Lockheed Martin to spend $5 million on vocational trade programs

Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) has announced plans to spend $5 million on vocational and trade programs and create 8,000 new apprenticeship opportunities over the next five years.

Marillyn Hewson, the defense contractor’s chairman, president, and CEO, made that pledge, coinciding with President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order establishing the President’s National Council for the American Worker.

The $5 million investment in vocational and trade programs is part of Lockheed Martin’s previously announced tax-reform savings plan. It includes a $50 million investment in support of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) scholarships and a $100 million investment to expand employee training and educational opportunities over the next five years.

“The U.S. aerospace and defense industry relies predominantly on an American workforce and is disproportionally impacted by the shortage of skilled manufacturing workers to fill critical jobs,” Hewson said in a news release. “The president has raised this issue to a level of national urgency and we are ready to do our part. Lockheed Martin’s pledge demonstrates our commitment to enacting workforce solutions that keep pace with technological innovation, preparing workers for the challenges of the 21st century and helping to secure American prosperity and national security.”

Any local impact?

As of now, “it is too early to say definitively the specific locations” that will see the impact of the corporation’s investment, Thomas Kogut, communications and public-affairs manager at Lockheed Martin, said in an email response to a BJNN inquiry about the effect on the firm’s Syracuse–area plant and Owego facility.

With “roughly 100” open positions in Salina and more in Owego, “there is always the need” for qualified employees, Kogut added. The Bethesda, Maryland–based company hopes that these types of programs will help to fill “our job pipeline in the future.”

Program’s purpose

The president’s newly formed council will “develop and implement a national workforce strategy to address the growing skills gap in vocational workers’ readiness for current jobs and careers of the future,” according to the Lockheed release.

“Consistent with the administration’s goals” and Lockheed Martin’s workforce-development priorities, the 8,000 “new opportunities to upskill” current and future employees will cover four areas.

They’ll include internships which will be available to high-school students for non-full-time aerospace and defense positions to “learn and develop” job-specific knowledge.

In addition, rotation programs will be available to newly hired employees that provide opportunities for rotational job “experiences” and leadership training.

They’ll also include mid-career development programs that offer “continuous” learning for mid-career employees to “ensure their skills remain current with evolving job requirements and emerging technologies.”

The firm’s initiative will include technical apprentice programs that focus on a specific trade or skill and offer credentials along with the opportunity for employment post program completion.

These initiatives will impact college-bound students, along with people interested in entering vocational trades; unemployed or displaced workers; and veterans, which make up 25 percent of Lockheed Martin’s workforce, the defense contractor said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

Eric Reinhardt / BJNN file photo