The Challenge
Hampton Roads, Virginia, boasts a long and reputable history of shipbuilding and maritime activities. It is home to multiple world-renowned shipyards, including Newport News Shipbuilding, the U.S.’s largest shipbuilder, and is the only designer, builder, and refueler of aircraft carriers for the U.S. Navy.
As the fastest-growing port on the East Coast, Hampton Roads faces a significant challenge: the supply of maritime industry workers is falling short of both present and future demand. Employers need to fill over 11,000 jobs in critical trade skill areas; regional gains in employment have outpaced growth in the working-age population, further exacerbating the worker shortage. Hampton Roads is currently operating at or beyond full employment, making it increasingly difficult for employers to find and retain workers, while also driving up wage pressures. The labor supply gaps are most pronounced for entry-level and middle-skill positions, with industries struggling to find qualified candidates despite a significant increase in bachelor's degree graduates over the past decade.
- 11,000+Open jobs in critical trade skill areas
The Solution
The Hampton Roads Workforce Council sought a proven playbook to address its needs and arrived at Talent Pipeline Management® (TPM). Implementation of the TPM® strategies offered the opportunity to collaborate with maritime employers and achieve the following goals:
- Increase awareness regarding career opportunities within the maritime industry.
- Develop effective communication channels with community partners to expand the maritime pipeline.
- Build a customized, targeted talent pipeline for the entire industry.
Talent Alignment Strategy
In 2019, the Hampton Roads Workforce Council, in collaboration with the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, commissioned a regional workforce study: the Talent Alignment Strategy. The goal was to understand education and workforce development across the region and consequently, create an implementation plan to solve the greatest challenges.
This study offered significant revelations:
- The growing labor shortage was due to various economic factors across industries, including full-time employment numbers and competition for high-demand occupations.
- Labor supply gaps were largest for entry-level and middle-skill positions due to a decline in certificate and associate degree attainment in recent years.
These challenges were acutely felt in the maritime industry. Despite its significant economic contributions, maritime employers struggled to fill critical roles such as sheet metal and HVAC technicians, welders, shipbuilders, pipefitters, and machinists. The data from the study led to actionable steps to solve this workforce challenge including the expansion of the Talent Development program and the securing of maritime-focused grants from GO Virginia, the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), the Virginia General Assembly, and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Jackie Rondeau from the Workforce Council has led these key programmatic efforts, integrating TPM principles from the start.
“The shipbuilding and ship repair companies in our collaborative represent most of the industry here,” said Jackie Rondeau, director of employer engagement, Hampton Roads Workforce Council. “TPM has brought them together and used data to clarify and communicate their challenges. They are now developing their voice and finding power in working together to solve problems.”
Key Programs
- The HR STRONG PILOT Program: In March 2022, the Virginia General Assembly allocated $1.5 million to launch the HR STRONG PILOT program. This initiative offers free Maritime Trade Training (MTT) and a nine-week marine welding curriculum at community colleges, fully preparing students for maritime careers. It also provides job readiness services, such as resume workshops and employer engagement activities, including hiring events. The program has successfully increased the number of skilled workers in the maritime industry, securing additional funding in July 2023 to expand its reach. In its first year, 134 people completed training, earning a total of 405 credentials. Of these participants, 101 gained employment with an average hourly wage of $21.24.
- Women in Apprenticeship and Non-traditional Occupations (WANTO): This program offers skills training for women in underrepresented industries, including maritime. It aims to create opportunities for women to earn family-sustaining wages and remove employment barriers by providing childcare stipends and transportation during training. The initial grant focused on the maritime industry, exceeding the Workforce Council’s enrollment goal by 20%, with 71% of participants securing employment in the target industry.
- Regional Maritime Training System (RMTS): In September 2022, the Workforce Council received an $11 million grant from the EDA to lead the creation and implementation of the RMTS in Hampton Roads. The RMTS is a collaboration between businesses, training providers, educational institutions, and community organizations, aimed at expanding the area’s maritime industry talent pipeline. It directly serves the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Industrial Base and supports the broader maritime business community. This program has successfully trained and placed individuals in high-demand maritime jobs such as welding, pipefitting, and marine electrical work. According to the Workforce Council, 1,404 participants have been enrolled in training, 1,108 have completed it, and 555 have already reported employment. This data is a culmination of multiple grants, including the EDA Good Jobs Challenge grant, Virginia Growth and Opportunity (GO Virginia) HR STRONG, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Community Projects, and Norfolk Strong (the first year of HR STRONG is represented above).
Outcomes
- Increased Enrollment: The training programs have seen a significant increase in enrollment, with many participants successfully transitioning into maritime careers.
- Economic Impact: The collaborative’s efforts have contributed to the local economy by filling maritime jobs, increasing job seekers’ pay and by supporting local businesses.
- Enhanced Collaboration: The initiative has strengthened and, in many cases, created partnerships between educational institutions, businesses, and community organizations. The goal is a robust network for workforce development within the maritime industry.
- Community Engagement: The Workforce Council has organized and supported numerous events and activities to help raise awareness and interest in the maritime sector such as industry tours, training tours, career fairs, school and community outreach, maritime festivals, and sponsoring NASCAR and professional hockey games.
Lessons Learned
The Workforce Council’s initiatives underscored the importance of using real-time data to inform decisions and strategies. For example, the Workforce Council recently met with the Virginia Office of Education Economics to discuss labor market information regarding the maritime industry. This discussion revealed that state-provided data was not reflective of the industry’s supply and demand and was hindering the state’s ability to solve this issue.
“Hampton Roads Workforce Council has been good at listening and then pulling together various industries,” said Bill Docalovich, program director, Naval Shipbuilding College for Newport News Shipbuilding’s parent company, Huntington Ingalls Industries. “When you bring industries together, even though they're in the same cluster, it will sometimes create boundaries, and that takes some trust and some time to drop. And we've been able to, in the last couple of years, get through that and go from just sharing challenges to co-development of solutions."
Collaboration with various stakeholders and employers has proven crucial for driving change. Without the various partners collaborating with one another, the Workforce Council would not have seen the results that they did. Along the way, they have gained a deep appreciation of the power of data to create change in addition to how important it is to let industry lead. There is still work to do in this area and Hampton Roads Workforce Council is eager to facilitate further progress.
“A $663,000 grant from a state funder in 2021 that enabled us to hire three people to deploy the U.S. Chamber Foundation’s Talent Pipeline Management methodology in Hampton Roads with a focus on the maritime industry has led to subsequent initiatives of local, state, federal, and U.S. Department of Defense funders that now total more than $67 million,” said Whitney Lester, senior director of talent development at the Hampton Roads Workforce Council. “As economic development projects go, there have been few in our region that could keep pace with this work to date – and the progress continues. We owe a significant debt of gratitude for the established playbook that is TPM and how it helped us launch and travel along this vital journey.”
Looking to the Future
The Navy is looking to transform its submarine fleet and estimates that it will require more than 100,000 skilled workers across the country and 30,000 workers in Hampton Roads in the next 10 years.
In November 2023, the Hampton Roads Workforce Council was awarded $14 million by DoD to bolster the regional workforce and to meet the needs of the Navy’s submarine industrial base. With oversight by the Navy and DoD, the Workforce Council will launch 10 projects with the goal of expanding training efforts, marketing industry jobs across the region, expanding outreach to high school and middle school students, and connecting veterans to maritime careers.
“With use of the TPM process, we have a formalized and proven methodology to draw the maritime industry’s employers and regional marine talent providers together and solve the industry’s pressing and increasing challenge — to identify, locate, and hire essential talent to work in the region’s shipyards for the building and repair of U.S. Naval ships, submarines, and watercraft — all done in direct support of the country’s national and maritime defense,” said Timothy Richardt, director, training provider manager, Hampton Roads Workforce Council. “The TPM process has been applied successfully due to TPM’s structured yet fluid approach to common issues shared by the maritime industry.”
