Generations Southeast Vocational Training Center Signs Up to Fill Shipyard Workforce
JAG Marine Group, as the new operator of the Ketchikan Shipyard, pledges to increase employment, driving the need for more welders and others trained in marine construction.
Photo Credit: Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority
Generations Southeast Vocational Training Center, a program of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska with campuses in Juneau and Klawock, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the owner and operator of the Ketchikan Shipyard to promote workforce development. JAG Marine Group took over management late last year of the facility owned by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) while pledging to increase employment there.
Joy for Jobs
JAG President and co-founder Doug Huff says, “There are tremendous opportunities to work in the shipyard and maritime industry. This MOU and the efforts of our partners to train Alaskans will provide family-wage blue collar jobs to Alaskans right out of high school.”
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Kennedy Stumpf, director of Generations Southeast welding program, says, “Providing opportunity for Alaskans to explore aspects of the shipyard brings me so much joy because that’s where my love and respect for the trades began.”
AIDEA Executive Director Randy Ruaro adds, “AIDEA will continue to work with JAG to find additional partners to bring more opportunities and economic benefits from the shipyard. We are just getting started.”
Generations Southeast is the 2022 rebranding of the Vocational Training and Resource Center in Juneau, originally opened in 2001. The program expanded to Prince of Wales Island in 2024 with the addition of a Klawock campus. Courses are also offered online.
“This is a statewide effort, and the shipyard presents a real opportunity to create local jobs in Southeast Alaska,” says Tlingit and Haida President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson. “Too often, Alaskans leave because they believe there are no opportunities here at home. Tlingit and Haida, through Generations Southeast, is prepared and willing to take on this opportunity for our region by developing shipyard-specific, certified training in partnership with industry and state agencies, so Alaska jobs can be filled by Alaska workers.”
Under the previous twenty years of operation by Vigor Alaska, employment at the Ketchikan Shipyard declined from more than 150 workers in the mid-2010s, when the state ferries Tazlina and Hubbard were under construction, to less than 80 by the early 2020s.
JAG Marine Group aims to triple or quadruple revenue coming into the shipyard in the next two years and increase employment by 100 full-time positions or more. Booked business is already strong for 2026 and 2027, according to Huff. Work recently began on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel Rainier.
