USA: Huntington Ingalls Celebrates 92nd Anniversary of Its Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School

Huntington Ingalls Industries today celebrates the 92nd anniversary of its Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School. The school has grown from three instructors and 126 apprentices in 1919 to more than 100 faculty and 750 apprentices today. The Apprentice School is expected to award its 10,000th diploma later this year.

“The Apprentice School is essentially our shipbuilding production leadership academy,” said Matt Mulherin, president, Newport News Shipbuilding. “Workforce development is critical to our business. Not only are we training skilled craftspeople, we are cultivating the shipyard’s future leaders.”

The Apprentice School attracts thousands of applications annually and selects 200 to 250 new apprentices per year. The school offers four- and five-year, tuition-free apprenticeships in 25 occupations to qualified men and women. Apprentices work a regular 40-hour week and are paid for all work, including time spent in academic classes. Through partnerships with Thomas Nelson Community College and Tidewater Community College, The Apprentice School’s academic program provides the opportunity to earn associate degrees in business administration, engineering and engineering technology.

Newport News Shipbuilding, the City of Newport News and the Commonwealth of Virginia have partnered to build a new, $70 million apprentice school campus that will be located between 31st and 34th streets, bordered by Washington and West avenues. The campus will include an 80,000-square foot school, workforce housing, retail space and a parking garage. Groundbreaking is scheduled for fall 2011 with plans for completion in 2013. The current school location will be used for other shipyard-related training.

“The Apprentice School is proud of its longstanding traditions and the fact that it produces graduates who are prepared to succeed in life,” said Everett Jordan , director, The Apprentice School. “While focusing on the needs of Newport News Shipbuilding, The Apprentice School finds itself in a defining decade. Our company and our students are changing before our eyes. The construction of a wonderful new campus will enable the school to continue delivering a quality education and producing the best shipbuilders and graduates for decades to come.”

Facts about The Apprentice School:

-For the first time in the school’s 92-year history, the senior leadership team of the Student Government Association is all female.

-Six Master Shipbuilders (employees with 40 or more years of continuous service) are currently among the school’s faculty and staff.

-Apprentice School graduates comprise more than 40 percent of Newport News Shipbuilding’s production management team.

-Of the school’s 750-member student body, 205 are female.

-Ten percent of The Apprentice School’s students have a military background.

-The admission rate is one selection per 19 applicants.

-Four members of the academic staff have doctorate degrees; the remainder have a minimum of a graduate degree.

-Sixty-seven craft instructors deliver “hands on” craft and theory training.

-An apprenticeship in terms of a scholarship is equivalent to $230,000.

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: Huntington Ingalls, July 1, 2011;