At North Providence High School, students aren't just reading about boats, they're building them. The school's Marine Trades program, which puts teenagers in a lab and classroom constructing vessels from the keel up, has now landed on the radar of Rep. Gabe Amo's 2026 Blue Economy Tour.
A snippet on Rep. Gabe Amo's website says the Rhode Island Democrat continued that tour with a visit to the school's Marine Trades Program, alongside a stop at Polaris MEP's manufacturing operation. The snippet is brief, and fuller details of the visit were not available in the sources reviewed for this story.
From one class to three
The program is a Career and Technical Education pathway, and its roots go back several years. According to a 2018 report in The Valley Breeze, Marine Trades was North Providence's newest CTE program at the time and had received preliminary approval from the Rhode Island Department of Education that June.
The same report describes students building boats from scratch under instructor Kevin McKiernan. McKiernan joined the school in January 2017 after a career in boatbuilding and teaching marine systems at the IYRS School of Technology & Trades, and he helped grow the program from one class to three.
Industry ties came early. The program counted the Rhode Island Marine Trades Association among its partners, and the school was adopting the American Boat and Yacht Council's high school curriculum to give students industry-recognized credentials.
Engines, electrical and a $50,000 boost
A $50,000 grant from the Rhode Island Department of Education allowed the school to expand into marine systems. That instruction covers marine electrical, plumbing and propulsion, including gas and diesel engines and transmissions.
The pipeline starts well before high school. The report notes an after-school boatbuilding program at North Providence's two middle schools had 107 students participating.
Electric Boat and the road to a paycheck
Another partner is General Dynamics Electric Boat. A separate Valley Breeze piece on the Electric Boat partnership says students can take part in hands-on experiments and learn about the trades starting in elementary school, with programming at the elementary, middle and high school levels offered free.
By the end of the middle school program, students will have built an electric submersible capable of retrieving objects from underwater. The same account says students with talent and interest can be hired by Electric Boat right out of high school, and that there were 1,900 prospective hires in 2024 for the company's Quonset Point location, according to William Barber.
A wider Rhode Island push
North Providence isn't the only place steering Rhode Islanders toward the water-based workforce. The Community College of Rhode Island launched a welding training program with Senesco Marine and Polaris MEP, a free 14-week course for qualifying participants that graduates with an OSHA 10 General Industry credential.
The state's Department of Labor and Training describes a paid Pipeline Program meant to prepare underemployed and unemployed jobseekers for entry-level marine trades careers. Meanwhile, Rhode Island Commerce describes a maritime blue economy that integrates manufacturing and research.
