MEDIA, PA — Delaware County Community College and South Korea-based Hanwha Ocean agreed July 23 to expand skilled-trades training for shipbuilding operations in Philadelphia, linking the regional workforce pipeline to nearly $3 billion in new U.S. government contracts and planned capacity investments at Hanwha Philly Shipyard.
DCCC President Marta Yera Cronin signed the memorandum of understanding during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., marking one of 15 agreements completed at the opening of the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center.
The agreement is intended to increase training for welders, plumbers, carpenters and other registered apprentices needed by Hanwha Philly Shipyard, which operates at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and is part of the same South Korean industrial group as Hanwha Ocean.
The workforce expansion follows Hanwha Philly Shipyard’s receipt of $1.5 billion in contracts to build vessels for the U.S. Maritime Administration and $1.4 billion in contracts for U.S. government tracking ships equipped with radar, antennas and other surveillance systems.
South Korea has also pledged $5 billion to expand the shipyard’s production capacity, according to DCCC. The college stated that thousands of skilled-trades jobs are expected as the company increases government and commercial shipbuilding activity.
The memorandum builds on DCCC’s existing relationship with the shipyard through the Collegiate Consortium, a regional partnership of higher education institutions focused on workforce training. Cronin chairs the consortium.
“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,” Cronin said.
The partnership extends a federally funded workforce initiative established earlier this year. DCCC, Hanwha Philly Shipyard and the Collegiate Consortium received an $8 million grant to develop a shipbuilding curriculum that incorporates practices studied through exchanges with overseas shipbuilders.
The initiative, called “Building the Future: U.S. Shipbuilding Workforce Expansion Through Global Collaboration,” is intended to produce training materials that can be used by shipbuilders across the United States.
The Washington ceremony included U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, South Korean government representatives and officials from shipbuilding and maritime research organizations. The broader package of agreements is designed to increase cooperation between the two countries as the United States seeks to rebuild domestic shipbuilding capacity.
“It is the opportunity to participate in the most significant industrial revitalization in the world,” Lutnick said of South Korea’s planned investment. “It is the revitalization of American shipbuilding.”
Hanwha Ocean also signed a separate supply-chain cooperation agreement with Hanwha Philly Shipyard, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Philadelphia Growth Partnership.
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick said the DCCC partnership would expand access to skilled-trades careers while strengthening Philadelphia’s role in the defense industrial base.
“This partnership will create more pathways to good-paying Pennsylvania jobs, while strengthening Philadelphia’s role in our nation’s defense industrial base,” McCormick said.
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