Bath Iron Works Expands Manufacturing Course to CMCC Auburn, Hires Graduates

Central Maine Community College in Auburn began offering the three-week Southern Maine Community College manufacturing technician course earlier this year, and the CMCC class has graduated 29 students so far, with 22 receiving job offers and graduates guaranteed interviews with Bath Iron Works. The program includes a $500 per week stipend payable after graduation to help offset living expenses while students attend classes full-time.

“A workforce partnership led by General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and the Maine Community College System is quietly reshaping Maine’s manufacturing pipeline with free training, guaranteed interviews, and a 93% retention rate,” a summary of the initiative states, and the partnership has produced hundreds of graduates now working at the Bath shipyard. The retention rate tied to this workforce partnership is reported at 93 percent, underscoring the program’s conversion of trainees into long-term hires.

The three-week manufacturing technician course was established eight years ago at SMCC’s Brunswick campus and is offered free to qualified applicants. “The 100th class at SMCC launches this month,” the program update says, marking a milestone for the original site even as the curriculum expands to CMCC in Auburn. Partners on the effort include Bath Iron Works, the Maine Community College System and Maine Quality Centers.

CMCC’s early cohorts already include local students such as Joshua Grant, a 2024 graduate of Edward Little High School in Auburn, who had been working in a grocery store before enrolling in the CMCC class. The course targets skills for welding, manufacturing and marine design and guarantees graduates an interview with BIW, positioning recent high school graduates and career-changers for opportunities at the Bath shipyard.

Financial support is explicit: “BIW pays a $500 per week stipend, receivable after graduation, to help offset living expenses while students attend classes full-time.” The training is described in partner materials as free to qualified applicants, and graduates can move directly into interviews with BIW hiring teams after completing the course.

Bath Iron Works supplements the short course with multiple workforce initiatives, including a longstanding four-year apprenticeship program, a Jobs for Maine Graduates professional development partnership, summer internships, internships connecting transitioning service members to training opportunities, the BIW Training Academy at Brunswick Landing, and a BIW Training Trailer program that began in 2023. BIW site materials also list BIW Hiring Events, Military & Veterans outreach, and the BIW Apprentice School among available pathways.

BIW’s broader economic footprint anchors the local impact: the shipyard supports 6,500 direct jobs in Maine, representing 12 percent of the state’s manufacturing workforce, and the company reports it has delivered over 425 ships since 1884 and more surface combatants than any other U.S. shipyard. With CMCC’s early hires and SMCC approaching its 100th class, the expanded training pathway is likely to remain a steady source of candidates for Bath’s shipbuilding workforce.