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NEWPORT NEWS — Newport News Shipbuilding is maintaining a blistering pace for hiring, with a target of 5,000 people this year and a forecasted need to hire 21,000 over the next decade — nearly as many people who work there now.
To keep up, the shipyard is trying new approaches to find a new generation of shipbuilders, said Xavier Beale, a one-time pipefitter who now serves as vice president of human resources and trades.
“The message is: we’re hiring. And we don’t just build ships, we build careers,” he said.
In a way, that history of career building is why the yard has a hiring challenge. One reason for the shipyard’s big need for new employees is that it has thousands with 30 or more years on the job. Another is the steady growth of the yard’s backlog of work, which has grown over the past five years from $12.4 billion to to $31.8 billion as of March 31.
There’ll be a spike of retirements in 2025 and 2026, so shipyard volunteers will try to talk to high school freshmen and sophomores about opportunities.
Hampton Roads high schools and community colleges traditionally have been where the shipyard recruits most of its skilled employees, and Beale believes the maritime trades training in Hampton Roads is the best around.
The yard is also looking for employees in places rarely tapped. It is partnering with workforce agencies to offer opportunities for unemployed or underemployed individuals who have already left school.
Once they’re in the door, the yard pushes hard to get new workers trained as fast as possible.
“They used to say it takes five years to be fully proficient in a skilled trade. But we’ve made an intentional investment here; we think we can get you from zero proficiency to being able to work independently in 12 months,” Beale said.
One incentive for the new hires: They’re paid while they undergo training. That’s important because unemployed or underemployed people “may not be able to go back to school and not be paid while they learn,” Beale said.
Inside Business
The yard’s outreach efforts in the schools aren’t limited to area high schools and community colleges.
The shipyard’s volunteer opportunities are also a chance to reach even the youngest — children in elementary school and Pre-K programs — to let them know about what a shipbuilding career can offer.
The yard has expanded its higher education outreach from Virginia community colleges to schools in surrounding states, and has started feeling out community colleges in the Midwest. It also launched an outreach effort in Puerto Rico.
The yard makes a major effort to connect with service members who are about to leave the military, too. There’s a lot of overlap in the work military members do operating and maintaining equipment and what shipbuilders do on carriers and submarines, Beale said. And Beale likes the work ethic they bring to the job.
Making sure the company has the workforce to handle the multibillion-dollar backlog is a priority that comes from the top. Pressed by Wall Street analysts about workforce status, Christopher Kastner, president and CEO of the shipyard’s parent, Huntington Ingalls Industries was blunt:
“We’re hiring. And we’re training.”
Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com