Mariners and future mariners in the region can look to Ballard as home to the newest and state-of-the-art seaman’s training after Seattle Maritime Academy’s Ballard campus opened a new facility last Thursday October 6.

The academy, which is a division of Seattle Central College, held a christening ceremony last week and maritime industry professionals, educators and Washington State dignitaries celebrated at the event.

"This building will provide important benefits to the maritime industry, a vital part of our regional economy," said Seattle Central President Sheila Edwards Lange, Ph.D. "We will be able to open doors to family-wage maritime jobs for more people in our community while creating a better-trained workforce for area companies and organizations."

Edwards Lange christened the new building in true maritime fashion by breaking a bottle of champagne against the entrance.

The new 24,000-square-foot facility located at 4455 Shilshole Ave. N.W. was built with state funds and inside the facility there are classrooms, a library, administrative offices and meeting spaces that look over the canal.

“This building is going to quadruple our space, giving us the ability to train more aspiring mariners for family wage jobs in the thriving maritime industry. This is an important step for us to start rebuilding the middle class in the Puget Sound,” said Sarah Scherer, Director/ Associate Dean of Seattle Maritime Academy.

The building was built to meet LEED Silver certification and features a green roof, which provides green space while lowing the building's energy consumption. Amid the classrooms is a new feature the academy has to offer: a simulation suite featuring full mission bridge and engine room simulators. The new simulators will be used in a training program through a partnership between the academy and Foss Maritime. They were paid for by a combination of state funds, money from Seattle Central College, money from the Department of Labor’s American Apprenticeship Grant and money from WSF. The simulators are not only offered to students but also to outside companies that will be able to rent time with the simulators to practice challenging scenarios.

"In order for the maritime industry to thrive, companies need qualified workers to fill vital positions. This building, with its specialized simulation labs, will better train our students for job openings created by impending retirements of many current mariners.”

The Maritime Academy Ballard Campus enrolls up to to 88 students a year. The program offers training for a spectrum of vital roles in numerous industries, including commercial fishing, deep-sea sailing, commercial and passenger transportation and the workboat industry.

Two examples of a training certificates are the Coast Guard-approved one-year Marine Deck Technology and Marine Engineering Technology certificate programs. Both of these programs provide a mixture of classroom education with hands-on training where students find themselves out at-sea through internship roles.

New simulator room at the Ballard Maritime Academy.

Among other speakers at the event were Washington State Representative Gael Tarleton, State Representative and Speaker, Frank Chopp, and King County Councilmember, Jeanne Kohl-Welles.

“This is another Seattle college success story. It is absolutely great. This project is extremely important…as we go forward as a community, as a city and as a region, we have to have a diverse economy, we can’t just be all service related or just building housing on political land – sorry about that political comment – its about the maritime industry and industrial jobs and that’s what it’s all about, it’s about the jobs for the working class,” said Chopp. He went one to say that he owes his upbringing to the maritime industry and that his father worked in the maritime industry for 40 years.

The Academy’s contributions to the community extend beyond Ballard and Seattle. According to a Washington state economic impact study, nearly 58,000 jobs and more than $15 billion is attributed to the maritime industry. Furthermore, according Seattle Office of Economic Development, the maritime industry provides more than 22,000. These jobs contribute to over $2.1 billion to the regional economy. Mariner job wages average around $70,000 a year.

Jeanne Kohl-Welles said she was happy to be at the ceremony because she also attended the grand opening for an adjacent building some 20 years ago.

“This academy is really important to be able to launch people into well paying jobs in a especially important industry for our state of Washington, not solely for Seattle or solely for King County,” said Kohl-Welles.

For more information visit us online at www.seattlecentral.edu.