Mayors and city council chief executives from Western Australia recently toured The Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding to gain insights into workforce development and training initiatives. The tour emphasized the company’s commitment to skilled trades and the pipeline of talent supporting the defense and shipbuilding industries.

The tour was led by Dr. Latitia McCane, Apprentice School director of Education; Ashley Schneider, director of Australia & United Kingdom Emerging Markets at HII; and Dave Soldow, director of Advanced Development at NNS.

HII is working with Australian industry and academic institutions to collaborate on the development of a workforce in Australia to support AUKUS, a security partnership between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

This workforce will require education of thousands of qualified Australian engineering, maritime and nuclear trade and professional workers to support that nation’s nuclear-powered submarine enterprise through its lifecycle, beginning with infrastructure, sustainment and supply chain development.