M3 students graduate with certificates

WARREN — With plans for the U.S. Navy to expand its fleet of submarines to further support national security, the Navy has called on Macomb Community College to help achieve that goal.

The Navy recently invested $15.4 million into the college’s Michigan Technical Education Center, located at Martin Road and Van Dyke Avenue, for a state-of-the-art training center to offer an accelerated Michigan Maritime Manufacturing (M3) training program.

Last November, the school welcomed its first group of students into the intense 17-week course; some studied welding while others were in the CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machining program. The classes met for eight hours a day, five days a week. The accelerated program addresses the urgent need for skilled labor in the defense sector as workers are needed to manufacture the parts that build Navy ships and submarines.

A total of 21 students — ranging in age from their 20s through their 50s — graduated from the program during a ceremony held March 20 at the Student Community Center on South Campus in Warren. Macomb President James O. Sawyer IV, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, and U.S. Navy representative Miranda Shurer all provided remarks to the graduates and the family members, friends and staff in attendance. Donald Hutchison, dean, Engineering and Advanced Technology, Macomb, was the emcee.

“This really is an exceptional group of Michiganders, these 21. You came into this program from all different walks of life,” Whitmer said. “We have a Coast Guard veteran, a caregiver in a group home, a grocery store clerk, an accounting student and a library worker among many others. There’s a mother and son duo here, too, which is just incredible.

“Our service members and their families sacrifice so much to keep us safe, and I’m grateful to you for carrying on your family’s legacy through this M3 so that we can all work together to ensure that our armed forces are the strongest in the world,” Whitmer. “The M3 initiative is an incredible opportunity for Michiganders to protect our national defense while earning a good living.”

According to the governor, the U.S. only builds 0.1% of the world’s ships today while “China makes 53% more than everyone else combined.”

“We’re falling behind when it comes to building ships. I’m really happy the U.S. Navy is taking this seriously. They’ve called for the construction of hundreds of new ships and submarines over the next few decades,” Whitmer said. “Just a few weeks ago, (President Donald) Trump said he was going to establish a new office of shipbuilding in the White House.”

She also told the crowd former Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said the Navy picked Macomb “because of the strong network of hands-on programs available to local high schools and community colleges.”

At the March 20 ceremony, Shurer addressed the graduates. Her husband, Ronald Shurer, who died in 2020 reportedly of cancer, was an Army Special Forces staff sergeant and the recipient of the Medal of Honor.

“You will show how valuable this training program is and make sure manufacturers know they can trust graduates from the program. They will come to them skilled and ready to do important work,” Shurer said.

“This accelerated training utilizes a curriculum that was developed for our national accelerated training and defense manufacturing program in Virginia, which has trained more than 750 skilled workers since February of 2022,” Shurer said. “Beyond our submarines, our maritime industrial base produces parts for different classes of service ships like aircraft carriers, destroyers and a lot of other vessel types.”   

According to Patrick Rouse, director, Workforce & Continuing Education, Engineering and Advanced Technology at Macomb, students in the M3 program do not pay any tuition or supply costs.

The Navy’s $15.4 million investment is designed to support the M3 program through early 2027 and graduate up to 384 students. The Navy’s investment included buying new CNC milling machines, lathes, welding machines, new labs and classrooms. Funding also paid for the hiring of instructors.

In the M3 program, students chose to pursue welding or CNC machining. In the first group of cohorts, there were 11 welders and 10 CNC machinists. The students studied the four commonly used types of welding: TIG (tungsten inert gas,) MIG (metal inert gas,) flux-cored and stick.

“The courses were designed to mimic the workplace,” Rouse said.

About half of the graduates already were hired at local companies, including Dynasty Fab, American Rheinmetall, RCO Engineering and Schwartz Machine. Those newly hired workers signed contracts upon receiving their certificates at the graduation ceremony.

“The bulk of the students are going into maritime supplies to support the U.S. Navy. A couple accepted jobs in defense and one person is in advanced manufacturing as a whole,” Rouse said.

According to Rouse, the starting pay for such jobs is $22-$25 per hour.