So, we’re creating one. Higher education will play a central role alongside leaders in the business, policy, and non-profit spaces— but universities cannot meet today’s ocean economy workforce needs through their traditional training model. A major course correction is needed, and two new federal policies point the way.
Setting the Tone
First, a crisis in US shipbuilding underpins the President’s 2026 Maritime Action Plan (MAP), one pillar of which is dedicated to reforming workforce education and training. At the end of World War II, the US sailed ~7,000 ships; today we have ~290 —half the size of China’s Navy. The US now produces virtually none of the world’s ships, containers, or ship-to-shore cranes. China holds global market shares of 74%, 96%, and 80% in those categories, respectively. With 90% or more of global goods transported by sea, ceding this ground to a principal geopolitical adversary is not an option. The MAP’s workforce pillar accordingly envisions technical and community colleges, not universities, as the training locus for meeting this national security imperative.
Yet we do need universities involved in the larger ocean economy initiative. The MAP’s shipbuilding focus touches only ~5% of Florida’s ocean economy. Collectively, Florida’s ocean sectors represent ~6% of the state’s entire economy, accounting for almost $100 billion in annual output and over 900,000 jobs. In addition to shipbuilding, the tourism, transportation, fisheries, and flood control fields are also struggling to meet demand for high-quality talent. All these fields need white-collar as well as blue-collar personnel. Hence the need for universities to shape a major part of our ocean economy talent pipeline.
The second federal policy concerns new trends in employability for recent college graduates. Close to half do not earn a living wage; unemployment for this group runs 1.4 points above the general population; and about one-third of those who do find work are chronically underemployed. The demonstrated “American Dream” of children out-earning their parents has plummeted by half since the 1940s.
In response, the White House launched several workforce re-investment initiatives, including a unified “Talent Strategy” from the US Departments of Labor, Education, and Commerce. This revolutionary new strategy is supporting the creation of a holistic marketplace, the product of stitching together learners, trainers, and employers.
University Solutions
Viewed in tandem, both federal policies point to the same remedy: talent marketplaces for the full ocean economy. Our learners need to graduate with three capacities that universities are designed to cultivate: (1) technical readiness, (2) workplace fluency, and (3) a sense of purpose.
Each capacity supports the other: technical readiness leads to good jobs, workplace fluency leads to good careers, and a sense of purpose helps each person define “the good life” on their own terms. Helping learners advance on this nexus must be our central focus.
Unfortunately, US universities have lost credibility on these fronts. They can reclaim it by adopting four specific initiatives. First, offer students academic credit for work-based learning. Internships aren’t new, but last year 8.2 million US college students sought one and only 3.6 million received one. We need to at least double the number of quality, paid experiential learning opportunities—and quickly.
Second, offer students academic credit for developing transferable skills. Technical proficiency remains essential, but employers consistently report a more pressing need for communication, critical thinking, curiosity, integrity, and tenacity. When the largest employment gaps are for jobs that didn’t exist five years ago, universities must cultivate skills that will endure.
The data tells a different story: only 54% of employers rate recent college graduates as proficient in communication, 56% in critical thinking, and 31% in leadership. Almost 90% of employers report struggling to find workers with these skills. Even the co-founder of one of the world’s biggest artificial intelligence firms says human skills are now “more important than ever.” We need to match our transferable skills rhetoric with results—by teaching these skills in the classroom, in the context of course content.
Third, offer students academic credit for job searching. Students typically learn subject matter from professors and the job search from career professionals on the other side of campus. That divide needs to close.
Forging this connection should be straightforward. We need to devote classroom time for students to reflect on—and defend—how their course content supports their values, interests, and aptitudes. This critical reflection strengthens content knowledge and personal-professional identity, and allows students to directly connect their education to work—a question nearly every new graduate gets from a prospective employer.
Extended Support
Fourth, offer students career support for the duration of their careers. Our traditional student profile is young adults attending class full-time, and we act as though learning ends after four years.
Many universities offer “lifelong learning” programs, but these typically serve retirees seeking recreational edification. Given the rapid churning of our economy and the advent of the AI age, learners would benefit far more from ongoing, brief university upskilling and reskilling opportunities throughout their working lives. Our teaching mission—a social contract with American society as a whole—should not be limited by a learner’s age or enrollment status.
This is not a niche market. The population of unserved stopout learners is vast and growing. Some 40 million Americans recently started university coursework but stopped before earning their degrees. Elevating such massive numbers of Americans to a better employability status should be a central piece of the national education strategy.
Today’s US university-to-career system needs to move beyond the diploma as the proxy for workplace readiness. Higher education has a powerful opportunity to reclaim its role as the primary engine of the American Dream and to become a stronger force behind the emerging ocean economy. Fortunately, this is a solvable problem, and we have the needed tools to solve it. Intentional progress on all four fronts will create real, lasting change. It’s not rocket science. The barrier to growing the ocean economy isn’t complexity. It’s inertia.
This feature appeared in environment coastal & offshore (eco) magazine’s 2026 issue III. Read in the magazine here.
