average delivery schedule to
1.2 boats annually during the past five years.

In June, the Government Accountability Office noted that the builders would be hard-pressed to meet the two-boat-a-year timeline, given a 25% staffing shortage in September 2022 and a new design for the next-generation Block V boats that could prolong construction time by more than two years.

But HII officials said in February that its current Virginia-class and Columbia-class production lines were fully staffed, with a plan to deliver seven of 10 Block IV boats before moving on to the new version, Block V, which will be 83 feet longer than its predecessor and more advanced.

To meet demand, Newport News Shipbuilding fast-tracked construction of its Multi-Class Submarine Production Facility, breaking ground in February, with expected completion in 2024. Two more submarine construction support facilities will be built nearby, with completion expected in 2025. The facilities are part of a nine-year, $1.9 billion infrastructure investment at the shipyard that will improve working conditions for those constructing submarine components.

“These covered facilities improve the work environment for our employees and also help us with construction as far as the technologies that we’re using within them,” Beale says.

‘Great careers’

With $11 million in grants from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act, along with $2.5 million in state grants, the Hampton Roads Workforce Council is spearheading a regional effort to hire recruiters to attract talent and establish skilled-trades training programs to increase the shipbuilding workforce, says Shawn Avery, the organization’s president and CEO. Among the programs set for development or expansion is Tidewater Community College’s skilled training program, which will grow to increase its class size and offerings, and Paul D. Camp Community College, which plans to build a Workforce Trades and Innovation Center in Suffolk to house the school’s maritime and skilled-trades training programs.

In May, 20 graduates from a welding program at Hampton’s New Horizons Regional Education Center, a public vocational and tech high school with nine locations throughout the state, accepted full-time jobs at Newport News Shipbuilding and another dozen signed on to attend The Apprentice School, the company’s vocational school.

The Workforce Council has helped identify specific needs for specialized tradespeople over the next five years and is working with local community colleges as well as the New Horizons program to ensure that training spots are available, Avery says.

Recruiters from the Workforce Council and the shipyard also are fanning out to under-resourced and underserved communities to talk about job opportunities at the shipyard. Beale returned to his high school in Surry County to talk with students and parents about the advantages of working for Newport News Shipbuilding, including hands-on training, better-than-average starting wages, on-site health care and signing and relocation bonuses.

“We talk about building ships here, but I really want to focus on the fact that we build more than great ships,” Beale says. “We build great careers. We build great citizens of our community here.” 

Federal Contractors | Technology 2023: JENNIFER BOYKIN

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in marine engineering from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and a master’s in engineering management from George Washington University, Boykin began her career at Newport News Shipbuilding in 1987 in the nuclear engineering division, moving up the ranks, before becoming president in 2017. She’s the first woman to lead the state’s top industrial employer, with about 25,000 workers. A division of Fortune 500 military contractor Huntington Ingalls Industries, NNS generates approximately $4 billion in annual revenue.

NNS is the sole manufacturer of nuclear-powered Ford-class aircraft carriers for the Navy, and it also is building 10 submarines for the service under a $22.2 billion deal that was the military branch’s largest-ever shipbuilding contract, under which NNS is set to receive $9.8 billion.

In May, Boykin said in an interview with USNI News that a delay in constructing Virginia-class nuclear attack boats is primarily due to a shortage of parts and materials, and that the shipyard is doing well in terms of workforce.

A staunch believer in empowering women and girls, Boykin sits on the board of Old Dominion University’s Women’s Initiative Network.

NNS announces senior leadership changes

Newport News Shipbuilding is promoting three employees to its senior leadership team, as well as restructuring programs as the company plans for upcoming retirements.

Rob Check will become vice president of in-service aircraft carrier programs; Thomasina Wright will assume the role of vice president of fleet support programs, and Les Smith will take over as vice president of the Enterprise and Doris Miller aircraft carrier programs, NNS announced Wednesday. The shipbuilder is a division of Newport News-based Fortune 500 contractor Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc.

Check replaces Todd West, who is retiring as vice president of the in-service aircraft carrier program. Check has previously worked in the submarine and aircraft carrier construction programs and most recently served as program director for the Virginia-class submarine program. Check has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from West Virginia University.

Wright will become vice president of fleet support programs, succeeding Gary Fuller, who is also retiring. Wright most recently served as program director for the USS John C. Stennis vessel’s refueling and complex overhaul. Wright is a graduate of Newport News Shipbuilding’s Apprentice School and has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Old Dominion University and an MBA from William & Mary.

Smith has experience with the Virginia-class submarine and Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier programs and most recently served as program director for the future aircraft carriers Enterprise and Doris Miller. He has a bachelor’s degree in building construction from Virginia Tech.

Shipyard President Jennifer Boykin also on Wednesday announced additional senior leadership team changes as part of a restructuring resulting from the upcoming retirement of Ron Murray, the shipbuilder’s vice president of quality. Julia Jones, vice president of manufacturing, will succeed Murray as vice president of quality, and Brian Fields, who is currently vice president of the Enterprise and Doris Miller aircraft carrier programs, will take over as vice president of manufacturing.

“To fill these critical roles, I am selecting leaders who embody the values of learning and continuous improvement and are committed to strengthening our operating system,” Boykin said in a statement. “Purposeful development of our leadership pipeline has always been core to NNS, and these leaders reflect this commitment.”

The promotions will take effect July 1.

“These three leaders began their careers in the 1980s, when shipbuilding and hiring was at an all-time high,” Boykin said, referring to the impending retirements of Fuller, West and Murray. “Their 113 years of combined shipyard experiences, knowledge and dedication leave a lasting impact on our team and business.

Newport News Shipbuilding is the nation’s largest builder of military ships and one of only two builders of nuclear submarines in the United States.