NAVAIR Fleet Readiness Centers looking to cultivate its own workforce

Naval Air Systems Command's Fleet Readiness Centers are "reinvigorating" an apprentice program into a four-year endeavor that provides both an education and training for specialized trades in an effort to cultivate their own workforce, according to a Navy official.

Navy officials often speak about the service's inability to compete with industry in terms of a dollar-for-dollar salary. Further, the service has been under fire this year by Congress for not providing industry with enough work to retain skilled workers at key shipyards.

Martin Ahmad, deputy commander for the Fleet Readiness Centers, acknowledged this workforce problem, and said, "We do think that the [program] will help to build a workforce that will stick with us."

The details of the program are still being developed but it will include tuition funding that is contingent upon a commitment to remain with the government after finishing the program.

Asked today at the Sea-Air-Space symposium about the issue of people joining industry after finishing the program and subsequent commitment, Ahmad said, "We're hoping that when they finish that program, they'll want to stay with us because there is work to be done."