Carol Johnson, Southern Indiana Business Report
ODON – Leaders from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, Purdue Research Foundation, Regional Opportunity Initiatives and the Uplands Science and Technology Foundation celebrated the official opening of NSWC’s new Workforce Development office Monday inside the WestGate Academy.
NSWC has a 15-year lease with the Purdue Research Foundation to occupy 14,000 square feet at WestGate. The space includes six classrooms and offices for Crane’s Small Business division.
“This is a huge investment in our people and that is what makes Crane go. This is ensuring we have a highly developed, professional workforce,” said Capt. Duncan McKay, commanding officer of Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division.
Capt. Duncan McKay, NSWC Crane commanding officer
NSWC Crane has 3,800 civilian employees – any of them can or will take part in workforce training or need the assistance of human resources. The Crane command dedicates more than $2 million annually for workforce development.
Heather Strange, Workforce Development branch manager, said Crane has for years used available spaces and conference rooms on base for training, but had no dedicated training facilities on base. In the past, Crane rented space as needed at WestGate to offer employee training. She said having leased space at WestGate will be more cost effective in the long run and because of security measures required for entering the Crane, bringing vendors or guests to WestGate will be much simple, she said.
The Workforce Development branch offers multiple trainings including logistics, on-boarding, business and computer skills, financial and retirement training.
Chad Pittman, chief executive of economic development for the Purdue Research Foundation, said Monday’s ribbon-cutting was significant for many reasons and wouldn’t have been possible without visionary leaders seeing the need for the WestGate Academy more than a decade ago.
He referenced that the partnership between Crane and WestGate is “the first of its kind” and thanked the members of the leadership team for their work and recalled the efforts of many at Crane who recognized the urgency to move and act.
Angie Lewis, Crane technical director, who recalled when the WestGate hub site was agriculture fields, said “it was no small feat” to see the project from its beginnings to becoming reality.
She thanked the many people involved in seeing the project through.
“This is a significant commitment and this is a Crane commitment to this community,” Lewis said. “Our critical mission can serve as a hub and economic igniter. This place allows all of us to drive synergy and outcomes that are warfighting focused, defense industry based and enhancing not only south central indiana, but to Indiana’s Crane mission.”
The investment in Crane employees, ultimately, benefits the warfighter, who depends on the work of bases like Crane to provide them the tools they need.
In one of the largest classrooms, one wall is covered in images of warships, aircraft and land vehicles – representing the technological contributions of Crane.
“This really depicts what we do and why we do what we do. This is a very special room to be in and especially as a new hire it sets them up so that when they leave here that what we do here is important,” Strange said.
Also speaking were Tina Peterson, president and CEO of ROI, and Bryant Niehoff, CEO of the Uplands Science & Technology Foundation.
The 64,000-square-foot WestGate Academy is the region hub of innovation and entrepreneurship connecting an ecosystem that spans from West Lafayette to Jasper and Indianapolis to Evansville and beyond.