{"id":34044,"date":"2025-11-05T08:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T08:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/34044\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T08:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T08:33:10","slug":"a-marine-school-floated-to-close-labor-force-gulf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/34044\/","title":{"rendered":"A marine school floated to close labor force gulf"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tWritten by Alexander Luzula<\/a> on November 5, 2025<\/p>\n

\"www.miamitodaynews.com\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Advertisement\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

Over the last five years, Miami\u2019s maritime industry has felt a significant labor shortage that has yet to ease. At least part of the solution may come from the classroom.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Miami Today first reported on the issue, which saw high demand for skilled labor in the marine service industry, an issue affecting all industries during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Five years later, however, the gap between supply and demand for skilled marine workers has yet to close. Horacio Stuart Aguirre, chairman of the Miami River Commission, states that the ongoing shortage is the result of several factors, most notably the increasing technological standards of boats, the high cost of skilled labor, and the lack of awareness and accessible training for the marine service industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cA long, long time ago, the marine industry was not so complicated as it is today, and along the way technology crept into the marine industry, like it did to kitchen appliances, cars and whatnot, and the repair and maintenance and upkeep of a boat has become very technical, not like the old days where a hammer and a screwdriver in your pocket sufficed, and simple skills today only work on a wooden canoe,\u201d Mr. Aguirre said. \u201cThey don\u2019t work on any of the pleasure craft that you see on the river.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Mr. Aguirre, the skills to maintain a modern boat include a specialized focus on computer engineering, mathematics, physics and other subjects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boat of today is a technological wonder. What makes the boater happy to have his boat is all the design and technology that goes into the product today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Though the pandemic exacerbated the labor issue, Mr. Aguirre attests that it\u2019s an issue that\u2019s been building for over 10 years. He cited increased competition along the East Coast, an undereducated workforce, and high costs for labor and training, all of which make the situation more difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one time in South Florida, we owned the recreational boating industry, along with Fort Lauderdale,\u201d he said. \u201cIt never was predominant further north, and today it goes all the way up the East Coast and the West Coast, and a lot of it was because they were finding superbly well-trained marine tradespeople up along the coast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anil Akgun, chief financial officer of Miami\u2019s oldest shipyard, RMK Merrill-Stevens, cited similar concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fort Lauderdale area is becoming a very competitive area, because most of the boat manufacturers\u2019 offices and the brokers\u2019 offices, most of the workforce is looking at that area,\u201d Mr. Akgun said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue is also the workforce, trying to go to different areas,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the important thing is the new generation \u2013 what they will do, what they can find as an option, because most of the employees in this sector are old-school, so I think it\u2019s very critical, especially for marine building and marine repair, to have technical schools giving marine-related classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be able to see if there are people who have experience here related to that education- marine technologies, or naval engineers, because throughout the whole USA, there is a scarcity of shipbuilding knowledge and shipbuilding experience,\u201d Mr. Akgun said. \u201cOn the other hand, people on the labor side are looking in more competitive areas in other sectors for the wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, the River Commission is focused on helping resolve the issue through education. The commission is currently in talks with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to establish a vocational training program for the marine industry similar to the program at George T. Baker Aviation Technical College.<\/p>\n

School board member Danny Espino has been heavily involved in these discussions with the River Commission, working on not only expanding access to these programs but on working against the stigma of manual trades that he says is discouraging students from entering the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for too long society has convinced parents and students that a path to college is the only realistic opportunity to advance in our world today, while at the same time, trades are getting this negative stigma,\u201d said Mr. Espino.<\/p>\n

An advocate for career and technical education (CTE), Mr. Espino has been pushing for the development of this program and others like it during his three years on the school board.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s critical that we continue to advance CTE as early as we possibly can to let kids know these fields exist and here\u2019s how you can get involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Espino said he reached out to the River Commission to propose a naval engineering program, hoping to capitalize on the significant maritime industry in a coastal city such as Miami.<\/p>\n

Currently, the county\u2019s only option is the marine services program at Lindsay Hopkins Technical College, which provides students with 1,350 hours of experience. Mr. Espino said the board is working to develop apprenticeship programs for technical instruction and training in development, which would account for roughly 6,000 to 7,500 hours of experience, though he says the program, and access to it, is \u201climited\u201d and \u201conly the tip of the iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to working on allocating funding and resources, Mr. Espino says the greatest challenge is raising public awareness and fighting public perception regarding work in the marine trades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that our challenge is working against decades of negative stigma of getting your hands and your boots dirty, and letting people know this is what the industry is asking for, this is what the job is like, here\u2019s how we can help you do that and know that if you come through Miami-Dade County Public Schools, you\u2019re going to do that a fraction of the cost,\u201d said Mr. Espino.<\/p>\n

Currently, the River Commission\u2019s focus on resolving the issue is on finding partners and funding for this project in addition to the public schools, as well as assessing the current needs of Miami\u2019s maritime industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great industry and we need it to flourish, we need it to grow, we need it to take back the preeminent position it once had,\u201d said Mr. Aguirre, \u201cand to do that we need to create the schooling that these trades require.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Written by Alexander Luzula on November 5, 2025 Advertisement Over the last five years, Miami\u2019s maritime industry has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-34044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}