Page 43: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2013)

www.marinelink.com 43With the facility and process growth came employment growth, with signiÞ cant focus placed on training and skills enhancement. With tremendous help from the State of Ala- bama, we?ve developed a top notch training program that has enabled us to grow in to-tal employment from about 800 in 2009 to over 3,500 today. These investments have enabled us to successfully support two Þ rst-in-class Navy programs and we feel this has put us in a very competitive position going forward.For example, June was a very busy month here: we launched JHSV 3; delivered JHSV 2; then laid the keel for LCS 8, showing the manufacturing lines are in full operation.Business is fraught with challenges every day. What do you count as the top chal- lenges to building and maintaining an ef-Þ cient, pro Þ table shipbuilding operation? As can be expected, our primary challenges have centered around the rapid facility and employment growth we?ve ex-perienced over the past few years while sup-porting two Þ rst-in-class programs. With expansion and employment growth come challenges in maintaining safety and increas-ing skill base. Fortunately, we?ve been able to see signiÞ cant improvements in both these areas despite the growth.Regarding safety, despite growing total employment from under 1,000 to over 3,500 in just a few short years, we?ve successfully focused on improving the working environ-ment of our employees as evidenced by re-ceiving the Shipbuilders? Council of Ameri- ca (SCA) award for Excellence in Safety for the fourth consecutive year. This is a direct result of the hard work and intense focus of all of our personnel, as well as their ulti-mate commitment to each other?s safety. Al- though our safety performance is nationally recognized, our focus remains on continuing to improve and provide our employees with the safest work environment possible.To help increase our skill base, Austal has teamed up with Alabama Industrial Develop- ment Training (AIDT) to develop a 60,000 sq. ft. onsite training facility and program to support our needs. This program is designed to provide an intense training opportunities for all trades; both existing Austal employ- ees who desire to increase their skills for career advancement, and pre-hire candidates to facilitate their ability to rapidly assimilate into the workforces. Austal also recruits 50 to 100 people twice per year to participate in our Apprentice Training Program which has successfully graduated four, four-year class- es into our workforce in the last six years. Craig Perciavalle, President, Austal USA MR #8 (42-49).indd 43MR #8 (42-49).indd 438/2/2013 2:27:35 PM8/2/2013 2:27:35 PM