Maritime|253 Sets Sail

Huge is a word heard often in conversations about the positive effect on workforce development and business that area leaders anticipate from the new Maritime|253 skills center opening to area high school students Sept. 9 at the Port of Tacoma.

Washington’s latest regional career and technical education center is seen as tailor-made for South Sound’s maritime portal to the world.

“I think it’s going to have a significant positive impact on our ability to train people in industries and sectors that are critical to Tacoma’s economic health and wellbeing,” Michael Catsi, president and CEO of the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County, said in May as the Maritime|253 skills center keys were about to be handed to Tacoma Public Schools, which will operate it. “Maritime trades cover so many different jobs and skill types — it’s going to help us create the workforce of the future for what we need here in Tacoma to maintain our maritime dominance.”

The maritime skills center is one part of the 21-acre Maritime Center, the other being new port business offices, a public meeting center, and more along the shores of the Thea Foss and Wheeler-Osgood waterways. The Maritime Center, which broke ground in January 2025, has become a distinctive waterfront structure in Tacoma with its angular rooflines visible from downtown and Interstate 705. The port budgeted $150 million for its portion of the project, with the port and school district each paying for their own building and the school district contributing to site development work. Tacoma Public Schools’ total budget for Maritime|253 was $55 million, with funding from a 2020 school construction bond.

The Maritime Center is expected to bring new attention to a port central to the overall economy — already supporting about 41,100 jobs, including 14,400 directly, with about $3.4 billion in annual compensation, and $10.8 billion in total business output — while making the Tacoma Tideflats more welcoming for public visitation and exploration. Walking trails, a public kayak launch, and other beautification around the Maritime Center are in the works as well, plus important recognition to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians for whom the area is historically and culturally significant.

Dick Marzano, president of the Port of Tacoma Commission, said the Maritime Center will be a beacon for the port.

“I went to Stadium High School and I didn’t even realize we had a port,” Marzano said. “I’d see the waterway and all that other stuff … (but) to some degree, we’re kind of hidden, even though we’re a major port. … This will really give a definition of where we are, what we’re doing, and the landscape on that side of the waterway will just enhance itself for other developments, I believe, where we’ll be able to see other businesses look at it and say, ‘Hey, we’ve already done one side, let’s do this side.’ I think we’ll be kind of a staple of making that move forward.”

The port has a good story to tell, he said, not just with its jobs and job training, but also in the environmental cleanups in and around the Maritime Center.

“I think by us locating down there where we’re right in the heart of Tacoma, basically, will be a great reflection upon what we do as a port,” Marzano said.

At Maritime|253, students will take advanced, industry- focused courses alongside their required high school classes, spending a half day at their regular high school and a half day at the skills center, according to Maritime|253’s website. Courses are geared toward students in 11th and 12th grades, prepping them for jobs, certifications, apprenticeships, or two- and four-year colleges for more advanced training and education.

As a public school, Maritime|253 is free and it’s open to students in school districts that include Tacoma Public Schools, Vashon Island, Sumner-Bonney Lake, Orting, Franklin Pierce, Fife, Chief Leschi, and University Place. Students from nonmember districts will be accepted based on available space, according to the site.

“I think it’s going to have a huge impact by allowing students to come out of high school with certifications and qualifications that they can take straight into the workforce,” Catsi said of Maritime|253. “It’s going to lower the barriers to a career for many people in our community.”

For employers who sometimes struggle to find enough skilled labor for their needs, Maritime|253 will be a welcome pipeline of young, eager, well-trained talent.

“This will produce a homegrown workforce that fits into the businesses and industries that we have here in Tacoma and Pierce County — so it’s a homegrown workforce for a homegrown business community,” Catsi continued. “I think this is going to strengthen our ability to keep the businesses we have and help them grow, but it’s also going to help us attract new businesses. The business recruitment and attraction process has changed, where businesses are now looking at communities that already have an existing skilled workforce that they need, so if we have this, if we’re producing talented and skilled workers, then we become a magnet for businesses wanting to be here.”

Maritime|253 had about 200 accepted applicants for classes beginning this fall, according to a mid-May update from Adam Kulaas, director of innovative learning and career technical education for Tacoma Public Schools.

“I think it’s a really cool bridge to livable wage careers that absolutely have positive economic impact in terms of our region and our state,” Kulaas said, noting the skills developed there also can serve as an accelerant for advanced certifications and degrees at local technical and community colleges, and four-year universities.

Addressing What’s Next After Graduation

Katie Condit, CEO of WorkForce Central in Pierce County, said education systems for a long time have focused on graduation rate as the outcome. School districts haven’t often looked at what happens next; they haven’t been asked to, she said.

Maritime|253 is Tacoma Public Schools saying, “‘Actually, our job is, What’s next?’ ” Condit said. “They are setting an example and a standard — so it’s just huge for workforce development. Businesses need these entry- to middle-level workers; they are hungry for that commitment and I think we’re growing our own with this model, and that’s compelling.”

She called Tacoma Public Schools a model for career and technical education training in the Pacific Northwest. Port employers are excited about Maritime|253 opening, port Commissioner Marzano said.

“As the workforce gets older, they start retiring and there’s still a high demand for maritime skills — diesel mechanics, welders, refrigeration repair, things of that nature,” Marzano said. “And one of the things that we’ve learned over time is that there’s a lot of young men and women getting out of high school that are going be going to college, but a lot of them want to work with their hands, and one of the ways we’ve been able to encourage that is by the exposure of what kind of career trades are out there on the waterfront.”

As the Maritime Center emerges physically, people are excited realizing the concept of maritime workforce training is happening, said Eric Johnson, port executive director.

“Particularly with the welding program (that’s planned), we have tenants who build boats … that have a chronic problem finding trained welders and when I explain to them the sophistication of the welding training program that we’re going to be doing over here, they were really excited,” he said. “They said, ‘We want to donate material, we want to donate metal to the program so that they can learn and get a pathway to getting a job with us.’”

The port has always supported workforce training, but Maritime|253 adds a new feature, Johnson said. People in the port’s maintenance department, for example, who maintain the port’s massive cargo cranes, straddle carriers, and other equipment have helped develop the skill center’s curriculum. Maritime|253 will include the same simulators used to train crane operators.

Jobs pathways run the gamut in skills and technology, indoors and out.

Kulaas said programs were carefully designed with myriad industry partners.

“From a design standpoint, ours is very much intentionally aligned to maximizing maritime and maximizing workforce development within maritime,” he said.

“All four of our pathways have been designed and even the course progression and those authorized courses through the state as sort of this … exciting, non-negotiable for us around land, sea, and air application,” he continued. “So there are students that will travel through cybersecurity that may never work in a connected maritime industry, however, (they) will transition into either advanced training beyond the diploma to get advanced degrees or certificates, or directly into the workforce in terms of that one little niche element, and every pathway has kind of fun offshoots that replicate that same access for kids.”

Maritime|253 Educational and Training Pathways

The skills center comprises four broad learning pathways — advanced maritime manufacturing; port operations and logistics; sustainability; and technology — from which numerous career options emerge. Each program is a two-year, half-day model providing up to 1,080 hours of training, industry-recognized credentials, and dual credit toward college, according to Maritime|253’s website, which details each pathway and the types of students to whom each would appeal. As described on the center’s website:

◉ Advanced maritime manufacturing: This is a pathway for students who want to design, build, and automate the systems that power the maritime and advanced manufacturing industries. Students learn through hands-on, project-based experiences in labs that reflect real industry environments. Students design and build the next generation of ships and integrate new and divergent marine technologies. They will learn 3D design, additive and subtractive manufacturing, computer-assisted tech, welding, composites, naval architecture, and marine electronics. They’ll also work on real vessel repair and build projects.

◉ Port operations and logistics: This is a pathway for students interested in how ports, transportation systems, and regulatory frameworks keep global trade and commerce moving safely and efficiently. The pathway emphasizes safety, systems thinking, and leadership in highly regulated environments. Students experience the operations that power ports, ships, aviation, and rail. They will train in vessel handling simulators, heavy equipment, rail systems, port logistics, physical security, supply chain management, aviation ground school, maritime law, and vessel operations.

◉ Technology: This is a pathway for students interested in computing, cybersecurity, and the systems that protect modern infrastructure. Students dive into networking, coding, cybersecurity, drones, and media technology. They will set up real-world information technology systems, test for security vulnerabilities, code with Python, operate drones, design 3D models, and create live audio visual systems.

◉ Sustainability: This is a pathway for students interested in environmental science, clean energy, and designing solutions for a more resilient future. Students explore the future of clean energy and conservation. They will install solar panels and wind turbines, explore alternative fuels, and learn sustainable construction. They also will complete outdoor environmental fieldwork, learn about protecting marine and shore environments, and apply automation through mechatronics.

Kulaas sees myriad opportunities arising outside the skills center for students and employers.

“I think there’ll be all sorts of inthe- works opportunities, even from a partnership standpoint with the WorkForce Centrals of the world, the Puyallup Tribe, lots of different entities in terms of, How do we maximize the training facility outside of our skill center scheduled day to enhance the bigger ecosystem of Tacoma and South Puget Sound?” he said. “We are more than excited to continue down that path in terms of upskilling, in terms of those pieces. From the inception, we’ve been really intentional with industry-validated, industry-aligned training aspects — and some of those are tools that accompany our instruction, from the same simulators that our longshoremen and Northwest Seaport Alliance (staff) train on, and things like that — was a non-negotiable from a design concept, so it’s exciting to be able to deliver that for students that are training and learning.”

The maritime training joins a long list of other career and technical education programs available through area public schools, Kulaas said, noting more than 40 industry partners helped design the maritime pathways and enhance other programming.

“We have everything from what I would consider world-class culinary arts with a progression that lands kids with meaningful credentials and this progression of opportunity and access over the course of their four years in high school, all the way to robust construction trades that leans into Core Plus at Lincoln High School, a manufacturing program at Lincoln High School, (and) our Health Careers Academy continues to thrive in multiple high schools — and that’s not to discount any of our other lanes” of study, he said.

WorkForce Central’s Condit said Maritime|253 is a significant addition to the region’s career pathways scene.

“It’s a critical move on the school district and the port’s part,” she said of the skills center. “The earlier students can get excited about career pathways, the more likely they are to tie into post-secondary training and to get jobs in those pathways. … The school district is doing a really incredible thing by investing not only in the training pathways, but in all of the equipment that students will then see on the jobsite. And what employers are telling us is that it matters that they’re doing it in the classroom and in school before they get to the job floor — and they’re seeing more and more of that with these skill centers.”

Maritime|253 is a “huge value-add,” Condit said, noting it also could interest students in eastern or southern Pierce County, who don’t consider maritime or the port as careers to explore maritime careers, as well.

Some students will move directly into the workforce after graduation, while others will need more training or advanced education.

The port’s director, Johnson, said maritime jobs aren’t all about mechanics and welders, they also include port logistics, technology, and sustainability. A lot of the jobs in the tideflats are in front of computers, particularly in logistics, he noted.

“The secret sauce of the supply chain: How do things actually work in the warehouses? How does the cargo actually move? That’s the piece that people don’t see … and we’re going to, I hope, get kids trained into that space,” Johnson said. “That’ll take a little bit of on-the-job training. I don’t think you’re going to go straight from high school into working for one of the logistics companies in a sophisticated way, but if you’re interested in that, I know that that segment … is looking for employees. They’ve got the same problem that you have in the equipment trades — people are retiring.”

While Maritime|253 offers pathways to careers in the industry, the training it will provide will transfer to other industries as well, EDB’s Catsi said.

“Businesses coming here want to know that we have the workforce they need, but they also want to know that as they expand, we’re training the workforce that they’ll be able to utilize as they do that — and they’re not going to have to go out and chase talent,” Catsi said. “It’s going to be trained right here where they are. It’s not just for attracting companies now, but it’s actually for retaining them in the future and helping them expand.”