COE Spotlight: Marine Manufacturing & Technology
The Marine Manufacturing & Technology Center was formed in 2005 and awarded to Skagit Valley College after a competitive process. All Centers of Excellence are located at a community or technical college with an outstanding program in the sector it represents. In our case, Skagit Valley College has one of the best Marine Technology programs in the United States. Of course, the Center works with maritime and maritime related programs statewide. A full listing of programs is found on the Center website, washingtonmaritimecareers.org.
How long have you been with your center? Have you been in more than one role?
I was fortunate enough to join the Center at director in November 2006. It’s hard to believe it’s been 16 years.
What does your Center specialize in?
The Center is committed to supporting and expanding a competitive and resilient maritime workforce for Washington State. We work with two broad sub-sectors of the industry, ashore and afloat. This includes boat and ship building and repair, underway operations, water transportation, and commercial fishing. We specialize in the whole industry, very intentionally trying to reach the widest possible audience: students, parents, industry, labor, workforce and economic development, agencies and community-based organizations. The focus of our work is leading and supporting initiatives and projects targeting growth and expansion of the maritime workforce. This includes outreach and engagement with underrepresented and underserved communities across the state. Our website, washingtonmaritimecareers.org supports our commitment to reaching multiple audiences and is a true repository of information, resources and data for all users.
What are your current priorities for Marine Manufacturing & Technology?
Centers juggle multiple many projects and priorities. Here are some of our high priority projects:
1. Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector Intermediary Project – the Center was awarded designation as Maritime Sector Intermediary. The central goal for the project is to create a statewide Career Connected maritime sector workforce strategy. This strategy has been informed by industry demand and input from a diverse statewide stakeholder group. We are now in the process of taking the overall strategy to the implementation phase. The project also includes an update Maritime Career Pathways to be interactive relevant and accessible.
2. Rebuild of the Center website: www.washingtonmaritimecareers.org. The new site is now live, and we are in the process of updating the site to ensure all pages and links are working properly. Once this process is complete, our next step is to translate the site to Spanish language.
3. Rebuild of the Center Advisory Committee. COVID gutted our committee, and this presented itself as an opportunity to rebuild and refine the focus and work of the committee.
4. Centers of Excellence for Domestic Maritime Workforce Training and Education (CoE) through the U.S. Maritime Administration. Designated Centers serve to assist the maritime industry in obtaining and maintaining the highest quality workforce. This collaborative, multi-partner project is led by the Center of Excellence.
What do you love most about your work at the Center?
It’s a privilege to work with industry, labor, education, registered apprenticeship and community leaders in support of the maritime workforce. The maritime industry is dynamic and challenging, experiencing rapid technological change, consequently, we are always learning. It is literally impossible to become bored! What I love most about the work is sharing that excitement and connecting people to the industry and opportunity.
Any other highlights or information you would like us to include for our industry partners?
The maritime industry of Washington State is truly statewide. Coastal and inland waterways support the movement of people, materials, commodities, manufactured products and the pursuit of commercial and recreational marine interests. Eastern Washington is home to a robust recreational boat building sector with companies like Hewes Craft, Thunder Jet Boats and Renaissance Marine. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, one of four public shipyards in the United States. The boats and ships built and maintained in Washington State can be found in waterways throughout North America and the world. Fish and shellfish harvested in Washington State are exported to the global marketplace. If you’ve sailed onboard a Washington State Ferry, enjoyed a salmon filet, or kayaked/sailed/cruised any of the waterways in our state, you’ve experienced the maritime industry in Washington.
How do you see your Center’s connections with the construction industry?
Maritime and construction share multiple points of connection. Both industries require a technical, diverse and resilient workforce, and represent a wealth of career opportunities. Visit any maritime or port related facility and you will likely see construction activity – in many cases, directly supporting a maritime activity. Both industries share a long list of technical competencies and skill sets, including welding and fabrication, autonomous systems, environmental monitoring, logistics, electrical and electronic technologies, materials, HVAC systems, safety and cyber security to name just a few.
If our readers would like to connect with you and learn more about your center, how do they reach out?
We would love to connect with you! The best way to contact the Center is to email Ann Avary at ann.avary@skagit.edu or Kim Davis at kim.davis@skagit.edu
Director’s Note: I’d like to thank Ann for stepping up to the plate and completing this first in a series of eleven Center of Excellence articles we’ll highlight this year. Ann has been an amazing partner, past and present, to the Construction Center of Excellence. I am very grateful for the individual time Ann has given me as I’ve onboarded into this role. She is a point of inspiration, trailblazer, and an ideal collaborator as we both research future projects in which to partner. We’ve got quite an intersection of trades careers between our Centers; we are looking into ways to show navigability between our respective industry clusters. -Christina
