High School Students Get a Firsthand Glimpse at a Maritime Future
On February 12, Seattle Colleges invited a group of Seattle Public Schools students from the Seattle Skills Center to Harbor Island – a key location in Seattle’s flourishing maritime industry – where they spent the day exploring, asking questions and learning more about a viable career path for their future.
Called the “Maritime Try a Trade Day,” students toured Harley Marine, a Seattle Central College Maritime Academy ship, the Vigor Industrial shipyard and the Harbor Island Training Center – where Vigor and South Seattle College train students in welding skills onsite.
“Regionally, there has been a strong interest in providing high school students with meaningful, hands-on career exploration opportunities in maritime,” South Seattle College Interim Dean of Workforce Education and Program Partnerships Veronica Wade said. “This was a great event to not only highlight the experiential learning that the colleges offer, but also to connect the students with current college welding and maritime students who could share their own college experience and career aspirations.”
Jaws dropped and eyes widened behind safety glasses as the students watched welding professionals build massive ferries for the Washington State Ferry System on a scale few could imagine.
“I thought it was going to be like a smaller marina with a few people working on a few boats,” Skills Center student Daniel Santos said.
Their teacher, Chris Names, introduces his students to skills and career options in maritime, aerospace, science and technology industries in the classroom – and he said seeing the work firsthand was an ideal experience for looking forward.
“We talk about these things in class, but when they can actually come and see all these different people working, all the different skill sets and all the different opportunities it really opens it up for them to think, ‘Wow, this is really is a viable for me to make a living and do what I want to do,’” Names said.
At the Harbor Island Training Center, our visitors heard from current students about how the program is helping them learn the skills to provide for their families and themselves in today’s skill-focused economy. They also gained some industry tips from Instructor Ken Johnson.
“We have people who are retiring and we need young people to replace them,” Johnson said. “The main thing is to learn the skills, learn the trade, learn to do things right and have a job that you go to everyday, that you enjoy, and where you can make money.”
Daniel Santos is still deciding between the aerospace and maritime industries, but he knows he loves to weld … and correctly figures that’s what matters most right now.
“Honestly, since a lot of these careers have the same type of skill needs and skill uses, right now I am going to get the skills first and then figure out where I’m going to work,” he said.
Good plan, Daniel.
Learn more about South Seattle College’s Harbor Island Training Center.