Forging ahead

In January, the Navy’s Danville-based National Training Center opened at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, providing a new, state-of-the-art home for the sea service’s Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing program.

A public-private partnership between IALR, Danville Community College, the Navy, the Department of Defense and industry stakeholders, ATDM has produced more than 875 graduates since it started in 2021, with another 90 slated to finish in May. As the program settles into its new home, with plans to expand to as many as 1,000 students annually, its graduates are already having a large impact in Virginia. More than 200 have found work in the state, with about 30 more expected in coming months.

They’re also coming at a critical time in Virginia, helping fill gaps in maritime manufacturing jobs, including in Navy shipbuilding and repair, as well as the state’s growing offshore wind industry, led by Dominion Energy’s $10.7 billion, 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.

Hampton Roads Workforce Council President and CEO Shawn Avery projects that 40,000 skilled workers will be needed during the next six years to support the needs of the region’s maritime and offshore wind industries, the skills for which, including welding, computer numerical control machining and pipefitting, overlap by about 90%. Multiple efforts are underway to build a regional workforce pipeline.

In November 2023, the workforce council received a $14 million U.S. Department of Defense grant to boost regional workforce training for the defense industrial base. That’s on top of an $11 million grant in 2022 from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to develop a maritime talent pipeline known as the Regional Maritime Training System, or RMTS.

The RMTS initiative includes partnerships with 30 schools, colleges and training programs to train future maritime workers in a variety of necessary skills, and it currently works directly with about 20 companies that make up most of the region’s jobs in shipbuilding and repair, Avery explains.
As of January, nearly 1,700 people have enrolled in maritime training programs through RMTS, and at least 850 graduates are now employed in maritime jobs, Avery says.

With Hampton Roads now “saturated” with information about RMTS, Avery says the council is considering expanding recruitment into Richmond, Petersburg and the Northern Neck, as well as targeting the large military community in Northern Virginia and reaching deeper into North Carolina, to Wilmington.

“Those are similar economies, and maybe there’s an individual that may be willing to move up this way,” Avery says.

The workforce council is also expanding programming with the help of additional federal grants, including $5 million in 2023 to build out a regional infrastructure workforce that is targeting training 350 people through 2028. Last year, the council received a $6 million federal grant to develop an apprenticeship hub, which will include a focus on maritime skills, as well as other industries.

Efforts are also expanding within area schools and community colleges. In September 2024, an expanded Maritime Welding Training Lab opened at Virginia Beach City Public Schools’ Technical and Career Education Center, doubling its capacity to 80 students.

Also in September 2024, Tidewater Community College expanded its Portsmouth-based skilled trades academy, adding 12,000 square feet to boost accelerated training in programs including maritime trades and wind turbine technology. TCC has trained nearly 2,400 students since opening its marine training program six years ago, and plans are underway to expand training in Virginia Beach and Norfolk. New programming in maritime and offshore wind planned for Virginia Beach in 2026 could train up to 315 students annually, says Laura Hanson, TCC’s associate vice president for workforce solutions.

In Suffolk, Paul D. Camp Community College is transforming a former grocery store into a maritime manufacturing skills training facility that is expected to open by June. The college also partnered with Newport News Shipbuilding on the Isle Maritime Trades Academy, a state-funded lab school, expected to open in fall 2025, that will offer marine welding and marine electrical industry credentials for area high schoolers.

Virginia Peninsula Community College is also building a 16,000-square-foot facility in Newport News to add classes in welding, marine electrical skills and structural fitting, boosting its ability to train about 380 students annually in maritime-specific work, says Todd Estes, VPCC’s vice president of workforce development and innovation. The campus is scheduled to open this fall.

In Danville, the ATDM’s new building has been a game changer for the program, which is eyeing adding additional shifts in additive manufacturing, non-destructive testing and quality assurance, says Jason Wells, IALR’s executive vice president for manufacturing advancement. The 16-week training program also offers welding and CNC training and has attracted students from 45 states, as well as Guam, Puerto Rico and Australia, according to the Navy.

“We’re able to now start to really define, even for the staff, not just students, but define our own culture by having our own defined space,” Wells says. “It’s home.”