A new ultra-modern, white building sits at the mouth of the Port of Tacoma, just south of the Murray Morgan Bridge. It’s a new skills center, called Maritime|253, for Pierce County high schoolers who are interested in a career in the maritime industry.
“ We've seen the need arise that there needs to be that other track that gets people into the skilled trades and more technical side of things that it takes years to prepare for,” said Phill Schmitt, a learning experience engineer for the new skills center.
With a background in education and the military, Schmitt is one of a handful of educators who will be instructing students starting this September. The classes focus on the industrial side of maritime, from longshoring, to becoming a mariner, to advanced cybersecurity.
“ This is to get that base built, get them interested, and get them some skills that then they can transfer and keep up with whatever technology brings at us,” Schmitt said.
The new facility is one of a little over a dozen skills centers in Washington state. These educational facilities offer dual credit high school and career and technical education credit to high schoolers, tuition-free.
Maritime|253 is run by Tacoma Public Schools, and is open to students around Pierce County.
One of the incoming students, Joseph Butler, a senior at Curtis High School, said he is excited about how the schooling will prepare him for his future career. He wants to be a crane operator at the port.
“ I'm excited to get to have new opportunities and new experiences with the skills center, and experience the crane operator simulation,” Butler said. “ Not a lot of people in the world get to do something like this.”
Butler became interested in this career watching his dad work at the port as a mechanic. His dad has worked there for 15 years, and seeing the secure, stable employment left an impression on Butler.
“With trades, it will always be in use for life,” Butler said. “It can't get replaced by AI or anything else.”
Getting young people connected with the opportunities of this region was the goal.
“Now, with this partnership and the physical location, students will start to understand the value and the important role the port plays and the economic driver that it is and how we connect them with those jobs,” said Kristie Wolford, the director of the skills center.
Students will learn about things like planning voyages for ships, using autonomous vehicles and water quality testing — all useful for future maritime careers. Students’ courses range from classes in sustainability, port operations, logistics, advanced maritime manufacturing and cybersecurity.
“They're definitely going to get a taste of a few things with the opportunity to go deep in an area as they continue into their second year,” Wolford said.
Most of the students starting classes at the skills center this fall are juniors and seniors, but there's also a smaller group of sophomores attending. The skills center will also offer summer programs for eighth through twelfth graders.
“ The cool thing is it's an opportunity for students to try something while they're exploring and trying to figure out where they might head next,” Wolford said.
The development of the skills center has been in the making for a decade, when the Tacoma Schools’ superintendent approached the port, asking if there was any learning space in the port for courses in the maritime industry. This spurred a project to create a space, and now the building sits on the new Maritime Center campus in the port.
Read the audio transcript here.
