Thomas Nelson Community College has won the nation’s top workforce award for 2015 for its leadership of the Hampton Roads Marine Skilled Trades Training Program.

The program earned the Exemplary Program Award of the National Council for Workforce Education, the official council of the American Association of Community Colleges, which represents 1,100 associate degree granting institutions in the U.S.

Five community colleges partnered to train 388 workers as marine electricians, welders, painters and machinists. All but 6 percent of the students were hired for full time jobs at $32,000 with benefits after two to three weeks of training.

Thomas Nelson, Tidewater, Paul D. Camp, Rappahannock and Eastern Shore Community colleges, Newport News Shipbuilding, the SMART Center, and the Virginia Community College System collaborated in the partnership.

For a cost of only $250, area workers completed a two- to three-week “living lab” course. Training replicated the conditions, culture and technology students would face at the shipyard.

“These student-success results are compelling, by any measure,” said Dr. Deborah George Wright, vice president for workforce development at Thomas Nelson, who accepted the award on behalf of the HRMSTTP college-business collaborative.

“The NCWE award is a powerful validation of the strength of the Hampton Roads region’s community colleges and the quality and depth of commitment of our industry partners. The program required an alliance beyond the Thomas Nelson service area to extend the training opportunity throughout the region, leveraging each college’s knowledge experts, resources and training capacity.”

“This is an exceptional example of college-business partnerships that work when we focus on a common goal of student success,” Thomas Nelson President John T. Dever said. “We prepare workers in the technical and soft skills employers need using business technical experts and our instructors who are experts in adult learning strategies. The result is better than either can do separately.”

“The MSTTP partnership of the Shipyard with five community colleges is a business-college high-skill training partnership at its best. Over five years, the program achieved a 94-percent hire rate for graduates and an average job 85 percent retention rate more than a year later, which is high by any standard.” said Bill Docalovich, Newport News Shipbuilding director of trades and services.