Education & Workforce
The U.S. Secretary of Transportation, through the Maritime Administration, has designated the University of West Florida as one of 16 new Centers of Excellence for Domestic Maritime Workforce Training and Education.
Why this matters: The designation comes on the heels of Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves Workforce Summit, held on Aug. 26. Reeves said the city’s next step out of the workforce summit is standing up two separate working groups: 1)Academics (school district, Pensacola State, UWF, Northwest Florida State) and 2) Private companies. They will meet separately before combining.
- “If we have a lot of silos in workforce right now, we don’t want to still have two,” he said. “We ultimately want there to be one.” He named curriculum and recruitment as priority topics, adding the city wants private companies to spell out specific needs “down to what type of welders do you need, what type of composite work do you need the most.”
Summit Takeaways: Asked for his top two takeaways from the summit, Reeves pointed first to the dollar figures involved, citing $40 million in Department of Labor money for shipbuilding apprenticeships — up to $6,000 per apprentice paid directly to companies. “That’s something a city on its own or county on its own could never afford to do,” he said.
- His second takeaway was alignment among stakeholders: “I already get the preliminary willingness of our private folks to not look at it as competition… I think the same on the academic side, that instead of being a culture of scarcity, we’re a culture of abundance.”
How UWF earned the designation
The Maritime Administration evaluated UWF’s operational footprint, relevant assets, workforce pipelines and economic impact. Reviewers pointed to the University’s high-tech fabrication labs, industry-standard software and a waterfront complex that lets students combine campus-based coursework with hands-on experience at dedicated waterfront operations. UWF also runs the Watercraft and Vessel Engineering (WAVE) program, a project-based curriculum built for coastal marine manufacturers.
“UWF is strategically expanding its research and development efforts in areas related to watercraft and vessel engineering and is enhancing its STEM educational offerings to meet the workforce needs of marine manufacturers.” — Dr. Mohamed Khabou, dean, Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering
The University coordinates a pipeline of 1,085 active students who directly support production yards building deep-water vessels and modular military assemblies. Through mentorships and internships, UWF students work across:
- American Magic, a high-performance sailboat manufacturer
- Jupiter Bach, a wind turbine original equipment manufacturer
- Tocaro Blue, an artificially intelligent marine sensor manufacturer
The Haas Center’s role
The UWF Haas Center helped build the University’s understanding of the region’s maritime workforce and industrial needs through applied research and industry partnerships.
“The Haas Center’s role in this effort grew out of applied research we conducted for a shipbuilder seeking to understand the workforce, economic and industrial capacity needed to support its expansion. That work demonstrated both the scale of the opportunity for Northwest Florida and the critical role UWF can play in developing the engineers, technicians and skilled talent required by a growing maritime industrial base.” — Nicole Gislason, executive director, UWF Haas Center
Learn more about UWF’s science and engineering programs at uwf.edu/hmcse.
