DANVILLE, Va. – The U.S. Navy broke ground on their 100,000 square foot Regional Training Center at the Institute of Advanced Learning and Research on Wednesday.
U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said the center will allow the military to be able to build submarines quicker than they have in the past, and it’ll have a positive impact on Danville’s economy.
“A pleasure for the United States Department of Defense to have confidence in Southern Virginia to put a national training center in the middle of this industrial park,” President of the Institute of Advanced Learning and Research Telly Tucker said.
The expansion will allow the center to graduate 800 to 1,000 students per year.
“Take advantage of the rich, talent workforce that exists here,” Del Toro said. “To be able to re-train them on the types of skillsets that we need in our submarine community in our shipbuilding community is extremely important to us.”
The center will offer multiple programs, everything from welding to 3D printing. Zander Russell is currently a student pursuing quality control inspection.
“I’ve always wanted to do my part in serving the Navy, military,” Russell said. “I’m not exactly a soldier by any means, but I always knew that I had had some part.”
The building is expected to be finished in 2025.
“To now be able to graduate even more graduates than we have before is really a breakthrough in my opinion,” Del Toro said. “It’s exactly the reason why we came to Danville.”