Chance at shipyard job draws 3,000 hopefuls
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Nice work if you can get it: Starting pay 2 1/2 times minimum wage, excellent benefits — plus, they toss in a tuition-free college education, on-the-job training and a virtual lock on long-term job security.
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No experience necessary.
Colleen Martineau of the Human Resource Opportunity Office hands out packets and answers applicants' questions at the Marine Education & Training Center.
Thus, an estimated 3,000 prospective workers showed up yesterday at the Marine Education Training Center on Sand Island for a chance at 100 jobs with Hawai'i's largest industrial employer — the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.
The full-service shipyard can handle anything from an aircraft carrier to a tugboat, and employs 4,400 pipefitters, mechanics, electricians, shipwrights, machinists, painters and fabric workers.
Neither overcast skies, occasional drizzle or the 1-in-30 odds could dampen the spirits of most who arrived for the five-hour Shipyard Apprentice Program Job Fair, which began at 9 a.m.
Jesus Bell, 29, of Kane'ohe, who showed up two hours before the gate opened, said he didn't know a single thing about shipyards.
But he wasn't worried.
"They want you to start from scratch," said Bell, who dropped out of high school a decade ago and later got his GED. "I'm scratched up, so I think I've got as good a chance as anyone."
Freeman Correa, Jr., the shipyard superintendent who coordinates the apprentice program, concurred.
"We can take someone that doesn't have any experience at all, and if they get past the tests, and they show us they want to work, then we can train them," said Correa. "We want them to stay with us for the next 35-plus years after they finish the four-year program."
Apprentice pay begins at $14.50 an hour, says Correa.
"Every six months, if your performance is up to par, you get a raise," he said. "And, you get your normal civil service benefits."
The federal government picks up the tab, he said.
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"It's wonderful, but there are a lot of things to go through before you're accepted — interviews, tests, security clearances, physical exams," said Ben Au, a shipyard industrial control mechanic who went through the apprentice program himself in 1982. "Takes six months or more to be accepted."
Applicants wait their turn at the Marine Education and Training Center before the 9 a.m. opening to sign up for the apprentice program.
Those who are accepted from the latest crop of applicants will begin classes in January of 2003. The forms must be in the mail by April 12.
Correa said the apprentice program was interrupted in 1995 because of downsizing and budget constraints. It was reinstated in 1999, and this time it is operated in partnership with Honolulu Community College.
Alan Uyehara, dean of HCC, which facilitates the program, said the idea is to bring new blood into the shipyard's aging work force.
"Our responsibility is to do the academic training," he said. "They're taking classes in the day right at the shipyard, and then working in the afternoon. They're working on nuclear submarines out there, so it's a great opportunity."
Apprentices who make it through the four-year program earn an Associate Degree as well as an apprentice program certificate from the Navy.
Most who picked up employment and curriculum information yesterday were young.
Males outnumbered females about nine to one, roughly the same ratio of males to females that work at the shipyard. But, according to Jason Holm, public affairs officer with Navy Shipyard, the number of female workers at the facility is on the rise.
"It's a man job," said April Herfurth, 23, a first-year apprentice rigger. "It takes more determination for a woman. But I'm keeping up. I'm in this for the long haul. I'm going to try and make a career of this."
For information about the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard Apprentice Program, call 474-0272.
