CASTINE, Maine, Wednesday, August 7 — Today, Maine Maritime Academy and ORBIS, Inc., a Portsmouth, NH-based defense contractor, hosted an event on campus highlighting the progress of the inaugural Naval Shipyard Institute workforce development program, offering a tour of the training cohorts, and providing the opportunity to interact with MMA leadership and faculty. Representatives from the offices of Governor Mills, Senator Collins, Senator King, as well as officials from the U.S. Navy, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, MMA’s Board of Trustees and the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Labor were in attendance to discuss workforce development efforts. The Naval Shipyard Institute training project, funded by the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Industrial Base (SIB), is an intensive skills training program training over fifty in welding, machining, and marine electrical over the course of 14 weeks. Following the successful completion of the program, students will be eligible for employment at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard maintaining, repairing, and sustaining submarines.

The U.S. Navy’s Submarine Industrial Base intends to hire 140,000 skilled workers over the next decade to meet the U.S. Navy submarine production goals and to maintain the current submarine fleet. To build the capacity of the Submarine Industrial Base, the Navy requested $3.9 billion in federal funding for FY25. Admiral Lisa Franchetti, Chief of Naval Operations and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also identified additional funding for the Submarine Industrial Base as the Navy’s top unfunded priority for FY25.

ORBIS, Inc., a veteran-owned engineering solutions company provides services for the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense and manages the Naval Shipyard Institute program. ORBIS’s Naval Shipyard Institute Director, Chris Oelschlegel, said, “Maine Maritime Academy has the ideal combination of high-quality training facilities and first-rate instructors for the Naval Shipyard Institute program to be successful.”

Maine Maritime Academy Interim President Craig Johnson noted, “The Academy’s expertise in
providing training in the skilled trades in addition to world-class lab facilities makes the
collaboration with ORBIS a natural fit. We hope this is just the beginning of the Academy
helping to contribute to the Navy’s mission of bolstering qualified, skilled labor for the
Submarine and Maritime Industrial Base. Submarines play a crucial role in our nation’s defense
and helping to train skilled workers for their maintenance is an important objective.”

Trainees ranging in age from 18 to 60 are provided room and board while participating in the Naval Shipyard Institute program. After successfully completing six weeks of training on the Maine Maritime Academy campus, students receive six hours of academic credit. Lyndsey Levasseur, a welding student, gave a speech to the event’s audience. “This program is a fantastic opportunity to pursue a career doing something I enjoy while also contributing to my country. What has been presented to me gives me the accessibility to have the opportunity to find a well-paying job, and I didn’t expect how many opportunities I would have to interact with people in the community and industry, to include Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.”

About Maine Maritime Academy
Maine Maritime Academy is a co-educational, public college offering 22 programs of study in engineering, management, science, and transportation driving the maritime interests of the United States. The Academy is consistently recognized for providing a high-value education by leading organizations including the Brookings Institution, U.S. News and World Report, and Money magazine. A 2022 Report by Georgetown University ranked Maine Maritime Academy #1 among all public colleges for return on investment for low-income students at public bachelor’s degree institutions.

Contact:
Michael Dickerson
michael.dickerson@mma.edu
401.451.6519