The following article appeared in the June 11-17 issue of "Inside Business" and features Joe Williams, BAE Ship Systems Norfolk Ship Repair, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Virginia Ship Repair Foundation.
ERICK SORICELLI
Inside Business - Hampton Roads
Monday June 11, 2007
The soda can didn’t know what hit it.
Mac White was at the controls of a forging hammer, a large, lever-operated machine with two tons of strike force.
It took a few pulls on the lever to crush the soda can into an aluminum mini-Frisbee. The can crush was a demonstration; the machine is normally used to shape metals.
Yet using that hammer is harder than it looks.
“That’s the kind of touch and control that has to be learned over years of experience,” said Joe Williams, vice president of shipyard operations at BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair.
If you’re at least 18 years old, with a high school diploma or GED, and shaping metal sounds like fun, White, Williams and BAE Systems need you.
No mincing words there. They literally need young employees. Because White, BAE Systems’ blacksmith shop supervisor, can’t shape metal forever. He’s been in the industry since 1965.
Even if the U.S. Navy doesn’t have a ship in BAE’s piers, there’s plenty of work to do. “We do shaping for local companies,” White said.
Some of BAE’s clients include Liebherr Mining Equipment Co., which is a Newport News dump truck company, and NASA, White said.
Around 1,150 employees work at the BAE shipyard in South Norfolk. The yard has 61 apprentices on site, but the average age of its employees is 50.
Do the math for replacing those employees, and the numbers don’t work out. “We’re headed to disaster unless we beef up our workforce,” said Bill Clifford, president of the BAE shipyard. “I’m retiring people with 45, 47 years of experience. As I tell them, I can’t replace them.”
In an effort to introduce the industry, and jump-start interest in Portsmouth, BAE Systems and Tidewater Community College hosted “ShipWorks 2007” on June 1, a day-long seminar and shipyard tour for Portsmouth school counselors and administrators.
Shipyard executives hope the counselors will talk up the career choice to students, which may lead to more high school graduates going into apprenticeships.
“Hopefully, we’ll expose the counselors, who are the real salespeople for students,” said Williams, the BAE vice president.
BAE has its own apprentice program for jobs including sheet metal work, blacksmith, electrician, machinist, carpentry, pipe- and ship-fitters, and welders.
“What we’re hoping to do is take 50 apprentices a year,” Williams said.
This is the first year of ShipWorks, which makes the Portsmouth school system the first in Hampton Roads to participate. Other local school systems may follow in the future, according to BAE and TCC officials.
Although Portsmouth Marine Terminal, among other maritime businesses, is located in the city, school officials say the interest among Portsmouth students and faculty has been limited thus far.
From Portsmouth School Superintendent David Stuckwisch’s standpoint, a flood of students would be great, but they would still need to be good at these types of jobs.
“They’re looking for kids that are pretty highly skilled,” Stuckwisch said. “It’s all about placing the right kids in the right programs.”
In addition to the counselor exposure, the school system is working on several other initiatives to better promote the industry.
AutoCAD classes, a necessary skill in ship work, are being offered at Portsmouth’s three high schools, Churchland, I.C. Norcom and Wilson, said Craig Hill, the school system’s career and technical education coordinator.
“Not everybody goes to college,” Hill said. “There are some students that maybe we just haven’t made them more aware.”
The school system is also working on a partnership with TCC, which offers programs in maritime and ship repair at its Portsmouth campus.
In Hampton Roads, average annual salaries for maritime workers run between $24,000 and $50,000, according to a TCC survey. About 700 TCC students are in apprenticeships, said Barbara Murray, program director of TCC’s Maritime and Transportation Center.
Along with BAE, Earl Industries of Portsmouth and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard also have apprentice programs registered with TCC.
There’s also The Apprentice School, which is run by the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard. Graduates can go on to earn an associate’s degree in various fields, including applied science, electrical engineering technology or mechanical engineering technology.
“I tell people coming out of high school, ‘I want you to work on something kids under you are going to operate,’” said Derrick Holton, a Northrop Grumman instructor.
But incoming apprentices should be prepared for sometimes harsh working conditions. A furnace inside BAE’s blacksmith shop can run as hot as 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit. Shipyard employees also work rain or shine, in 90-degree heat or 30-degree cold.
“When it’s hot outside, it could be hotter on the ship,” Holton said. “When it’s cold outside, it could be colder on the ship.”
On the day of the tour, four Navy ships were docked at the yard: the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport ship; the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship; the USNS Brittin, a cargo ship; and the USS Leyte Gulf, a guided missile cruiser.
Also on the tour, school counselors saw a sheet metal shop, machine shop, welders in action, ship anchors, a propulsion shaft and the underbelly of the Leyte Gulf.