Irving Shipbuilding is ramping up the hiring and training of tradespeople in preparation for the start of construction on the first Arctic offshore patrol ship in September.

A test piece for the first ship will begin next month and practice is already underway at the Nova Scotia Community College Akerley campus in Dartmouth.

Director of trades and technology, Jim Muzzerall says experienced welders and pipefitters are learning how to build ships in sections.

"With Irving staff we have developed modules here similar to what they would do," he said.

New hires will get the same training and by next year should be working inside the massive assembly hall that is four football fields long, built as part of the yard's $300 million modernization.

A new $28 million Dartmouth marine fabrication facility has also opened to cut the steel for every ship using the latest technology according to Irving's Frank Martin.

"Our goal here at the yard is to provide a safe, clean and organized working environment for the men so we can deliver a quality product to the Halifax fabrication facility," he said.

Trained in the Netherlands

Veteran machinist Tracey Canning travelled from his home in Upper Musquodoboit to the Netherlands to learn how to operate the cutting machine that will be used to cut the steel for the ships.

"These are bigger than what I am used to and some are some of the first ones they have ever had in Canada," he said.

Some steel has already arrived and is awaiting processing. They just need the workforce.

A job fair will be held June 16 to recruit 250 skilled tradespeople in addition to recalled employees who've been laid off says Mary Keith with Irving Shipbuilding.

"We're looking for pipefitters, for welders,for iron workers as well as marine fabricators," she said. "We are going to hit peak in 2017 on the Arctic patrol ships at around a thousand people."

The federal government has committed to buying at least five of the offshore ships to be followed by much larger warships.

They have not yet been designed, but are projected to increase employment to 1,700 people.