USA: Career Pathways Program Brings Teachers from Public Schools in Hampton to HII

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc announced today that its Newport News Shipbuilding​ (NNS) division hosted eight teachers from public schools in Hampton and Poquoson as part of the Career Pathways Program, a partnership between the business community and area public schools that exposes students to career-development experiences.

“Partnering with the community’s public schools provides Newport News Shipbuilding a tremendous opportunity to make an early connection with our future workforce,” said Bill Bell, NNS vice president of human resources. “By design, Career Pathways shows students, parents and teachers how what they learn connects directly to the many and various shipbuilding careers.”

Following basic welding instruction at Thomas Nelson Community College, the middle and high school teachers toured The Apprentice School and the shipyard. They heard from a panel of welding and sheet metal fabrication apprentice instructors and Apprentice School students who are from Hampton and Poquoson, and also received insight on NNS’ current hiring demands. NNS expects to hire about 10,000 people over the next five years.

“Hampton City Schools values our workforce partners and strives to identify and implement career pathways from school through college and career development to locally relevant industry needs,” said Jesse White, curriculum leader, career and technical education, Hampton City Public Schools. “Career and Technical Education courses are learning that works for America. These partnerships help improve graduation rates, provide students with career goals and experiences, and help create and improve our local, state and national economy.”

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. Employing nearly 38,000 in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and California, its primary business divisions are Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding​.

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Source: huntingtoningalls, October 11, 2011