Shipping industry leaders are warning that Michigan’s sour economy could take another hit if state officials move forward with a landmark plan to regulate ballast water in oceangoing ships.

Starting Monday, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will be the first in the nation to require ocean ships that load and unload cargo at Michigan ports to have a special ballast water permit.

As part of that permit, ships that plan to discharge ballast — the water vessels take on for stability after unloading cargo — must have approved technology on board to treat their ballast and kill any organisms they might be carrying from foreign waters.

But as of Wednesday, not a single ship owner or operator has applied for a permit, and shipping officials said it’s possible none will. Rather than spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on ballast treatment technology they say hasn’t yet been approved by the U.S. Coast Guard or International Maritime Organization, ships will just go to other nearby ports in Windsor or Toledo and avoid Michigan ports altogether.

“At the end of the day, we’re supportive (of protecting the Great Lakes from invasive species) but Michigan’s economy is on life support right now and the last thing we need to do is export jobs and make it more difficult for Michigan corporations to get their raw materials and that’s what’s going to happen,” said John Jamian, former director of the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority and president of Seaway Great Lakes Trade Association, whose group has asked the state to delay the permits for a year.

Michigan lawmakers took action in June 2005 to crack down on ballast because for years the U.S. Coast Guard didn’t require ocean ships full of cargo — and only residual ballast — to conduct water exchanges at sea. Studies have shown organisms can still live in residual ballast and later find their way into the Great Lakes, crowding out native species and disrupting local ecosystems.

State officials insist they’ve given the shipping industry a year to prepare for the new permit system and they’re moving forward but keeping an eye on a bill introduced by Sens. Michael Prusi and Ken Sikkema would delay the permits until January 2008.

They say the four ballast treatment technologies they’ve approved — hypochlorite treatment, chlorine dioxide, ultraviolet light radiation and deoxygenation — are effective and environmentally sound. Estimates on the cost of the systems range from $100,000 to $300,000 per ship.

“Our interest here is not in any way to limit their ability to do business on the Great Lakes,” said DEQ Spokesman Robert McCann, who noted that it’s possible some ship operators may be waiting to get permits until the new shipping season starts in March. “But at the same time they have a responsibility as users of the Great Lakes to help us protect them. We’re asking them to make an investment in the Great Lakes and their ultimate health.”

Michigan is the first state in the nation to take such a bold approach to regulating ballast water, widely believed to be the culprit behind more than 60 percent of the roughly 180 non-native species now found in the Great Lakes, including the zebra mussel and sea lamprey.

The zebra mussel, a small mollusk that hitched a ride in a freighter from the Caspian Sea region in the 1980s, is probably the most well-known and destructive non-native species in the lakes. It has caused more than $3 billion in damage over the last decade, the DEQ estimates.

Michigan’s new law pertains mainly to residual ballast. Since 1993, the U.S. Coast Guard has required ocean ships that enter the Great Lakes to conduct a ballast exchange before entering the St. Lawrence Seaway, meaning they empty their tanks at sea and take on new water to flush out any foreign species. About 500 ocean-going ships, called “salties,” haul freight into the Great Lakes.

But ships full of cargo and only residual ballast were exempt from the Coast Guard’s regulations. On the Great Lakes, more than 70 percent of ocean ships fall into the “NOBOB” category, which stands for “No Ballast on Board.”

The Coast Guard changed its policy in 2005, instituting a voluntary exchange policy for NOBOB ships last year and Canada instituted a law in June this year that requires all ships, including those with residual ballast, to conduct exchanges.

Despite the NOBOB loophole, David Reid, senior physical scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, said research has shown that ballast exchanges are 90 to 95 percent effective in killing or transferring out organisms if conducted properly.

The problem with Michigan’s approach, he said, is that it’s not comprehensive and ships can still discharge ballast at ports in other states or provinces on the Great Lakes, possibly introducing new species in the same waters.

“There’s no big net around Michigan that keeps them out,” he said.

But it’s a starting point, insist environmental groups, who say they’ve waited long enough for the federal government to take a more proactive approach to halting the spread of invasive species in the Great Lakes.

“Each day that we delay, we run the risk of yet another exotic invader being introduced into our lakes,” said Sam Washington, executive director of the Michigan United Conservation Clubs.

Under the new permitting system, ships that don’t comply will face civil action and fines of up to a maximum of $25,000 a day. The DEQ won’t inspect every ship and will only have one person conducting random compliance checks, said Barry Burns, environmental quality specialist with the permit section of the DEQ’s water bureau.

But enforcement could be a moot point if ships stop coming to Michigan’s three primary ocean ports — Detroit being the largest, along with Monroe and Menominee — altogether. And shipping officials say that’s likely to happen because they’ll have no choice.

According to the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority, the shipping of foreign goods through Michigan waters pumps $2 billion a year into the state’s economy. Steel is the biggest Michigan import and if ships have to unload cargo in Toledo or Windsor, companies will have to use trucks to get those raw materials, clogging roads and driving up prices for consumers, Jamian said.

SeverStal, the former Rouge Steel Co. in Dearborn, imports 300,000 to 400,000 tons of steel a year. If ships start avoiding Detroit, it would have an “enormous impact,” said one company official.

Still, state officials remain optimistic that they’re moving in the right direction. McCann said several states — Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana — are watching Michigan’s approach to see how it works. A similar permit system was introduced in Minnesota last year but no action was taken.

“Ultimately, this is leading by example,” McCann said.

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DP World, one of the world’s top three marine terminal operators, and Dubai Maritime City, are participating as chief exhibitors at the Seatrade Middle East Maritime (SMEM) 2006, the region’s biggest conference and exhibition for maritime industries.
Opening the exhibition at the Dubai World Trade Centre and Exhibition Hall, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman of Dubai World, spoke of the strides taken by Dubai in the maritime industry and highlighted the need for more people to enter the maritime industry in the emirate.

Mr. Bin Sulayem said:

“Dubai has long been acknowledged as one of the leading hubs for the maritime industry in the world and our participation at this exhibition is an indicator of this fact. We have been able to satisfy various demands put forth by our international customer base through the setting up of the Dubai Dry Docks and now the Maritime City. The future lies in the maritime trade and we are looking forward to expanding our base and rising to the challenges ahead.”

Taking a tour around the DP World and Dubai Maritime City stand Mr Bin Sulayem was briefed on the various projects in the pipeline for the Dubai Maritime City and spoke to senior management officials from the project.

In his keynote address to the conference, Muhammed Al Muallem, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, DP World-UAE said:

“DP World is based in a dynamic and growing region, one which has changed considerably over the last 6 years. This growth has been very healthy and exciting and Dubai has been a frontrunner in developing this industry further. DP World is committed to expanding its operations worldwide. At the same time, we believe in being socially responsible towards the environment as well. “

Held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, SMEM 2006 features first-time national pavilions from Singapore, South Korea, France and Germany.

DP World and DMC occupy an impressive stand at the exhibition where exhibitors from around the world have gathered to exchange expertise and knowledge in the latest developments of the maritime industry. International experts will address a range of issues, including the State of the Industry across the Middle East and Central Asia, Energy Transportation, Dry Bulk, Port Development and Liner Shipping, Finance for Shipping and Ship Repair, and Marine Technology.
SMEM also hosted the third Seatrade Dubai International Maritime Awards (DIMAs), which were presented at a gala dinner, where 34 companies had been short-listed for their achievements in the international maritime industry.

The event is sponsored by Dubai Maritime City, Dubai Ports Authority, the Government of Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing, and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

Other supporting organisations include Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Dubai Shipping Agents Association, National Association of Freight Logistics UAE Branch, Indian National Shipowners’ Association and the UAE National Ship Suppliers’ Association.

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for your invitation to be here today. I regret that my French, despite some minor improvements, still does not allow me to address you in your own language. I shall however attempt to give you an update on the progress that has been made thus far as we move towards a new maritime policy for Europe.

The sea is, and has always been, of vital importance for Europe. Suffice it to say that Europe’s commercial power depends almost exclusively on the sea: 90% of its external trade and 40% of its internal trade is already shipped through seaports. Europe is also a world leader in the areas of scientific marine research and technology, shipping, shipbuilding, off-shore energy, coastal and marine tourism, including recreational boating and cruise shipping, and ancillary services. Europe also has a window onto three oceans thanks to its outermost regions, and, the majority of Europeans have long felt a close affinity with the seas.

The Green Paper issued last June is all about capitalizing on this natural link between Europe, Europeans, our oceans and our seas. The objective is to take the overall maritime dimension into account through an integrated policy which connects all sectors of the maritime economy together. What we hope to do is to maximise the benefits to be reaped from our marine resources.

Our oceans and seas are clearly the foundation upon which our maritime economy is built. This economy can only thrive, and remain dynamic, if this marine environment is preserved and exploited in a sustainable manner. The effective protection of the marine environment is therefore an essential pre-condition to achieve the full economic potential of the oceans and seas.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Green Paper has been the subject of much discussion for 6 months now. We are half way through the one-year consultation period that will expire on the 30th of June next year. So far, we have witnessed tremendous interest and received several positive responses from industry, NGOs, citizens, coastal regions and Member States to the ideas contained therein. Certain Member States have also taken this a step further by organizing, or undertaking to organize, their own national consultation on the Green Paper’s ideas.

We have been delighted by this favorable response – a response which has been most encouraging.

France has also been particularly active. My participation here today, at the second such event organized by “Les Echos” and “Le Marin”, demonstrates to me the strong interest of the French maritime community. France has been one of our most solid supporters since the beginning of the process, both in terms of detailed contributions but also in terms of its continuous political support. In fact, the French maritime reality is probably one of the best case studies demonstrating the need for a more integrated approach to our oceans and seas.

France’s presence is felt in the Pacific, Indian, Arctic and Atlantic oceans thanks to its overseas territories. France is also a global leader in the fields of marine research, sailing boats, naval capabilities, maritime innovation and technology, and coastal tourism. France could therefore probably benefit from a more coherent and rational approach to its maritime activities.

In order to deliver just such a coherent approach, we feel that it is now time to move things up a gear. What we need now is, to determine the fields in which there is already a broad consensus for concrete action. As we do this, we will also be in a position to highlight those areas that require more time to progress, or that require more refinement before a consensus can form. Simultaneously, we will also be able to identify those areas that are not likely to be ready to move forward in the foreseeable future.

I would therefore like to raise a few questions, questions that clearly do not need to be answered immediately, but ones that certainly can serve as food for thought.

One of the topics, foremost in people’s minds, is the issue of governance. This is a subject where we can learn from your experience.

Given France’s long tradition of maritime governance, with its specific set-up that includes the post of a Secretary General for the Sea - a position ably filled by Mr. De La Gorce - and its specific administrative capabilities, there is much that needs to be understood in order to truly appreciate France’s approach to this issue.

The Green Paper clearly declares the need for subsidiarity within a future European maritime policy. There are certain things that are best handled at a Member state level. Yet, given that the oceans and seas take no account of national boundaries, it is also clear that there are some things that would be well-served by having a common vision or a single approach at an EU level.

The international competitiveness of maritime industries, given their global nature, would also appear to indicate a need for certain policy measures to be taken by Member States collectively, at a European level. Marine related research is another such case in point. Today’s situation appears to indicate that there are often poor contacts between researchers, and as a result, the duplication of effort. There are other such examples where broad decision-making can be of benefit. Each and every one of these cases can be characterised by the need for more coordination and information-sharing, and better co-operation and articulation, in order to ensure that the right hand knows what the left hand is doing.

If we can agree that more, and better, co-ordination is needed, then the next question is: what is the right level of such integration and co-ordination? The Green Paper promotes integration in both the management of maritime affairs and in the improvement of cooperation in the offshore activities of governments. The future role of navies is of great interest for the Commission. This is particularly so since the technology used in the surveillance of the sea appears to be converging more and more between civil and military applications.

I would now like to draw your attention to ship dismantling. I know how sensitive this issue is, particularly in France where so many efforts have been made to find a global solution to this difficult question. The European Commission would like to be as constructive as possible in the delicate discussions underway in the IMO, the ILO and the Basel Convention. This case is particularly indicative once again of the inter-relationships that exist between, for example, the marine environment, working conditions and the shipping sector in general. It illustrates again the need for an integrated approach.

This Commission is working hard to stimulate growth and jobs in the Union. We are confident that a future maritime policy for the Union will be a new tool for us to achieve these goals. We need however to focus our efforts on improving competitiveness. To do this we need excellence in knowledge, innovation and research & development.

France has already come some of the way to meeting the goals of the Lisbon Strategy particularly in the maritime industries. The “pole of competitiveness” dedicated to the maritime community in Brittany and in Provence is precisely the kind of tool we need. It connects marine research to academic knowledge and favours local development in the coastal regions.

We also need to focus our efforts on cultivating the attractiveness of maritime jobs. France has a long tradition of maritime training. Its maritime schools produce excellent seafarers and officers. France is also at the cutting edge of social protection for seafarers. Given this, how would you answer the questions posed in the Green Paper on these issues? Which exclusions from EU social legislation are still justified? Should further specific legal instruments on employment conditions in the maritime sector be encouraged?

We also need to promote better regulation. This does not necessarily mean “less regulation” but better, more relevant regulation that will facilitate investment or prevent loss of life to European citizens.

The Green Paper also addresses the quality of life in coastal regions. As maritime activities continue to thrive, there will be increasing competition between these various activities for the use of coastal waters. Without some form of planning, investment decisions may be hampered by uncertainty. The Commission therefore believes that a system of spatial planning for maritime activities in the waters under the jurisdiction of the Member States should be created.

Although decision-making on the uses of coastal areas should be taken at a national, regional or local level, a common framework for marine spatial planning could be appropriate in order to ensure coherence across the board.

Last, but by no means least, I said at the beginning of my intervention that we will not benefit from our maritime assets if we don’t act seriously to protect the marine environment. The European Commission is actually working hard in this direction by proposing the ERIKA III package to improve safety and security at sea. I would like to reaffirm here my full support for the excellent job which is being done by Vice-President Barrot. This package is of great importance for the sustainable development of the maritime economy and the protection of the marine environment.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I believe I have given you more than enough to ‘chew on’, that is to say, aside from your lunch. Allow me to conclude by repeating something I said to you last year:

“Leaders of the maritime industry, such as yourselves can play an important role in this process by drawing our attention to examples of good practice. Your contribution to an all embracing European maritime policy is indispensable and will bring to our pool of ideas and concepts, a fresh, economic perspective that will add significant value to our work.”

Thank you for your attention. I sincerely hope to hear from you over the coming weeks and months.

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STELLARTON — A number of small Maritime ports are taking a close look at getting into the cruise ship business.

The cruise industry, mainly through the region’s larger ports, contributes an estimated $56 million annually to the region.

The industry is up 33 per cent in Atlantic Canada since 2000 and cruise lines, large and small, continue to look for itineraries with new destinations offering something different for passengers.

The region’s smaller ports feel they can help the cruise lines with smaller vessels build on the niche adventure cruise market.

The small ports see this segment of the industry as a way to bring tourism and economic benefits to their areas.

Geralyn MacDonald, community development officer with the Pictou Regional Development Association and organizer of a two-day readiness workshop for small ports, said Thursday the small cruise industry is growing and “we want to get a piece of that and get on the map.

“We see great potential for a small ship to come into the Port of Pictou. We see a lot of economic spinoffs” through various types excursions for passengers.

Andrew Lindsay, a Pictou town councillor who attended the two-day workshop, said attracting a small cruise ship to Pictou is an idea that has been considered for the past two or three years.

“We hope to attract several cruise ships per year eventually,” he said. “We have dock capacity and harbour space. We obviously can’t accommodate the bigger ships, so we need to find out who has the cruise ships that will fit the harbour and go after them.”

But Mr. Lindsay said it will take at least three years to attract a small cruise vessel and what is important is working with other small ports in the region because cruise lines aren’t going to just come to Pictou.

“Ideally, with cruise ships, they need several ports to make a several day cruise,” he said. “So we would like to see others join us as a small ports group and map out a cruise itinerary. But we need to do that with the cruise lines once they tell us what they do and what they need.”

Cathy McGrail, a director with the Atlantic Canada Cruise Association, whose membership consists of the region’s larger ports, said the workshop provided an opportunity to disseminate information to the small ports about port readiness for cruise ships and marketing to cruise lines.

She said the association “has always had, within its structure and association, an opportunity to market with the small ports. And today is about how do we work together to build a marketing plan that is focused on their segment of the cruising business which really focuses on the adventure and coastal luxury cruises with the smaller lines.”

There are no small ports in the association, but they may now take a closer look at the organization because of the benefits it may offer to their small cruise program.

The association “has invested in a significant amount of infrastructure and key marketing elements, so there is a real advantage for them to leverage the existing activities of ACCA,” Ms. McGrail said.

Julie Grandy, a tourism development officer with the South West Shore Development Authority, said the Port of Yarmouth has had a long history with the ferry business between Nova Scotia and New England and has concentrated on that.

But she thinks attracting small cruise ships to Yarmouth may be a good fit for the port, especially over the long term.

She said that for a long time Yarmouth has concentrated on its ferry business and the New England market “and hasn’t so much identified with other inland Canadian opportunities, and I think this is a good in for us to become more strategic to the area.”

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Many recent high school graduates who apply for jobs at Colonna’s Shipyard in Norfolk can’t read a tape measure. They aren’t sure what to do with a wrench or a hammer. Their reading skills are weak, and many lack a good grasp of math and science.

“Unfortunately, they really don’t come out of high school with a skill I can put to use,” said Chuck Marsh, Colonna’s human resources director. He said the young people don’t understand why knowing these things is important to work at his company.

As a result, Colonna’s has had problems finding ship carpenters, painters and machinists, said Marsh, chairman of the Governor’s Maritime Taskforce, a group that has pushed for more training to boost the maritime industry. As of early November, Colonna’s, which employs 390 people, had 73 openings.

Brent Meadors, president of Modern Machine & Tool Co. in Newport News, has also noticed fewer skilled applicants being referred to the company in recent years.

“I’m concerned that they might not continue,” Meadors said of the referrals.

Starting this year, baby boomers here and nationwide have begun to retire, and the next generation won’t be large enough to make up for their absence. But what most concerns Marsh, Meadors and hundreds of other local businesspeople is that younger workers in Hampton Roads possess fewer skills at a time when jobs require more expertise than ever.

Local business people say several factors contribute to the problem:

Many students aren’t exposed to the skilled trades as teens. Some industry heads blame standardized testing - specifically the Virginia Standards of Learning - which has left little time for vocational education courses. Others say parents discourage their children from pursuing these jobs while guidance counselors and teachers steer too many students toward college without having them explore other options.

Students are graduating without the math and science knowledge required by many businesses.

Too many youths with the potential to work in the skilled trades are dropping out of school. Most are black and Latino, the groups expected to become larger shares of the state and national work force over the next 15 years.

“A very large percentage - 30 percent of our kids - aren’t on track,” said Judy Begland, president of Opportunity Inc., a Norfolk-based work-force development organization that provides training and hiring resources to South Hampton Roads businesses.

About 8,000 of the 25,000 or so Hampton Roads students entering high school as ninth-graders didn’t earn diplomas last June.

RECRUITING ELSEWHERE

What does it all mean?

For one thing, it has forced some local companies, including Siemens VDO in Newport News, to recruit employees from other states and other countries.

Poorly educated workers also make less money, contributing less to local economies. The result is that fewer taxpayers pick up a greater burden of maintaining public services for more people.

“The higher skilled the work force, the more businesses that will locate here; the higher the wages will be and the more spending that will take place,” Begland said. “With all that happening, the costs will be mitigated for the taxpayer.”

More than three-fourths of the 500 employers who responded to a survey from Opportunity Inc. this year had problems finding qualified job applicants.

At least 81 percent of 135 businesses with positions not requiring a high school diploma couldn’t find qualified people to fill them. And nearly 90 percent of the employers predicted hiring challenges over the next three years. These employers include companies on the Peninsula and represent the construction, health, education, manufacturing, hotel, food service and retail industries, among others.
“In five years, the problem is going to be worse,” said Marsh. “In 10 years, who’s going to be repairing our ships, especially our military ships?”

Partly because of the demand for workers, many skilled trade jobs pay well.

Students who graduate from high school after completing a two-year welding program through the New Horizons Regional Education Center, for example, can start at $14 an hour. Within a month, they can earn $17 an hour, said David Creamer, principal of career and technical programs at the Hampton campus of New Horizons, which offers these courses for 11th- and 12th-graders.

Applicants with poor math skills have been around for at least 20 years, said Meadors, but only recently has it begun to affect Modern Machine & Tool Co.’s recruitment.

“I thought the SOL (tests) would solve this,” Meadors said, “but they haven’t yet.”

The SOL was developed in the mid-1990s specifically to address business concerns about the quality of high school graduates, said Charles Pyle, a Virginia Department of Education spokesman. Since 1998, it has tested students in core subjects, such as English, math, science and history.

Rising student pass rates reflect the program’s success in getting more students on track academically, state education officials say. But they are aware not everyone is satisfied.

“We are not deaf and blind to those (business) concerns,” said Linda Wallinger, state assistant superintendent for instruction. “We are hearing those concerns and working hard to address them.”

In the past three years, the state has changed the SOL to encourage students to read and process information they would use to complete tasks, a skill many employers expect applicants to have, Wallinger said.

And for the first time, students earning diplomas in 2007 must obtain one verified credit in math in order to graduate. Verified credits are earned by both passing a class and the SOL test that corresponds to it.

The state is also working with public schools and community colleges to create training programs based on requests from businesses. All career and technical courses in the schools correlate with skills businesses say they need, said Elizabeth Russell, state director of career and technical education.

LESS EDUCATED

Hampton Roads isn’t the only part of the country dealing with a growing employee shortage.

A report released this fall by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education notes that as baby boomers begin retiring nationwide, those replacing them will be less educated. It’s a shift that has the potential to lower personal incomes and decrease the country’s tax base over the next 15 years, notes the San Jose, Calif.-based nonprofit organization, which advocates for greater access to higher education.

From 1980 to 2000, per capita personal income in Virginia grew by 47 percent. However, the public policy center calculated that the state’s personal income will grow by less than 1 percent over the next 14 years because of changing demographics and fewer people earning high school diplomas and college degrees.

As other countries invest more in technical and post-secondary education, some say Virginia and the United States could find itself falling behind the global economic competition.

“The international marketplace and competition is so much stiffer,” said Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, speaking at a Newport News education and business summit this fall. “The standard we’re up against now is, what is ‘China doing? What is Ireland doing? What is India doing?’”

Many of the employees in line to replace the mostly white baby boomers locally and nationally are black and Hispanic. Virginia is among the 16 states nationwide where 90 percent of Latinos in the U.S. live, according to the National Center for Public Policy. It is also among 21 states where 90 percent of U.S. blacks live.

Opportunity Inc. reports that while 17 percent of public school students nationwide are black, black students make up 44 percent of public school enrollment in Hampton Roads. And although Hispanics make up only 4 percent of the local school population, educators expect their numbers to rise, along with those of other non-English speaking students. By 2020, the number of Hispanic workers in the United States will triple, says the public policy center.

In general, black and Hispanic students are less likely to pass standardized tests and earn high school diplomas. They also make up a larger percentage of high school dropouts compared with their white and Asian counterparts, state and federal studies show. Andrian Chapman, who attended Menchville and Denbigh high schools in Newport News, left school without a diploma.
“I didn’t come to school a lot. I skipped a lot,” said Chapman, who is black. “When we were in high school, they’d go over each section slowly, and it took forever. I got kind of bored with it.”

At 17, she left and started working on her General Educational Development certificate which she earned in August 2005. By June of this year, Chapman, now 20, took enough classes at Thomas Nelson Community College’s work-force development center lab to earn certificates in keyboarding and Microsoft Word.

Northrop Grumman Newport News put money into the lab to help residents unable to pass a work-based assessment used by it and other local companies. Chapman has worked a few low-paying jobs and now wants to continue her education to support herself and her nearly 1-year-old son.

“A lot of the jobs, they want you to know all the software and have good speaking skills,” said Chapman, who wants to study engineering.

Educators and businesspeople have an obligation to ensure all residents are prepared for work, said Bob Leber, director of education and work-force development for Northrop Grumman.

“We can’t do it in a manner that leaves a large portion of a particular segment of society behind,” said Leber, who also serves as board chairman for the Peninsula Council for Workforce Development, which provides Peninsula businesses with employee training programs and hiring strategies. “We cannot advance that way.”

GROWTH LIMITED

They have their work cut out for them in Hampton Roads, which had the lowest graduation rate of any region in the state from 2001 to 2004, according to a study conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University. About 68 percent of Hampton Road students earned a high school diploma in 2005 compared with 77 percent of students statewide.

Colonna’s Shipyard wants to grow but can’t because it needs more skilled workers. The Norfolk company spent $5 million last year to add a machine shop, renovate another, repair piers and buy extra equipment.

“I have space and machines,” said Marsh, the human resources director, “but I don’t have people. People are keeping us back.”

Colonna’s Shipyard and Modern Machine & Tool pay about $4,000 a year to strengthen math and other skills that new hires need to do their jobs. Much of the retraining at his company involves helping employees learn concepts they should have mastered in middle and high school, Marsh said.

Despite the additional training many local companies offer, the labor shortage on the Peninsula has forced companies to recruit workers from the Midwest to fill skilled and semi-skilled positions.

In Newport News, Siemens VDO, which makes parts for fuel-injection systems used in vehicles, has brought in foreign workers and hired engineering students from other countries who graduated from Old Dominion University, said Mike Lindsey, human resource manager of the German-based company.

While Lindsey is not sure whether Siemens will need to hire more foreign workers in the future, he knows many local residents aren’t qualified to work there.

Jobs at Siemens that don’t require a college degree still expect hires to have basic math skills, read instruction manuals, charts and graphs and understand mechanical concepts, such as how levers and pulleys work. Lindsey said the company has a hard time finding people for hourly work tied to machinery repair and maintenance.

Siemens outlines these qualifications through an assessment program called Work Keys.

Lindsey gave an example of a typical Work Keys test item: Applicants examine two pictures of air-conditioning units - only one of which is plugged in - and are asked what to do first to get the units running. Many applicants miss this type of question and many others.

“We may have to run 100 people through the assessment to find 20,” to hire, Lindsey said.

Most of those who fail the tests at Siemens struggle when it comes to solving problems related to concepts such as levers and pulleys and how electricity or heat moves through a mechanical system, Lindsey said.

These are “things people really should be learning in their school years, their middle and high school years,” he said.

College-bound students usually have these basic skills, but many others don’t, said Marsh of Colonna’s Shipyard.

Gone are the days when students deemed not college material could leave high school, enter a trade and use their hands more than their heads.

The Newport News shipyard has an in-house training center, the Apprentice School, which feeds qualified applicants to Northrop Grumman. Other businesses don’t have the infrastructure to do this but realize their survival depends on stepping up outreach to the public schools and changing a false public perception of their industries.

Local employers say students aren’t getting the message about the more rigorous education required to work in the modern skilled trades, how well the jobs pay and how they’ve become safer.

Many skilled trades need workers with a good grasp of geometry and trigonometry. The higher-level math is necessary in order to measure and operate machine tools to a precise length, depth and diameter, said Meadors at Modern Machine & Tool Co.

Many unqualified applicants have taken only Algebra I, he said. “They think they’re going to work with their hands,” Meadors said, “and it hasn’t been explained to them … that they’re going to have to have many more math skills than that.”

The problem of finding qualified employees is so dire that some competing businesses have joined forces to strengthen the skills of incoming workers in order to fill jobs. Many businesses and industries are investing time and money into training programs developed by community colleges and organizations such as the Peninsula Council for Workforce Development and Opportunity Inc.

“We cannot in this community have employers fighting one another over a limited supply of skilled people,” said Leber of Northrop Grumman Newport News. “What the employers in this area, the businesses recognize is that we all have to work together to get the infrastructure in place to increase the total quantity and the quality of the total work force.”

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