Joe Courtney

Early this month, an extraordinary gathering occurred in Westerly, Rhode Island, consisting of representatives of the U.S. Navy, state and federal officials from Connecticut and Rhode Island, and employer and employee leaders from industry organized by the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance (SENEDIA). They were there to mark a major milestone: 10,000 workers have now completed training through our region’s submarine workforce training pipelines and are hard at work rebuilding our nation’s undersea fleet. U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney This achievement – happening in the midst of an historic hiring surge at the Electric Boat shipyards in Groton and Quonset Point, Rhode Island –-powerfully defied the conventional wisdom that our nation had lost its manufacturing base for good and was incapable of “making it in America.” Fifteen years ago, the naysayers could legitimately question whether our K-12 schools, community colleges, and adult job training programs had the size and focus on address the growing recapitalization. As Vice Admiral Robert Gaucher, head of the Department of the Navy’s submarine industrial policy, stated at the Westerly gathering, starting in 2011 when Congress got serious about funding new submarine construction with budgets year after year, the volume of tonnage and increase in man – and woman – hours has today grown to record highs. This surge, of course, could not happen without highly skilled engineers, designers, and metal trades workers. That’s where SENEDIA’s network of partners has transformed the curriculum of southern New England’s public schools, higher education, and job training programs, such as the state-of-the-art Westerly Education Center where the 10,000-trainee milestone celebration took place. That center, like its counterparts in Connecticut, is using new technology – digital and virtual devices that did not exist even a few years ago – as well as robotics, additive manufacturing, and some AI to make the work safer and more efficient. But those devices will never displace the need for people. Electric Boat’s 2026 hiring target of 8,000 new workers – the biggest number in the 120-year history of the company – emphatically settles that question. Vice Admiral Gaucher also made it crystal clear: this milestone isn’t the end of our work. The historic demand signal from Congress and the Navy for submarine construction between 2026 and the 2040s will multiply many times over the need for skilled workers to satisfy the shipbuilding backlog of the Columbia- and Virginia-class subs already on the books, as well as the forthcoming new “block contracts” which the House Seapower Subcommittee and Congress authorized for both programs, in 2023 for Virginia and 2025 for Columbia . The final execution of these contracts will happen soon and will send a profound message to southern New England that the work in our region is far from cresting but instead is just beginning to build a 21 st century Navy. Congressional funding for the joint University of Connecticut and University of Rhode Island National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology (NIUVT) has also fostered additive manufacturing and high-end engineering input to industry. The skills training movement is happening in southern New England high schools too. In Connecticut, trade schools and comprehensive high schools, in partnership with the Youth Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative, are equipping students with in-demand manufacturing skills through career pathways programs. With tech schools and career pathway programs certificates of completion, high school graduates are entering the shipyards, at as young as age 18, to good paying careers with top notch benefits. The grand opening of Tourtellotte Memorial High School’s welding lab in Thompson, September 2024. Credit: Courtesy office of U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney Just last May, I joined over 300 graduating high school seniors from across Connecticut for “Electric Boat Signing Day” at the Garde