Career Coaches Help Ingalls Boost Workforce Recruitment in Jackson County

Stronger school-industry connections pay off for graduates and Gulf Coast employers

Having a trained workforce is critical for any business, yet finding and keeping employees can be a major challenge. That’s when career coaches can be a game-changer for industries such as Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi’s largest employer.

Last year, career coaches in Jackson County helped Ingalls organize a job fair for high school students who were graduating in December. All 25 who attended were hired on the spot and began the onboarding process that same day. Starting pay ranged from $17 to $21 an hour.

“Those 25 students could have easily been lumped in with thousands of people vying for jobs,” said David Fava, supervisor of the P3 Career Coach Initiative. “Instead, they had one-on-one sessions with representatives from Ingalls, and they learned that there were great career opportunities for them in their own backyard.”

The P3: Passion. Purpose. Paycheck. Career coach initiative is a school-industry partnership in Jackson County that uses career coaches to strengthen workforce development. Created through a local partnership of the Jackson County Economic Development Foundation, United Way for Jackson and George Counties and the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, P3 served as a model for the AccelerateMS initiative launched last year to extend the benefits of career coaching to school districts throughout Mississippi.

In addition to helping students find post-graduation career paths, P3 coaches are helping Ingalls Shipbuilding, Chevron and other employers build inroads into local high schools to raise awareness about careers. 

With a workforce of more than 11,000, Ingalls is continuously recruiting and hiring employees to support its operations.

“We hire thousands of people each year to keep up with growing customer demands and replace employees who retire,” said Fatina Brave, director of talent acquisition and workforce development for Ingalls Shipbuilding. “We have four generations working at our shipyard, and master shipbuilders often work up to 40 years.

“We want students to know they can have a great education and a great career in Jackson County, and people are more likely to stay at Ingalls if they already live in the area,” Brave said.

In addition to the job fair in December, P3 coaches helped organize a “Pizza and Possibilities” event that brought parents together with Ingalls employees to learn more about salaries, benefits and work culture. Parents also learned about tuition reimbursement should their children decide to go to college while employed at Ingalls.

“There is a sort of stigma around students wanting to go straight to work rather than to college,” Fava said. “There were employees at the table who started at the lowest level at Ingalls and are now at the highest levels. Parents also learned that what their kids were doing was part of a bigger picture. They are literally insuring the freedom of every American around the world.”

P3 coaches also support the Chevron Ambassador Program piloted last year in Jackson County high schools. The program allows Chevron employees to visit their former high schools to talk to students about the paths they followed into their current careers. 

“The Chevron Ambassador Program was created to generate meaningful interactions with students and grow our pool of diverse, local talent to meet future staffing needs in operations, maintenance, and engineering,” says Katarina Scott, Chevron’s external affairs representative and program supervisor. 

Thanks to P3, AccelerateMS and other career coaching initiatives, Mississippi employers are reaching the right students at the right time to connect them with stable, high-paying careers and opportunities for advancement. 

“All roads lead to a job,” Fava said. “Our goal is to get all students either enrolled in college, enlisted in the military or employed. Career coaching makes sure kids have a post-graduate plan, and it plays a vital role in the economic stability of our communities.” 

AccelerateMS serves the people and businesses of Mississippi by developing and deploying workforce strategies to connect individuals with transformative, high-paying careers. By leveraging resources and partnering with organizations that hold complementary missions, AccelerateMS effectuates positive change, creating sustained individual, community and statewide economic prosperity.