Resurrection of the American Maritime Education Pathway
Tacoma develops landmark hub to train youth for careers in the marine industry
“Go to sea, young man” could be the “go West” rallying cry of our time. Shop class and mariner career pathways are reappearing in the American education landscape after decades of marginalization. The change is a long time coming for many. America’s deficit of skilled labor has been lamented by industry professionals struggling to remain competitive to boat owners trying to get timely work done in the yard. Equally pressing are the concerns of parents who want to raise debt-free children and young people trying to find their way. Enter Tacoma, Washington.
The Port of Tacoma and Tacoma Public Schools made waves by breaking ground on the 20-acre Port Maritime Center (PMC) campus on January 8. The Tacoma Public Schools-run Maritime|253 component of the PMC is the real attention grabber. Maritime|253 will offer career and technical education to upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) from across Pierce County for trades and maritime industry careers. Career tracks in manufacturing, maritime sustainability, transportation, and logistics are touted. The best part is that all these educational opportunities are free for students under the umbrella of the public school system. The school-within-a-port is supposed to accept students as soon as fall 2026 while the business offices are slated to open in the spring of 2027.
Tacoma’s PMC effort is yet another sign of a broad societal pivot. The traditional classroom-maritime hybrid curriculum driven Maritime High School of nearby Des Moines, Washington opened in September 2021 and has graduated multiple classes. Core Plus is a statewide nonprofit that helps participating high schools reestablish trades programs with emphasis in aerospace, maritime, and construction career pathways. Nonprofit Puget Sound Maritime’s long-running Youth Maritime Training Association (YMTA) scholarship program awarded $27,000 last year directly to high school applicants seeking support to pursue careers aquatic. Most of these organizations have been going at it alone for years, spearheaded by plucky bands of localized believers who blazed the trail of this needed change. These efforts are bearing fruit and may be a heartening sign of what’s to come.
“The Port Maritime Center will be the new front door to the Port of Tacoma, allowing us to better connect with the community and bringing new life to the east side of the Foss Waterway,” said Port of Tacoma Commission President John McCarthy in a press release. “Our unique partnership with Tacoma Public Schools makes this a transformational project that will help inspire and grow the future of the maritime industry in our region.”
“Years of hard work, dedication, and collaboration have brought us here,” said Tacoma Public Schools’ Board President Korey Strozier. “We’re shaping the future of maritime in our region and opening doors for more young people to step into an industry that’s critical to our community’s growth. This is a proud and exciting moment for all of us.”
According to Adam Kulaas, director of innovation learning and career tech education for Tacoma Public Schools, Maritime|253 is an evolution from an existing program that offers credentials across eight sectors including merchant mariner. Students who go through the credentialling program are eligible for merchant-mariner cards and relevant apprenticeships—a process that can be difficult to navigate outside a career pipeline. The program graduated 127 students last summer. Maritime|253 aims to accommodate an impressive 600 students when fully operational.
“This investment in our maritime workforce and the future of our state’s maritime industry will help keep us at the forefront of innovation and support good-paying jobs for Washington families,” said House Speaker Laurie Jinkins.
The broken ground in Tacoma is a welcome sight. It is a cause for celebration that the political leadership is shifting from neglecting the student-to-mariner and -tradesperson pipeline to rebuilding—even passionately embracing—its resurrection. Society benefits from drawing upon the best trained mariners and marine industry tradesmen in the world. The new generation benefits from meaningful, often well-paying careers achieved debt-free. For those of us who are marine minded, it doesn’t get much better than that.
