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W O R K F O R M E / S P R I N G 2 0 2 6 26 L ike many Maine em- ployers, Bath Iron Works has a need for new recruits. Only, in this case, the General Dynamics shipyard has more than 6,000 employees and an ongoing need for new workers. Enter the Maine Community College System. A range of training programs has been established to train workers for the Bath shipyard. As an added bonus, much of the programming comes at no cost to the people being trained. "This free training program has proven itself to be extremely effective at giving people the foundational skills they need to take on challenging and reward- ing careers in shipbuilding," says Tom Stevens, director of training at Bath Iron Works. "It's great to see it expand to another part of the state so people in central Maine can more easily access this opportunity." Lucrative careers The success of Southern Maine Community College's Manufac- M a n u f a c t u r i n g Early success So far this year, CMCC has gradu- ated 29 people from its program. Of those, 22 received job offers. One element of the program that makes it so successful is that BIW pays a $500 per week stipend, receivable after gradua- tion, to help offset living expenses while the student attends classes full time. "I think it's a great step to see if you want to apply yourself in the trades," says Joshua Grant, a course graduate now working as a pipefitter on the future USS Quentin Walsh (DDG 132). "So far, I'm loving it. I'm still brand new but I'm learning more and more." A 2024 graduate of Edward Little High School in Auburn, Grant had been working in a gro- cery store before he enrolled in the CMCC class. The class covers shop and workplace safety, technical math and measurement, blueprint reading, hand and power tools, material handling, plasma cut- ting, tack welding, drilling and A community college teams up with Bath Iron Works to train workers B Y P E T E R V A N A L L E N turing Technician Training pro- gram — which has had more than 100 classes — led to an expansion to Central Maine Community College, which is in Auburn. Graduates of the free, three- week Manufacturing Technician Training course are guaranteed an interview with Bath Iron Works. Many go on to lucrative careers at the shipyard or at other manufacturers. In the case of BIW, hundreds of SMCC graduates are now on the payroll at the shipyard, building Navy ships. Now, with Central Maine Com- munity College, the program is growing. The Auburn campus is about 32 miles from the Bath shipyard. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y B A T H I R O N W O R K S Joshua Grant graduated from a community college course that prepared him for a job at Bath Iron Works. He's now a pipefitter on the future USS Quentin Walsh (DDG 132).