HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding Hosts Mississippi Educators to Strengthen Workforce Pipelines

July 01, 2025 at 15:30 PM EDT

PASCAGOULA, Miss., July 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HII’s (NYSE: HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division recently concluded its third annual educator externship, hosting 15 educators from school districts across the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The two-week program, held June 9-20, is part of HII’s broader initiative to strengthen skilled workforce pipelines and align local education efforts with national defense needs.

“As we continue to execute on our Navy shipbuilding priorities, investing in workforce readiness remains central to our mission at Ingalls,” said Susan Jacobs, vice president of human resources at Ingalls Shipbuilding. “This externship program strengthens our connection to the classroom, equips our educators with industry insight, and helps ensure our local students are developing the skills required for a successful career in shipbuilding.”

The externship gave educators an opportunity to observe shipyard operations through facility tours, job shadowing and roundtable discussions with experienced shipbuilders and company leadership. New this year was the addition of a virtual welding lab training exercise, where educators used the technology to learn basic welding techniques in a safe, simulation-based environment. The lab mirrors the tools and techniques used to train incoming shipbuilders and gives educators a firsthand look at how foundational skills are reinforced in a controlled and scalable setting.

Externship - VR Welding_Robert Hebert_June 18, 2025_10
Photos accompanying this release are available at: http://hii.com/news/hiis-ingalls-shipbuilding-hosts-mississippi-educators-to-strengthen-workforce-pipelines/.

This year’s externship participants represented school districts across the Mississippi Gulf Coast, including:

Biloxi Public School District: Samantha Dronet
Harrison County School District: Sharon Jenkins
Moss Point School District: James Briscoe, Shelia White
Ocean Springs School District: Macy Chism, Tiffany Flowers
Pascagoula-Gautier School District: Santorial Brumfield, Jessica DeBose, Chandra Fuller, Shaun Gilley, Keisha Keyes, Kelly Lane, Beverly McInnis, Portia Robinson Shauna Watts

In addition to the educator externship, Ingalls is investing in the local workforce pipeline through programs such as the Shipbuilder Academy, technical training in high schools, and partnerships with community colleges. As part of HII, Ingalls also supports enterprise-wide commitments to hands-on apprentice training, partnerships with two- and four-year colleges and universities, and investments in K-12 schools.

By investing in education and workforce development, Ingalls reaffirms its commitment to building both ships and careers in the Gulf Coast region. For more information about careers at Ingalls Shipbuilding, visit hii.com/careers.

About HII

HII is a global, all-domain defense provider. HII’s mission is to deliver the world’s most powerful ships and all-domain solutions in service of the nation, creating the advantage for our customers to protect peace and freedom around the world.

As the nation’s largest military shipbuilder, and with a more than 135-year history of advancing U.S. national security, HII delivers critical capabilities extending from ships to unmanned systems, cyber, ISR, AI/ML and synthetic training. Headquartered in Virginia, HII’s workforce is 44,000 strong. For more information, visit: