Va. looks to produce more ‘middle-skilled’ workers
When Tennessee-based Microporous officials visited Virginia in 2022 to scout locations for a new plant, Danville leaders took them to local public schools. That might seem like an unusual field trip, but choosing the right site for a manufacturing operation is not as simple as picking a plot of land anymore, says Julie Brown, vice […]
Va. community colleges and businesses help fill in-demand jobs
Virginia had about 295,000 unfilled jobs as of November 2024, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report released in January, but it’s not as simple as sending people to job interviews to fill these positions. Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration notes that these are good jobs for skilled workers, but there are long-term labor shortages […]
Workforce and entrepreneur development
The Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding Founded in 1919, The Apprentice School in Newport News has graduated more than 11,000 apprentices over its long history. Part of Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division, it offers apprenticeship programs and Associate of Applied Science degrees in 19 shipbuilding disciplines and eight optional advanced programs of [&hel[...]
In the pipeline
As Andre Marshall was speaking to a reporter about cybersecurity in late July, one of the biggest technology failures in recent memory was unfolding in real time. A worldwide Microsoft Windows outage on July 19 brought airports, banks, subways — and even the Marshall household — to a standstill. George Mason University’s vice president for […]
Va. ranked No. 1 in customized workforce training by Business Facilities
The Virginia Talent Accelerator Program has taken the top spot in site selection industry publication Business Facilities’ ranking of states’ customized workforce training for the second year in a row. Business Facilities is a magazine geared toward corporate site selectors and site selection consultants. The publication released on Monday the top states for a few […]
New South Boston program trains clinical medical assistants
Pretty much as soon as she heard about it, Ravin Townes enrolled in the new certified clinical medical assistant training program, which launched in March through a collaboration between Danville Community College and South Boston’s Southern Virginia Higher Education Center (SVHEC). Currently employed as a certified nursing assistant, Townes, 30, wants to move into a […]
Watercourse of study
Starting this fall, Old Dominion University students will have a new interdisciplinary school dedicated to maritime work, logistics and supply chain management — an upgrade from an earlier program offered through the Strome College of Business. In September 2023, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) approved ODU’s School of Supply Chain, Logistics, […]
Submarine sandwich
Hiring and retaining workers remains a challenge everywhere, but it’s particularly urgent in the submarine-building industry. The Navy is aiming to transform its submarine fleet, with the first nuclear-powered Columbia-class sub primed to arrive in 2028, along with production of more Virginia-class vessels. That’s bringing plenty of work to Newport News Shipbuilding — which is […]
Chips ahoy
Finally, the world is catching up with Virginia Tech’s semiconductor curriculum. Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering started a chip-scale integration major in 2016, but it wasn’t exactly high profile when Sheena Deivasigamani arrived at Virginia Tech as a first-year engineering student in 2019. Chip-scale integration wasn’t even on Deivasigamani’s radar. Tech was then an academic [&he[...]
Google investing $1B in Va. data center campuses
Google is investing $1 billion in expanding its Virginia data center campuses this year and is launching a $75 million Google.org AI Opportunity Fund, one of Google’s top executives and Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday at Google’s Reston office. “Today is a great day. We’ve got a $1 billion investment in the commonwealth that we’re […]
Mining for talent
At the end of October, United Way of Southwest Virginia broke ground on its $25 million project to convert a former Kmart store in Abingdon into a regional workforce development and child care hub. It’s an attempt to address the region’s workforce shortage, one of the most pressing issues among area employers. “There’s a lot […]
Framatome revamps nuclear training pipeline
A French nuclear power company with its United States headquarters in Lynchburg is ramping up hiring to meet a growing global need for clean, low-carbon energy. Framatome North America is recruiting for 200 positions in the U.S, about 125 of which are in Lynchburg, and it anticipates a “significant” number of additional openings in coming […]