(Delaware and Chester Counties, PA)—As the United States works to strengthen domestic shipbuilding capacity and maritime competitiveness, two federally funded workforce initiatives are demonstrating how national collaboration can support this critical industry.

On May 5, leaders from Delaware County Community College (DCCC), Hanwha Philly Shipyard Incorporated (HPSI), and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy convened at DCCC’s Marple Campus and at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, along with leaders from Finland-based Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, for a multi-day strategic working session focused on implementing two U.S. Department of Labor International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB) grant projects aimed at expanding the nation’s shipbuilding workforce pipeline.

Through its involvement in a consortium of the region’s community colleges and Drexel University, DCCC leads an $8 million ILAB-funded initiative with HPSI. The “Building the Future: U.S. Shipbuilding Workforce Expansion Through Global Collaboration” initiative is designed to share best practices learned from overseas shipbuilders with U.S. shipbuilders as well as to increase registered apprenticeship shipbuilding workers at HPSI, a privately-owned company at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Massachusetts Maritime Academy leads the NEXTSEAS initiative, a $5.8 million ILAB-funded program launched to combat the critical skilled labor shortage in the American shipbuilding industry. Satakunta University of Applied Sciences in Finland is their overseas partner.

The collaboration highlights the growing importance of public-private partnerships in addressing workforce shortages across multiple sectors of the U.S. maritime industry. While DCCC and HPSI are advancing scalable workforce training models supporting commercial shipbuilding, including containerships, tankers and specialized vessels, NEXTSEAS is focused on workforce development connected to Arctic and icebreaker vessel production as part of the national Icebreaker Collaboration Effort Pact strategy.

During the visit, representatives from NEXTSEAS and Satakunta University toured DCCC’s Marple Campus Advanced Technology Center and visited HPSI at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard to gain firsthand insight into the region’s shipbuilding operations, apprenticeship pathways and industry-driven workforce training strategies. Discussions centered on workforce expansion, apprenticeship modernization, international knowledge exchange and strategies to increase access to high-quality maritime careers.

The week concluded with DCCC and NEXTSEAS traveling to Washington, D.C. to meet with the U.S. Department of Labor ILAB team to discuss project implementation, partnership coordination and long-term strategies for strengthening America’s maritime industrial base through workforce development.

The collaboration demonstrates how community colleges, regional and international training providers, industry leaders, and federal partners are working together to rebuild America’s shipbuilding talent pipeline at a time of increasing national focus on maritime security, supply chain resilience, and domestic manufacturing capacity.