Apprenticeships

ANTHONY TWYMAN

There are moments when Sherrie Johnson feels she should pinch herself to see if she is dreaming. Twenty-two years ago, she was in prison for aggravated assault. Today, she is a detail planner at Philly Shipyard, Inc. (PSI), scheduling and managing the supply chain that turns gigantic hunks of metal into seafaring vessels.

“I can’t believe I have come this far,” says Johnson, a graduate of apprenticeship training provided by private shipbuilder PSI in conjunction with DCCC through a partnership known as the Collegiate Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development (CCWED). CCWED is a training entity consisting of the region’s five community colleges and Drexel University.

For decades, CCWED has partnered with private and government employers to offer training through apprenticeships. CCWED and DCCC provide the related training instruction for three separate Department of Labor registered apprenticeship training programs at the Navy Yard business park: the 3-year PSI apprenticeship; a 4-year U.S. Naval Foundry and Propeller Center (NFPC) apprenticeship; and an 8,000-hour Naval Facillities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) apprenticeship. The College also is involved in PA Pipeline, a new, regional, pilot-program collaboration with the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Philadelphia Division that connects maritime and defense employers with career and technical education providers.

Johnson, 50, a mother of three children, learned about apprenticeships while in prison. Once out of prison and after working in several customer service jobs, she enrolled in the PSI apprenticeship in 2008 and learned welding, detail planning, outfitting and other skills. During the day, she spent time at PSI gaining hands-on experience; at night, she took classes at DCCC’s Marple Campus. She also was mentored by a Norwegian pipefitter brought in by PSI to teach her how to more efficiently read blueprints and layouts.

Today, PSI classroom education is done at the Marple Campus as well as on-site out of its Charles W. Jones Memorial Philly Shipyard Training Academy with DCCC instructors. Upon completion of the state-accredited apprenticeship, students receive credits from the College toward a technical studies associate degree.

Apprenticeships combine traditional classroom coursework with valuable, on-the-job, hands-on training leading to industry-recognized certification and/or to an associate degree credential. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Apprenticeship Guide 2017, which cites the PSI apprenticeship as a model, recommends apprenticeships, saying:

“Apprenticeship enables an employer to provide training and instruction according to an employer’s particular needs and to prepare employees for positions that are difficult to fill or will be vacated by retiring workers. It’s a way to transmit cultural and institutional knowledge from experienced workers and to develop employees who will be the mainstay of the future. Apprenticeship can provide employers with an additional source of talent and may increase employee retention and promote diversity.”

For Johnson, an apprenticeship proved invaluable for her and her family. “My motivation was to make sure I was never away from my family again,” Johnson says about the seven years she spent in prison and what motivated her to pursue a career in the maritime industry.

Johnson’s prison experience is not unusual. According to a 2015 analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy advocacy group, America houses “roughly the same number of people with criminal records as it does four-year college graduates.” In fact, according to the Center, the “number of Americans with criminal records today is larger than the entire U.S. population in 1900.”

With her children grown and prison behind her, Johnson says her motivation now is to achieve. Having worked at PSI for 13 years, she plans to seek a management position and in May expects to complete a bachelor’s degree in construction management at Rowan University. “I am never satisfied. I think there is always something more to learn,” she says.