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48 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? SEPTEMBER 2013 MARKET FOCUS TRAINING & EDUCATION For Vigor Industrial, a privately- held shipbuilding and repair company headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the future looked bright and a bit ominous at the same time. Work was coming in, dock space was Þ lling up, future orders were signed, and new properties purchased; in short, business was booming. But dark clouds crept in around the edges of this rosy picture. As recruiters set out to Þ nd new talent to meet the growing de- mand, they encountered a candidate pool without the necessary skills to pick up a welding torch and go to work. With 20% of its workforce approaching retirement and the economy on the mend, the prob-lem was set to get worse. Vigor?s abil- ity to meet expected demand hinged on a labor force that didn?t appear to exist. Workforce Development Frank Foti, Vigor?s CEO, isn?t one to sit around and wait for problems to self-resolve. He decided the best way to Þ nd a skilled available workforce was to train them in-house. The Northwest commu-nities in Portland and Seattle are the Þ rst to beneÞ t from his vision of training the next generation of craftspeople for fam-ily-wage careers in the reviving Ameri- can shipbuilding industry. Skilled welders and other industrial craftspeople are a critical component for the country?s economic recovery. Sue Haley, Senior Vice President of Hu- man Resources for Vigor, states, ?Peo- ple want to work and industry needs a highly skilled workforce.? However, the PaciÞ c Northwest and Alaska have seen a decline in the number of trade schools teaching critical industrial skills.Vigor?s previous efforts to provide training to their workforce often lacked a cohesive program and a global outlook. Today Vigor is taking a more structured approach by teaming with local commu-nity colleges to provide shipyard-inten-sive welding courses. Swan Island Training Center It all started in Portland in 2008 when Mike Rasmussen, a welder since 1969 and a long-time Vigor employee, was approached by Portland Community College inquiring about renting space in the shipyard to train its welding students. Rasmussen passed the request to his su-pervisor who brought it to the CEO. Foti jumped on the idea telling his staff to Back to SchoolVigor Industrial invests in Training & Education by Kathleen GleavesInstructor Mike Rasmussen working with student at the Swan Island Training Center in Portland. (Photo credit: Vigor Industrial) MR #9 (42-49).indd 48MR #9 (42-49).indd 489/3/2013 12:13:24 PM9/3/2013 12:13:24 PM
