While Americans have mourned the loss of good -paid manufacturing jobs, defense contractors are struggling to fill efficient positions that are still present in the main and are important to protect the country.
Defense contractors, community colleges and universities and US Navy announced an alliance on Friday to accelerate workforce training to help prepare thousands of workers for jobs in Shipbuilder Bath Iron Works, which creates warships; The government -owned Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which eliminates nuclear submarines; And Prat and Whitney, which creates a jet engine for the F -35 fighter.
Chairman of Bath Iron Works Charles Krugh said that a highly skilled workforce is important for the mission of the shipyard and the Main Defense Industry Alliance “makes a harmonious and durable approach to meet this important demand.”
The push comes when the US defense contractors work to change their fight against the Russian invaders and to change the sages sent to Ukraine to keep pace with the Chinese Navy, which has crossed the American fleet in shape. At the same time, North Korea is developing long -range missiles and the war of Israel on Hamas also serves as a flashpoint in the Middle East.
Navy officials, teachers, governors and members of the Men’s Congress delegation were handed over to the launch of the alliance on Friday, which received a donation of $ 5 million from the Navy submarine industrial base program to help the initiative, expanding programs, expanding programs and creating a state -of -the -art welding lab at York County Community College.
The Main Defense Industry Alliance Mirror tried to help Mirrors to achieve the skills for defense production jobs in other parts of the country. But the problem is particularly acute in the main.
The number of high school graduates in the main has declined from 18,000 to a decade ago, which is up to a level of about 11,500 today, and workers are retiring in large numbers in the state with the oldest population of the country. The epidemic either did not help, either contributed to job vacancies as the state’s unemployment has submerged the lowest level in 50 years.
But Alliance believes that there are workers, some of whom left the task force completely, immigrants who have been coming in recent years and others who are looking for changes in career.
“We are looking to reach the task force and the population of the main to try to ensure that we do not provide any obstacle to get the jobs that are very strict for our defense industry, and clearly for all industries in the main,” David Degle, President of the Main Community College System, told reporters at the Directorate of Yorky County Community College.
Bath Iron Works has estimated the need to hire 3,500 employees by 2026, discovered as a high retention rate of workers who have passed through a training program. Prat and Whitney estimated 1,400 workers to be hired and the Partsmouth Naval Shipyard also estimates to hire about 2,700 employees in the next five years.
All said, the defense sector currently employs more than 20,000 people in more than 150 companies in the main, Alliance said.
The goal of the coalition is to build a feeder system to attract young workers, to expand and expand the training to the unemployed and defense industry to expand and expand training and invest in training for new skills.
Jobs pay well. Bath Iron works an entry-tier traditionalist earnings around $ 50,000, which, according to the US census, is about $ 10,000 more than the overall average wage in the main.