Workforce Development Futures Alliance
Streamlining systems to serve the workforce needs of today, tomorrow, and beyond.
By optimizing alignment opportunities between life-chances and industry evolution, our goal is to maximize human potential while simultaneously strengthening local, regional, and global economies.
See the aerospace companies
- Aerospace and space companies in Washington
- AdAstra Talent Advisors, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Amazon Leo, Arka, Avalanche Energy, Avaliant, AWS, BlackSky, Blue Origin, Boeing, Crane Aerospace & Electronics, Firefly Aerospace, Gravitics, GravityLab, Hubble Network, Integrate, Interlune, Janicki Industries, Juno Propulsion, JX Crystals, Kapta Space, Karman Space & Defense, Kymeta, LiftPort, Microsoft Azure Orbital, New Frontier Aerospace, Orbital Robotics, Orbite, Pacific Aerospace, Portal Space Systems, PowerLight Technologies, Precursor SPC, Pulse, Radian Aerospace, RBC Signals, Reach Space Technologies, Relativity Space, Rocket Propulsion Systems, Sienna Technologies, Sophia Space, Space Exploration Engineering, Space Launch, Space Northwest, Space Valves, Starcloud, Starfish Space, Starlink, Stoke Space, The Rad Team, The Space Age, Wave Motion Launch, WiBotic, Xplore, Zeno Power
See all 34 colleges
- Seattle area
- Bellevue College, Cascadia College, Edmonds College, Highline College, Lake Washington Institute of Technology, North Seattle College, Renton Technical College, Seattle Central College, Shoreline Community College, South Seattle College
- Tacoma area
- Bates Technical College, Clover Park Technical College, Green River College, Pierce College Fort Steilacoom, Pierce College Puyallup, Tacoma Community College
- Bellingham
- Bellingham Technical College, Whatcom Community College
- Spokane
- Spokane Community College, Spokane Falls Community College
- Across the state
- Big Bend Community College (Moses Lake), Centralia College, Clark College (Vancouver), Columbia Basin College (Pasco), Everett Community College, Grays Harbor College (Aberdeen), Lower Columbia College (Longview), Olympic College (Bremerton), Peninsula College (Port Angeles), Skagit Valley College (Mount Vernon), South Puget Sound Community College (Olympia), Walla Walla Community College, Wenatchee Valley College, Yakima Valley College
All the pieces are already here
Few regions start with this much. Military bases, working shipyards, strong universities, investors and a deep bench of aerospace experience all sit in our corner of the country. Now we need the people and the plan to connect them.
Where the work happens
- Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM)Army and Air Force, southwest of Tacoma. More than $12.1 billion a year in regional output.
- Vigor ShipyardsShip repair and shipbuilding on the Seattle waterfront.
- Port of SeattleRuns Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Fishermen’s Terminal, and owns the city’s cruise terminals.
- Naval Base Kitsap, BangorA Navy submarine base on Hood Canal.
- Naval Base Kitsap, KeyportWhere the Navy tests and repairs undersea systems.
- Naval Air Station Whidbey IslandNavy aviation, north of Seattle.
- Yakima Training CenterArmy training lands in central Washington.
What surrounds them
- Talent
- Universities and tech talent that rank with the best in the world.
- Capital
- Early stage investment, close at hand.
- Manufacturing at scale
- Boeing’s long record of building aerospace and defense systems.
National security work is a bigger part of our economy than most people think
$12.1B+in regional economic output every year, from Joint Base Lewis-McChord alone.
Count the naval bases, the shipyards, their suppliers and the schools that train their workers, and the total climbs well past that.
Our story in one sentence:
The Pacific Northwest’s national security economy, anchored by Vigor, JBLM, Keyport, Bangor, and our educational infrastructure, drives billions in regional output and is inseparable from our innovation economy.
- It’s an economic fact
- This is about jobs, output and how competitive the region stays. It isn’t a political position.
- Everyone shares the upside
- Schools, investors and industry all gain when the defense technology sector is strong.
- The benefits reach well past defense
- The same innovation shows up in commercial shipping, clean energy, cybersecurity and aerospace.
And underneath it all is a goal everyone shares: safety and security for our region and our country.
Critical Collaboration
Ask industrial and tech employers what’s holding them back and you hear the same list: too few qualified workers, record demand, record lead times, tariffs, rising costs and slow government processes. The region has the resources. What it lacks is a way to coordinate them.
Our plan comes down to three moves.
Build the pipeline
Connect schools, training programs and veterans with the jobs employers need to fill.
Tell one story
Share the region’s economic story in plain language, carried by trusted local voices.
Focused Infrastructure
Give the region one group whose whole job is connecting the pieces: the PNW DefTech Council.
Five problems, and what we’ll do about each.
The numbers aren’t reaching the public
JBLM alone adds $12.1 billion a year to the regional economy, yet few people outside the industry ever hear it.
What we’ll do
- Publish a yearly regional economic impact report on JBLM, Keyport, Bangor and the wider supply chain, including the ripple effects on suppliers, housing and small businesses.
- Release it through chambers of commerce, port authorities and county economic development offices, so it lands as regional economic fact, not military messaging.
- Build a speakers bureau of civic, industry and economic leaders who take these numbers to city councils, workforce boards and university trustees.
Who leads: regional economic development leaders
Politics drowns out the opportunity
Defense work gets pulled into political fights, and the regional economic story gets lost along the way.
What we’ll do
- Talk about advanced manufacturing, maritime technology and national security innovation, not defense spending.
- Pair every story with a civilian use, such as commercial shipping, clean energy or cybersecurity.
- Ask trusted voices outside defense, such as university presidents, port CEOs and workforce leaders, to carry the message.
Who leads: communications teams and industry partners
The pool of qualified workers is shrinking
Employers need more skilled people at the very moment demand for hardware and platforms hits record highs.
What we’ll do
- Design apprenticeships and co-op programs with the prime contractors and their suppliers, so training matches real hiring needs.
- Create bridge programs for service members leaving JBLM that give credit for their military training.
- Grow dual enrollment and early college in K-12, so the pipeline starts long before anyone is job hunting.
- Run one shared labor demand dashboard, so employers, colleges and workforce boards plan from the same forecast.
Who leads: colleges and Department of Defense partners
Record demand, long lead times, tariffs and rising costs
Suppliers, and smaller ones most of all, are squeezed from every side.
What we’ll do
- Help smaller suppliers pool purchasing, tooling and facilities to bring down unit costs and lead times, following the Manufacturing Extension Partnership model.
- Push for faster state and local permitting and targeted incentives for suppliers that add capacity.
- Bring industry groups together to ask for predictable multiyear contracts in place of funding that resets every year, so suppliers can invest with confidence.
Who leads: industry associations
No single group owns regional coordination
Every piece is here, but each effort runs on its own, and most are underfunded.
What we’ll do
- Launch the PNW DefTech Council with universities, ports, prime contractors, workforce boards and civic leaders.
- Give the council three jobs from day one: run the labor dashboard, run the speakers bureau and lead joint funding requests to state, federal and philanthropic sources.
- Lead with workforce wins. They’re concrete and less political, and they build trust for the harder work that follows.
Who leads: a convening sponsor
We start with people and jobs
Workforce is the most concrete place to begin, and the least political. Early wins here earn the trust we need for the harder work on messaging and contracts.
Start early
Dual enrollment and early college in K-12, so students build real skills before they ever go job hunting.
Train alongside employers
Apprenticeships and co-ops designed with prime contractors and suppliers, so training leads to jobs that are actually open.
Bridge from service
Thousands of service members leave JBLM every year with technical skills. Bridge programs give credit for that training and shorten the road to a new job.
Careers here at home
Skilled work in advanced manufacturing and the maritime trades, with Northwest employers.
One shared forecast
A regional labor demand dashboard, so employers, colleges and workforce boards all train for the same needs.
One effort, different reasons to care
We talk with each group about what matters most to them.
- City and civic leaders
- Good jobs, a stronger tax base and training paths for the people you serve.
- Industry and suppliers
- A clear read on demand, steadier contracts and workforce partners you can count on.
- Community Colleges, Universities and workforce boards
- Career pathways, applied research funding and stronger enrollment.
- Residents and local media
- Real numbers and everyday economic impact, not strategy or geopolitics.
Our first 90 days
Four things we’ll get done first.
Name a convening sponsor
Secure a sponsor and confirm the founding members of the PNW DefTech Council.
Commission the first impact report
Use existing JBLM and Keyport data to show the region’s economic picture.
Pilot one apprenticeship cohort
Tie it to a named supplier with a real hiring need.
Get everyone on the same page
Share common messaging guidance with civic and industry spokespeople.
Aligned Frameworks
A short guide for partners and spokespeople, so the region’s story comes across as shared economic fact. We review it every quarter and update the numbers whenever a new impact report comes out.
Words that work
| Instead of | Say |
|---|---|
| Defense spending, military budget | Regional economic investment, national security economy |
| War machine, arms industry | Advanced manufacturing and maritime technology |
| Militarizing the region | Strengthening our innovation and industrial base |
| Pro-military stance | Shared civic and economic priority |
| Just for the Pentagon | Dual-use technology with commercial and civilian benefit |
When you speak
- Open with the economic fact and let the numbers set the frame.
- If a question turns political, bring it back: “Whatever one’s views on policy, the economic reality is…”
- Name at least one civilian benefit every time you mention defense.
- Whenever you can, let university, port and civic leaders carry the message.
- Close on the shared goal: “All the pieces are already here. We just need to put them together.”
Our founder knows this pipeline from both ends
Ferdinand Orbino is a veteran and a workforce development specialist who prepares people for the skilled jobs this region runs on.
He has made the move from military service to a civilian career himself, and his work keeps him close to the employers who do the hiring. As a former dean at South Seattle College, he has led and improved programs in automotive technology, aviation, heavy diesel, welding and maritime welding.
That work put him right next to the kind of partnerships WDFA wants to see across the region. In the college’s Classroom in a Shipyard program with Vigor, welding students earn their certification on a working shipyard. And in 2025 the college launched the nation’s first publicly offered airport ground support equipment program, built with the Port of Seattle.
“Part electrician, part coder, part mechanic.”
WDFA carries that thinking across the region: training built with employers, for jobs that are really there.
- Service
- U.S. military veteran
- Today
- Workforce Development Specialist
- Previously
- Dean, South Seattle College
- Professional development
- Workforce Deans Academy, Cohort 15
- Education
- University of Washington
What it means to work with a veteran-owned business
WDFA is founded and run by a veteran, and is certified by the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs as a Washington Veteran Owned Business. Certified businesses are easy for state agencies, prime contractors and the public to find.
5%of state agency purchasing is the share the Governor’s Office has asked agencies to spend with veteran and service member owned businesses.
- Easy to find
- Certified businesses are listed in WEBS, the state’s vendor system, where agencies look for vendors and track their goals.
- Who qualifies
- Washington businesses at least 51 percent owned by a veteran with a qualifying discharge, or by a current service member.
- Certification
- Free, and handled by the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs.