MCCS President David Daigler addresses the media with other dignitaries at a press conference in Sanford, Maine, on March 1. (Photo by Deb Cram)
A newly formed coalition is dedicating itself to attracting and training thousands of workers for critical jobs in the defense industry in Maine, including Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
Officials are announcing the new partnership, called the Maine Defense Industry Alliance (MDIA), during a press conference at the York County Community College (YCCC) instructional site on Community Drive in Sanford on Friday. The MDIA consists of defense industries, higher education institutions, state agencies and the U.S. Navy.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills; Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine; and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, were among the dignitaries scheduled to attend the event.
As part of the announcement, YCCC was slated to unveil a significant expansion of its manufacturing and trade facilities and programs.
In addition to such expansions, the community college’s $6.5 million plan also calls for the construction of a new 10,000-square-foot welding lab. In a press release, YCCC hailed the plan as the “first tangible impact” of the new coalition to increase the workforce in the state’s defense industry.
“It’s a great investment to build a new, state-of-the-art welding facility just miles from two of the state’s three largest defense contractors, adding hundreds of new skilled workers a year to the local workforce,” YCCC President Michael Fischer said, referring to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery and Pratt & Whitney in North Berwick.
The college will build the addition to its existing facility on Community Drive in Sanford and will call it the YCCC Center for Excellence in Manufacturing and Trades.
The expansion is to be funded by $3.5 million in Submarine Industrial Base funding from the MDIA, $1.5 million in YCCC funds, and $1.5 million in federal money that Collins and King secured as part of last year’s appropriations bill for Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.
Currently, the defense industry in Maine employs more than 20,000 people at more than 150 companies. During the next five years, Pratt & Whitney, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Bath Iron Works are anticipating they will need to fill more than 7,500 positions to counter the number of retiring workers and standard turnover and other factors, according to YCCC.
YCCC is not the only educational institution that will be part of this new training program. In a press release, the MDIA said that it will guide and support training initiatives across the state by building a “comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable” workforce development system. Educational partners will include the Maine Community College System, the University of Maine System, Maine Maritime Academy, and The Roux Institute of Northeastern University.
Defense spending in Maine totaled $3.2 billion in 2021, according to the MDIA.
This article is being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.
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