Youngkin visits Smithfield, praises shipbuilding lab school – Smithfield Times

Gov. Glenn Youngkin visited Smithfield on Sept. 24 to celebrate the launch of two shipbuilding-focused lab schools, including the Isle Maritime Trades Academy based at Paul D. Camp Community College’s Smithfield campus.

The creation of workforce-tailored K-12 lab schools has been a priority of Youngkin’s since 2022 when he signed a two-year state budget that included $100 million in state funding for the initiative. In 2024, the IMTA was awarded $1 million in state startup funds plus $1.7 million from the state’s College Partnership Laboratory Fund spread over its first four years in operation. 

The IMTA welcomed its first cohort of students at the start of the current school year. It will allow up to 80 high school juniors and seniors to earn an associate’s degree in technical studies and up to three industry credentials as a maritime welder or electrician concurrently with their high school diploma. Camp operates the school in partnership with Isle of Wight County Schools, Old Dominion University and Huntington Ingall’s, the parent company of Newport News Shipbuilding, which plans to hire an additional 19,000 shipbuilders over the next decade.

Youngkin called the IMTA and Newport News Public Schools’ Maritime Engineering and Environmental Studies Academy, or MEESA, which also opened its doors this fall, a “game changer” for meeting that workforce demand locally.

“I have said over and over again how excited I am for the opportunities that each one of these students will have to chart a career in one of the most dynamic industries in the world,” Youngkin said.

Youngkin said there are now around 3,600 high school students across Virginia enrolled in 15 lab schools, which will scale up to 5,000-plus over the next few years as enrollment increases and additional lab schools are approved. In addition to the two maritime-focused academies, there’s a health care-focused lab school serving Southwest Virginia localities, a future educators lab school serving the Shenandoah Valley and an aerospace lab school serving the Eastern Shore, Youngkin said.

“What we said to localities is you build a lab school that meets your students’ and your region’s needs, not dictated from Richmond,” Youngkin said. “… We will provide frameworks, expert support from ODU and other four-year universities. We will provide funding and so there’s funding for a sustainability plan, startup costs plus five years in total of support plus long-term sustainability support from the industry and our local school divisions. Each one of these lab schools is a part of the public school division.”

Paul D. Camp President Corey McCray described the IMTA as blending technical training with academic achievement and career readiness.

“The IMTA equips students with the technical workplace-ready skills employers demand,” McCray said. “This collaboration ensures a state pipeline of talent to support the maritime industry and drive community growth. The IMTA is more than just an education program. It’s a launchpad for bright, motivated students from the K-12 partner schools who enter the 11th grade and embark on a journey that sets them apart.”

IWCS Superintendent Theo Cramer said the IMTA as a concept would not have been possible without state support and funding.

“The college partnership laboratory school model is designed to spark innovation in education, expanding instruction, reimagining assessment and creating opportunities tailored to the needs of our communities,” Cramer said. “Our own Isle Maritime Trades Academy represents exactly that vision. Through this program Isle of Wight students and staff are able to leverage the outstanding resources of Camp Community College while also building on a strong partnership we’ve forged and enjoy with Huntington Ingalls and Newport News Shipbuilding.”

“Since we joined forces in April 2024, we have shipbuilders serving on the IMTA board and the curriculum advisory board,” said Xavier Beale, vice president of human resources for Newport News Shipbuilding. “Shipbuilders continually visit the school to interact with students and mentor them on various trades and we’re working to provide students with opportunities to come to our gates and to witness first hand what shipbuilding is all about. When a student successfully completes the program, we guarantee them a job here. Imagine that, parents. Your student at 18 years old with skilled trades on their resume and a great job offer from the commonwealth’s largest industrial employer, all – again parents – without any student debt.”

David Doré, chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, said Youngkin “understands the importance that in the future we need to blur the lines between K-12, between higher education and between industry and this lab school represents those blurring of the lines.”

“We’re not sidelining education; we’re aligning it with the workforce realities like shipbuilding, logistics, offshore wind and environmental sustainability,” said Tirzah Sarro-Jaynes, program administrator for MEESA.