The Navy has given Delgado Community College a $10 million grant to help enhance its advanced manufacturing programs at the Avondale shipyard in suburban New Orleans.
Avondale, owned by Huntington Ingalls Industries, is scheduled to close in 2013 after two Navy ships currently under construction there are launched. But officials say the skills being taught are applicable not only to shipbuilding but to other industries, too.
Delgado Chancellor Monty Sullivan says the investment will have a major effect on the economic future of New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast.
Delgado has offered educational programs to train workers for the shipbuilding industry since the 1940s. During World War II, Delgado trained workers who built PT and Higgins boats for the Navy where Delgado's City Park campus now stands.