(Delaware and Chester Counties, PA)—DCCC President Dr. Marta Yera Cronin signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) July 23 in Washington, D.C. that will help South Korea-based Hanwha Ocean increase workforce training to meet the skilled labor demands of its U.S. government and private sector shipbuilding contracts at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

Dr. Cronin joined U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other U.S. government officials, and representatives from South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Korea Offshore & Shipbuilding Plant Association, and the Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering at the signing ceremony at The Mayflower Hotel in Washington. The MOU was one of 15 agreements signed during the official opening of a new Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center (KUSPC) in Washington, D.C.

The agreements come days after Hanwha Philly Shipyard Inc. (HPSI), which operates out of the Navy Yard, learned it will receive $1.5 billion in contracts to build ships for the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) as well as $1.4 billion in contracts to build tracking ships, equipped with radar, antenna, and other surveillance gear, for the U.S. government.

South Korea-based Hanwha Ocean, which has extensive expertise in the shipbuilding industry, and Philadelphia-based HPSI are part of Hanwha Group, a South Korea-based multinational company with affiliates in the energy, shipbuilding, defense, aerospace, finance, and retail & services industries.

South Korea-based Hanwha Ocean, which has extensive expertise in the shipbuilding industry, and Philadelphia-based HPSI are part of Hanwha Group, a South Korea-based multinational company with affiliates in the energy, shipbuilding, defense, aerospace, finance, and retail & services industries.

“DCCC has a decades-long history of providing quality, skilled trades training for regional business and industry,” said Dr. Cronin. “With the signing of this MOU, we look forward to an enhanced partnership with HPSI that will support U.S. defense and private sector industries while also providing good, family-sustaining wage employment for graduates of DCCC’s skilled trades and registered apprenticeship training programs.”

The 15 agreements will help Hanwha achieve President Trump’s goal of reinvigorating America’s shipbuilding industry, which has fallen behind China. At the Washington ceremony, South Korea’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan said the KUSPC is an unprecedented global platform for cooperation in the shipbuilding sector and demonstrates South Korea’s strong commitment to helping rebuild the U.S. shipbuilding industry. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, called South Korea’s commitment to investing billions of dollars to help revitalize the U.S. shipbuilding sector, more than just a number. “It is the opportunity to participate in the most significant industrial revitalization in the world,” Lutnick said. “It is the revitalization of American shipbuilding.”

As a founding member of the Collegiate Consortium, a three decade-old, skilled trades training partnership of Greater Philadelphia higher education institutions, DCCC already partners with HPSI. The MOU signed by Dr. Cronin enhances this partnership and will increase the number of welding, plumbing, carpentry, and other registered shipbuilding apprentices at HPSI. Thousands of skilled trades jobs are expected to be created as HPSI builds ships for the U.S. government and private industry. In addition, the Republic of South Korea recently pledged $5 billion to increase HPSI’s shipbuilding capacity at the Navy Yard.

The successful partnership of HPSI, DCCC and the Collegiate Consortium, which Dr. Cronin chairs, highlights the critical role community colleges play in U.S. shipbuilding and manufacturing.

Earlier this year, DCCC, in partnership with HPSI and the Collegiate Consortium, received an $8 million federal grant to create the “Building the Future: U.S. Shipbuilding Workforce Expansion Through Global Collaboration” initiative, in which DCCC faculty and administrators host and/or visit shipbuilders overseas and then create a shipbuilding skilled trades curriculum for U.S. shipbuilders nationwide that utilizes overseas’ best practices.

During its Washington, D.C. opening of the new Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center (KUSPC), Hanwha Ocean also signed an MOU for Supply Chain Cooperation with HPSI, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and the Greater Philadelphia Growth Partnership.

“I’m proud to see Delaware County Community College and Hanwha Philly Shipyard leverage this investment to expand workforce training and prepare the next generation of American shipbuilders,” said U.S. Senator Dave McCormick. “Pennsylvania has the talent to lead in the building trades, and this partnership will create more pathways to good-paying Pennsylvania jobs, while strengthening Philadelphia’s role in our nation’s defense industrial base.”