Southern New England’s submarine workforce training pipelines have reached a major milestone, with 10,000 workers now trained and working on rebuilding the nation’s undersea fleet. This achievement is happening in the midst of an historic hiring surge at the Electric Boat shipyards in Groton and Quonset Point, Rhode Island.
Training and Hiring
The training pipelines, organized by the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance (SENEDIA), have transformed the curriculum of southern New England’s public schools, higher education, and job training programs. The state-of-the-art Westerly Education Center, where the 10,000-trainee milestone celebration took place, is using new technology, such as digital and virtual devices, robotics, additive manufacturing, and AI, to make the work safer and more efficient.
Electric Boat’s 2026 hiring target of 8,000 new workers is the biggest number in the company’s 120-year history. Vice Admiral Robert Gaucher, head of the Department of the Navy’s submarine industrial policy, emphasized that this milestone is not the end of the work, as the historic demand signal from Congress and the Navy for submarine construction will multiply the need for skilled workers in the coming years.
Regional Impact
The skills training movement is also happening in southern New England high schools, with trade schools and comprehensive high schools partnering with the Youth Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative to equip students with in-demand manufacturing skills. High school graduates are entering the shipyards at as young as 18, starting good-paying careers with top-notch benefits.
Tiffany Kominski, a dynamic supervisor at Electric Boat, who graduated from a pipeline program a few years ago and is now a mother of a recent graduate, represented the regional uplift that Congressional and state collaboration is achieving every day. Her speech described her complete change of career from non-manufacturing to a highly skilled shipyard leader, rebutting the cynics who claim that America cannot reconstitute its industrial base.
Original reporting: The Connecticut Mirror — read the source article.
