Counselors and CTE teachers along the Connecticut and Rhode Island coast have been steering seniors toward a paycheck that does not start with a tuition bill. The shipyard is treating it like a signing class.
The Campus Tour Is Not the Only Serious Option
In southeastern New England, senior year still usually means campus tours, FAFSA nights and acceptance emails. Career and technical teachers have been building a second path. They put kids in welding booths, CAD labs, and manufacturing pathways, then walk them into interviews with a company that builds nuclear submarines for the U.S. Navy.
That company is General Dynamics Electric Boat, with major yards in Groton, Connecticut, and Quonset Point, Rhode Island. For the Class of 2026, the pitch was blunt: graduate, start full-time in the trades, get paid training, and skip the first wave of college debt if that path fits. Vincent Squeglia, lead teacher in New Haven Public Schools’ manufacturing pathway, told WFSB that some students who planned on college were reconsidering once the offers landed. “They’re looking forward to that email telling them how much they’re going to make and when they can start. I’m so excited,” Squeglia said.
Sean Morrone, Electric Boat’s manager of workforce development, framed the same choice for NBC Connecticut: “They’re coming in to work with their hands. They’re not going to have debt going to college right away. They’re going to be coming in and making a really good living.”
Signing Day Looked Like Graduation on Purpose
In late May 2026, Electric Boat staged Signing Day ceremonies that borrowed the theater of athletics recruiting. At the Garde Arts Center in New London, Connecticut, families filled the seats while seniors walked the stage for certificates and commemorative hard hats. A parallel Rhode Island celebration landed at Cranston High School West.
CT Post / Hearst Connecticut Media described the New London night as resembling a graduation. Students shook hands with Electric Boat President Mark Rayha. The Sound School in Connecticut and E-Cubed Academy in Rhode Island each took Signing Day awards for sending the highest share of a graduating class into Electric Boat offers, according to the company’s EB Careers recap.
Months earlier, the pipeline was already visible in city classrooms. In March 2026, Electric Boat interviewed about 50 New Haven seniors from Hillhouse, Wilbur Cross, and the Sound School. City officials told the New Haven Independent that 46 walked out with on-the-spot offers. Mayor Justin Elicker put the room’s reaction in plain language: “Imagine, you walk into a room, you have an interview, and someone says, ‘You got a job.’ The feeling and confidence that gives to our young people is just beautiful.”
More Than 700 Seniors Said Yes
Electric Boat says more than 700 graduating high school seniors in the Class of 2026 accepted offers, including more than 300 for Groton and more than 400 for Quonset Point. CT Post, citing company figures, reported that the Connecticut high school hire count was about 75 percent higher than the year before.
Starting pay for new high school graduates sits around $24 an hour, according to company officials quoted by CT Post, or roughly $50,000 a year on a straight 40-hour week before overtime. Official job postings for Class of 2026 entry-level trades list a minimum of $24.00 an hour at Quonset Point and $24.28 an hour at Groton. WFSB reported that pay can climb past $40 an hour within five years.
Most of the new graduates land in trades: welding, shipfitting, electrical work, machining, pipefitting, carpentry, painting. Paid training follows. Wilbur Cross senior Caden Pagan told CT Post he was headed into a six-week welding-license program after switching away from a Navy enlistment plan once Electric Boat visited his school.
Schools Did the Prep Work for Years
The offers came fast. The prep work in those schools took years.
New Haven’s manufacturing pathway had been running for four years by spring 2026, pairing mentorship, industry certification, and hands-on time on welders, CNC, metrology, and CAD. Squeglia told the New Haven Independent the point was choice, not a single track: “They have a choice when they graduate whether to take a job or maybe go to UConn, do engineering, stuff like that.” Hillhouse senior Arrianna Jones, one of the pathway’s first women graduates, left an Electric Boat interview with a roughly $23-an-hour pipeline draftsman offer and still weighed college acceptances alongside it.
CT Post reported that more than 50 Connecticut schools, plus a few each in New York and Rhode Island, fed the Groton Class of 2026 cohort. Norwich Free Academy alone sent nearly 40 hires. Recruiters have also pushed inland toward New Haven and Hartford. When a defense employer shows up with same-day offers, the districts that already built manufacturing pathways collect the wins.
Why the Shipyard Is Hiring This Hard
The shipyard needs a lot of people, fast.
Company leaders have said they aim to hire about 8,000 people in 2026, more than double the prior year’s haul, with thousands of those roles in Connecticut. High school trades hires are one slice of that push. CT Post charted the recent climb in high school intakes alone: 77 in 2022, 269 in 2023, 389 in 2024, 401 in 2025, and about 700 in 2026.
Rayha told the Signing Day crowd the company is working through more than $40 billion in backlog, with 15 Virginia-class attack submarines and five Columbia-class ballistic-missile boats in process. “The work that you’re starting to do now will carry you close to halfway through your career, into the ’40s,” he said. Morrone told NBC Connecticut the growth runway for those hires stretches “the next 20 to 30 years.”
What This Means for Schools
For classroom teachers, the useful piece is the school-side infrastructure. Pathway labs, teacher nominations for trade awards, counselor buy-in, and a district willing to host on-campus interviews turned a workforce shortage into senior-year options. Some students still choose college. Some take the yard. The districts that built both doors are the ones collecting applause on Signing Day.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Class of 2026 high school seniors did Electric Boat hire?
Company and local reporting put the total above 700, including more than 300 for the Groton, Connecticut, shipyard and more than 400 for Quonset Point in Rhode Island. CT Post and EB Careers both use that split.
What do new Electric Boat high school hires get paid?
Company officials told CT Post new high school graduates can expect about $24 an hour, or roughly $50,000 a year before overtime on a standard 40-hour week. Public Class of 2026 trades postings list minimums of $24.00 an hour in Rhode Island and $24.28 an hour in Groton.