THE WORKS Podcast
The Works podcast is hosted by William Floyd, the Executive Director of the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) and Chair of the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development (CCWD). The purpose of this podcast is to provide a platform for short, impactful conversations with CCWD partners, workforce leaders, industry experts, and public officials who help strengthen our state’s economy and labor force.
THE WORKS Podcast
Episode 8: Partnerships & Internships with Jess Key
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In this episode, South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce Executive Director and Chair of the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development, William Floyd, sits down with Jess Key of Newport News Shipbuilding to discuss the company's workforce needs, career opportunities, and the importance of building strong talent pipelines for South Carolina's future.
Key shares how partnerships between industry, education, and workforce organizations help connect jobseekers with high-demand careers while supporting one of the nation's leading shipbuilding companies. The conversation also explores the skills employers are looking for, the value of apprenticeship and training programs, and how collaboration is creating pathways to long-term career success.
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Follow along to stay informed about opportunities supporting South Carolina’s current and future workforce.
Welcome to the Works Podcast. My name is William Floyd. I'm an executive director of the Department of Employment and Workforce. In today's episode, we're going to learn about shipbuilding and internships and hear a little bit about Workforce Pell. Please join us as we welcome Jess Key of Newport News Shipbuilding. Jess, you and Newport News are welcome additions to South Carolina. Tell us about you and how you got here and what's going on.
SPEAKER_01I am at this point a career shipbuilder. I've spent well over a decade in the trenches kind of helping to lay some groundwork for the workforce systems that help support shipbuilding. And so what brought us here to South Carolina is we have a 140-year-old shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. If you can imagine, we ran out of space in our 550 acres and we needed to expand. And we looked at all kinds of different options, and we could not be happier with the decision to have come here to the Tri-Net region of the state in Goose Creek, South Carolina.
SPEAKER_02We are so glad you're here. Tell us a little bit more about what Newport News in Goose Creek, South Carolina is going to be doing.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're actually well on our way to becoming what we're calling a rafted module center of excellence for manufacturing for nuclear submarines as well as very, very large parts of aircraft carriers.
SPEAKER_02Wow. One of the last times I saw you was on the USS Yorktown, right there in Charleston Harbor. And I remember you saying something about the significance of you being there because we were there for a job fare. And what did you tell us about the USS Yorktown?
SPEAKER_01That beautiful vessel that serves as a museum right there in our backyard is actually a Newport News built aircraft carrier.
SPEAKER_02That's so special. And yeah, it was our privilege to tour your facility there in Goose Creek, and we saw the fantastic work going on there by your team. Now we saw lots of people, but my understanding is you'll need a few more to do what you're planning on doing.
SPEAKER_01A few hundred more. So we are currently just over 700 shipbuilders strong in the low country area. And we are ramping up to probably somewhere close to double that, you know, depending on efficiencies.
SPEAKER_02Give us some examples of the type of uh trades or occupations you're looking for.
SPEAKER_01Sure. So we do two uh, I'll say broad categories of trades work there. We do structural, so that's your welders and your ship fitters. And then uh very exciting, we're actually ramping up to do what we call outfitting. So you know if you imagine building a vessel, like you frame up the walls and then the crews that come in and do all of our ductwork, all of our electrical, all of the pipe fitting and plumbing, um, all of the installation, and we call those outfitting trades. That's phenomenal.
SPEAKER_02That's going on in Goose Creek, South Carolina. And there's so much opportunity there, I believe, not only here and now, but looking ahead for on a strategic basis about where the workforce is and how you're going to develop it. Now, getting involved in the local community, I understand, is pretty important. And you certainly epitomize that. So tell us about how you've gotten involved, particularly through the local workforce area and the local COG and the workforce board there.
SPEAKER_01Sure, absolutely. So one thing that you know a lot of folks don't really understand about workforce systems is it it takes a small army, right? You've got your educators, you've got um the state and local elected officials, you've got um folks that just work constantly on trying to make sure that the skill sets demand are well understood so the right curriculum programs are where they need to be. I've had the opportunity to engage with the local Trident Workforce Board, um, which is an absolutely amazing entity that really helps to smartly and judiciously deploy uh workforce funding in support of uh programs that we need to be able to resource our workforce to help people find their way to opportunity, um, as well as our really, really amazing technical college system here in the state. Trident Technical College has been an incredible partner, and um I really look forward to the incredible things we're all going to go do together.
SPEAKER_02What you just described is just so excellent because we know that workforce development starts not only today, but it's five years out, 10 years out, 15 years out. And you can't do it by yourself. You need to get involvement by the educators, including the technical colleges. Sounds like to me, you all are looking ahead and doing that.
SPEAKER_01We are, and we're trying to do it with a lot of intention, um, both to make sure that we're supporting the folks that support us, but also so that the all of the incredible people that are looking for opportunities can find their way to the jobs and that we can help them understand. And, you know, it's it's not jobs, it's careers. Um, there is a lifetime of learning that sort of puts you on a trajectory from the time that you find our industry that can lead you all the way through, you know, frankly, retirement. We have generational shipbuilders um in Virginia, and I can't wait until we have generational shipbuilders right here as well.
SPEAKER_02What a great focus. Because when I think about occupations, I think about careers. And actually, you guys, when we visited with you all, you demonstrated that. You said precisely that you're looking not only for tomorrow, but for the community as a whole. What an incredible resource that you all are providing.
SPEAKER_01Proud to do it, and honestly, we can't be successful without it. And we also need to do it in partnership with there's a lot of members of our supply base in South Carolina. We have over 60 companies across the state that support us over the last five years, not even counting our acquisition. We've spent almost $600 million in the state. And so every one of those companies also needs to be healthy and be able to tap into workforce systems. And it's so much more powerful when we can really um do everything we can to do that together.
SPEAKER_02Phenomenal work, phenomenal opportunity. Well, earlier today, we were over at the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development. We had a meeting, you and I did, along with dozens of others. And uh you play an important part in that process as an employer. You and other employers on the CCWD help provide really impactful insight to strategic workforce development. Tell me about your experience so far on the CCWD.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, I have to tell you, I've done this type of work in a few states across my career. And um the CCWD is a really special entity. The fact that it brings together um government officials, uh, lifelong public servants, um, industry, education, and it really says how do we map all of the different programs and all of the different assets and identify what the gaps are and then go fill those in a way that it's efficient and we make the best possible use of taxpayer dollars. Um, it's a really special entity.
SPEAKER_02And one way that you and other employers are really going to help the CCWD, but more importantly, the state of South Carolina, is to provide the insights when we talk about Workforce Pell, which is a new program that will be rolled out this summer, that the federal government has designated a portion of the Pell Grant process for workforce uh needs. In terms of uh the CCWD and collaboration, talk to me about your experience so far, the collaboration that goes on, the coordinating council for workforce development.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Um it's really second to none. Uh the connections that get made in that room to go somewhere um with a regular cadence and know that I'm gonna walk into the room with the Department of Employment and Workforce, with the State Veterans Affairs, uh, with the technical college system, with Ready FC, with all of these entities that need to be working together. Um as a business person who you know is working to hire hundreds of folks and get them trained and do all of this stuff, um, just the time and effort it saves to already have that forum is worth its weight in gold. But then for it to actually be an effective forum, it's um, I I love the engagement there. And you know, you mentioned the uh workforce Pell, that is gonna unlock so much opportunity. Um, one of the biggest barriers to entry for a lot of folks is their ability to pay for education. And in a lot of instances, we've been successful over the years in securing various, you know, grant funding or employer funding to support workforce training. But this is gonna unlock a scale that's really not been seen, and um, the country needs it.
SPEAKER_02What a great opportunity in front of us right now when it comes to workforce Pell or the SE WAN's scholarships that are also there through the technical college system. One of the topics that we've been focusing on during the CCWD meetings this year has been what I call the not so secret sauce of internships. And my understanding is that Newport News utilizes internships to help them with workforce development. Can you tell us about that?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So we do utilize uh internships right now. Um in Goose Creek, we actually have our first summer with college interns. Um we're working on sort of a ramp up next year. You'll see many more. One thing that I'm really, really excited about is work-based learning opportunities in the K-12 system as well, and our ability to have those co-op type positions and apprenticeships and youth apprenticeship.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, one other additional benefit of internships is the retention factor so that we can keep um our our students engaged in South Carolina. That's so so important. Well, I it's so great having you in Newport News represented here through today's podcast, as well as on the CCWD. Any final observations from you?
SPEAKER_01The more we can gather as a convening, the more opportunities to engage across um, you know, the committees to really understand which of the programs are being the most impactful so that we can work and put our energy into those. Um, we're doing all the right things. And it's really uh it's heartening to be a part of it because I find great personal satisfaction in helping people find their way to these opportunities. Um, you know, and honestly, it's uh there's no better place to be than working in shipbuilding right now.
SPEAKER_02Well, many thanks to you, Jess, for you and Newport News and your support of our state and its workforce. Because as you said, not only are you offering jobs, but most importantly, careers that will last a lifetime for that individual, that family, that community. So thank you again.
SPEAKER_00To leave you with some helpful labor market information. Here's your LMI Minute. Hi, I'm Dr. Brian Green, Assistant Executive Director for Labor Market Information at Duke. Welcome to LMI Minute, where I share some parting data from today's discussion to help you better understand our workforce. Today you heard from Jesse Key, who works for Newport News Shipbuilding and serves on the Coordinating Council for Workforce Development. Shipbuilding may not be big business in South Carolina yet, but with excellent infrastructure in our ports and waterways and companies like Newport News setting up shops, the opportunity hero is there. Last year, according to the quarterly census of employment wages produced by LMI and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 17 employers in the shipbuilding and repairing industry employing 290 people out of over 100,000 nationally. What's interesting is how much those jobs pay. On average, those 290 people earn $2,245 per week, or over $116,000 per year. This is far and away the highest wage in the country, with Texas in second place at $1,941 per week. These figures show that South Carolina's shipbuilders are remarkably advanced and highly productive. And what aren't those jobs you have? Among ship and boat builders statewide, 35% of these workers are classified as miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators. Another 14% work as fiberglass lemonators and fabricators, followed by first line supervisors of production and operating workers of 5%. That's all for now. Until next time, thanks for joining us.