According to the Daily Press, Tidewater Community College on Wednesday announced a new training center designed to help alleviate anticipated critical workplace shortages in shipbuilding and other waterfront related work.
The Maritime and Transportation Center, set to open in 2008, will operate out of a building at the community college's forthcoming campus in Portsmouth -- training workers in everything from welding to truck driving, from computer aided design to port security.
Shipyard workers are expected to be in great demand over the coming decades.
Baby boomers are approaching retirement age even as Navy shipbuilding is going strong with an entirely new aircraft carrier class at
Northrop Grumman Newport News and continued submarine building there.
Though many of the programs to be offered by Tidewater Community College are being offered already, they will be expanded with more faculty and financial resources. Other courses -- including warehouse storage and port security -- are in development.
The program's curriculum, which will include both certificate programs and college degrees, will be made available for other community
colleges around the nation.
Source: Daily Press