By THE ALASKA STORY
For years, young people in Southeast Alaska have been told that if they want a future, they have to leave home. A new shipyard training program is built on a different idea: You shouldn’t have to move away from Ketchikan to build a good life.
The state-owned Ketchikan Shipyard, which only months ago was teetering on the brink and laying off workers last year, is now becoming the center of a major workforce training and development push aimed at rebuilding Southeast Alaska’s maritime labor force.
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, JAG Marine Group, and Generations Southeast Vocational Training Center signed a memorandum of understanding to create a direct pipeline from training to employment at Alaska’s shipyards, starting with Ketchikan.
The agreement comes as JAG Marine, the Michigan-based firm that now operates both the Ketchikan and Seward shipyards, ramps up operations after taking over management of the Ketchikan facility from Vigor Industrial.
Since assuming control, JAG has already expanded the workload and brought dozens of employees back onto the yard.
JAG executives have said the bottleneck is not contracts, but trained people.
As the company books out repair and construction work, it has identified a shortage of young, skilled workers in the region. The new partnership with Generations Southeast is designed to solve that problem by offering hands-on, job-ready training tied directly to shipyard work, not just classroom theory.
“This MOU and the efforts of our partners to train Alaskans will provide family-wage blue-collar jobs to Alaskans right out of high school, and another leg to the economy in Southeast Alaska,” said Doug Huff of JAG Marine Group.
Generations Southeast, supported by the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, Sealaska Corporation, and the State of Alaska, will provide shipyard-specific vocational training through its facilities and virtual programs. Students will learn welding, fabrication, and other industrial skills aligned with what the shipyard actually needs.
The MOU follows a dramatic turnaround for the Ketchikan Shipyard.
The facility is owned by AIDEA and had been operated by Vigor Industrial since 2012. But last year, AIDEA declined to extend Vigor’s contract, citing dissatisfaction with its ability to bring in work. Vigor began winding down operations and laying off employees in July, raising fears that the shipyard could go dark.
Instead, AIDEA transferred the operating agreement to JAG Marine Group, whose Alaska subsidiary has run the Seward Shipyard since 2018.
JAG officially took over the Ketchikan Shipyard in late September, onboarding 30 employees on Sept. 22. The first project, work on the Alaska Marine Highway System ferry Lituya, arrived soon after.
JAG has secured multiple National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects for this winter, in addition to routine work on state ferries, the Inter-Island Ferry Authority fleet, and Ketchikan’s airport ferry.
The company’s stated goal was to grow the workforce to more than 150 employees by late fall and early winter.
“AIDEA will continue to work with JAG to find additional partners to bring more opportunities and economic benefits from the shipyard,” said AIDEA Executive Director Randy Ruaro. “We are just getting started.”
