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Maine Defense Industry Alliance Launch
On March 1, 2024, the Maine Community College System (MCCS) announced its membership in unveiling a new public-private alliance, the Maine Defense Industry Alliance (MDIA), and its immediate and five-year vision at a press conference held at York Country Community College’s Sanford Site.
The Maine Defense Industry Alliance (MDIA), a non-profit coalition of Maine defense companies, community colleges and universities, state agencies, and the U.S. Navy officials committed to coordinate efforts to attract and train thousands of new employees for critical jobs in the state’s defense and submarine industrial base. This alliance was recognized by the Maine Delegation, Industry and Navy as an impactful and an innovative means to address the Defense and Submarine Industry’s goal of increasing the trades workforce by 100,000 jobs per year.
Maine Governor Janet Mills, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King, and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree joined MDIA members at the event Friday, joined by the Honorable Nickolas Guertin, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition.
“We now have a powerful public-private partnership that is Maine’s coordinating body for workforce development for Maine’s defense manufacturers. The Maine Defense Industry Alliance will put training opportunities on the fast track and create new opportunities for the state’s defense employers and Maine’s workforce,” said MCCS President David Daigler, who is serving as the inaugural co-chair of the MDIA board of directors.
Over the next five years, Maine’s defense contractors and subcontractors must add 8,000 skilled workers. Over that same period, an additional 10,000 workers already employed will need additional training and education to hone their skills for these advanced manufacturing jobs. There is an immediate, pressing need in Maine to hire more people trained in precision machining, welding, marine design, manufacturing, and advanced manufacturing.
This impactful contribution from the state of Maine will also support the Navy’s goal of adding 100,000 jobs per year nation-wide in support of maintaining the strong and skilled workforce our Defense and Submarine Industry it needs to meet mission and provide a successful military fleet.
For more information, please visit MDIA’s website, mainedefenseindustryalliance.com.
National Shipyard Institute (NSI) Project – Maritime Focus
Orbis, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY), and others within the Team Submarine community have partnered with the Maine and Massachusetts Maritime Academies to create and implement the Naval Shipyard Institute. The overall objective for the NSI is to leverage existing capacity at the State Maritime Academy (SMA) training facilities to perform immersive, fast-paced, heavy industry trade skills development in a hands-on practical and academic approach. Teaming with SMA’s creates a symbiotic relationship through equipment and facility upgrades, curriculum and idea sharing, and energization through shared missions.
The NSI initiative offers an executable plan to rapidly recruit, train, and inject new tradespersons at a beginner skill level into the PNSY apprenticeship programs with far greater momentum than today’s processes. The inaugural NSI cohort of sixty-four trainees will begin at the Maine Maritime Academy in July 2024 and aims to produce sixteen structural welders, sixteen inside machinists, sixteen outside machinists, and sixteen marine electricians to begin their apprenticeship programs in September 2024.
With nuclear-powered warship (NPW) sustainment workload backlog accumulating, all available productive capacity must be focused on direct shipboard and shop work to contribute to the Navy’s ability to meet its one-plus-two submarine building plan. The NSI initiative offers an executable plan to rapidly recruit, train, and inject new tradespersons at a beginner skill level into apprenticeship programs with far greater momentum than today’s processes. Investing in them from the very beginning demonstrates a willingness to commit to their success; we can expect that level of commitment to be reciprocated.
If you are interested in joining the July 2024 NSI training cohort, please apply here.
Contact Tim Cooper at timcooper@orbisinc.net and/or Jim Colley at jamescolley@orbisinc.net with any questions.
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