The Defense Industry Partnership

SKILLS GAP STUDY

DOWNLOAD THE FINAL SKILLS GAP STUDY (PDF FILE)

Introduction


Ninigret Partners has been hired to conduct the Skills Gap Study.  They have a long history of providing economic impact studies for the defense industry to the members of this Partnership and to the RIEDC, as well as a number of labor force and labor shed analysis studies in the southeastern New England area since its inception.  Different industries that have been studied by this group in the past include life sciences, biotech, green tech, biomanufacturing, marine bioscience, healthcare, and business, industrial and technology parks.
Background


The defense industry is one of RI’s most important economic sectors.  According to the 2009 RI Defense Industry Economic Study (prepared by Ninigret Partners) the defense industry represents more than $1.75 billion in economic activity in the Ocean State. It employs 16,000 people of which more than 6,000 are private sector employees. Its annual wages are well above statewide averages approaching $67,000 per year. Equally important is the role the defense sector plays in the state’s engineering and scientific workforce.  For example,

  • NUWC alone represents 14% of the state’s engineering and scientific workforce
  • Overall the defense industry represents 22% of the state’s engineering and scientific workforce

In Rhode Island the defense industry is most commonly associated with key OEMs such as Raytheon and Electric Boat as well as the naval facilities located on Aquidneck Island.  However, as the prior defense industry studies have shown – the defense industry is diverse crossing many sectors of the state’s private employment base.

This diversity presents a challenge for a defense industry skills gap analysis.  We have structured a methodology that will allow for a comprehensive picture of the skills development situation in the defense industry across all of its key segments. 

The goals of this analysis are to utilize existing information from former studies on the defense industry in RI and Southern New England, along with the RI Labor Market Information available, to then identify areas within the industry that need to be addressed.  Specifically, the study will identify the following:

  • The top five industry workforce challenges for the partnership and how each might be overcome
  • The top twenty-five occupational openings in the partnership
  • The hourly wage to be attained at entry level positions in the industry
  • The hard and soft skills of the entry level and incumbent workforce in the top twenty declining industries and occupations to skills needed to become employees and to work successfully in the defense industry
  • The occupations that have the greatest skill shortages within the industry and why
  • The top five barriers that employers face when looking to hire entry level workers in the defense industry
  • The existing training programs for all levels of entry within the defense industry, including those for entry-level and those leading to industry recognized degrees and certifications
  • The gaps in available training and help align curriculum and programs to industry demands

 
Methodology

  • After analyzing the existing defense industry’s economic impact on the state of RI and evaluating new market conditions, Ninigret Partners will begin working with the Technical Committee of the Partnership to conduct the skills gap study.  The methodology to conduct the skills gap assessment and provide answers to the questions outlined above consists of the following activities:
  • Formation of a Technical Committee of Human Resource executives to serve as a focus group on key defense industry staffing issues and provide input on findings as the study evolves;
  • Interviews with 7 to 10 major employers in the industry partnership to gain an in depth understanding of their skill requirements and hiring needs and their assessment of the labor market in RI as it relates to their needs;
  • Review of existing skill and occupational assessments for industries that overlap with the defense employers such as IT employees, advanced production and marine trades;
  • Review of existing employment opportunities collected from defense industry companies directly and supplemented as necessary from employment website searches;
  • Web-based survey of defense employers to understand the following:
  • perspective hiring needs by occupational type and associated skills in the future;
  • questions regarding which skill sets they find hardest to fill;
  • training programs presently utilized including both internal and external to prepare or enhance employee skills; 
  • Required certifications or demonstrated competencies required to work on different aspects of defense products; and
  • rating of barriers to finding and training required employees
  • Evaluation of existing training programs and opportunities in the state and region, including but not limited to the following:
  1. NUWC Educational Partnership Agreements
  2. State colleges and universities
  3. Apprenticeship Programs
  4. Mentorship Programs and Internship Opportunities/Partnerships

Because of the significant differences in the industry based on the type of product offered we anticipate needing to create a matrixed segmentation by major industry grouping and key employee occupations. In addition, the final product will provide clustering of occupations and skill sets across the segments to simplify the assessment and potential action steps to address the workforce development challenges. Finally we will structure a “supply-demand” analysis of key training needs and program capacity.

The results of this analysis will provide the Governor’s Workforce Development Board with a comprehensive skills assessment across all major segments of the defense industry.  Additionally, these results will be delivered and presented to the Advisory Committee of the Partnership and also to the Education Committee at their Workforce Development Workshop Series, to ensure the skills gap are prioritized in their policy analysis for improving the workforce development strategy for the state of RI.

DOWNLOAD THE FINAL SKILLS GAP STUDY REPORT (PDF FILE)

 

 

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