AVERY COOPER: This fall, some Pierce County high schoolers will take classes at the Port of Tacoma. They’ll be at a new skills center, focused on the maritime industry. N-W-P-B’s Lauren Gallup reports. 
LAUREN GALLUP: At an open house for incoming students at Maritime 253, Joseph Butler tells me he knows he wants to go into the trades after high school —
JOSEPH BUTLER: “With trades, it will always be, like, in use for life. Like, it can't get replaced by AI or anything else, so it's a good, uh, trade to have.”
GALLUP: He’s an incoming senior at Curtis High School. But this year, part of his school day will be spent in the Port of Tacoma, at Maritime 253. It’s a new skills center operated by Tacoma Public Schools.
Butler wants to be a crane operator at the port. That’s something he’ll learn more about this fall. 
Students will get high school and career and technical education credits through the program. They’ll learn about things like 3-D design, using autonomous vehicles and water quality testing — all useful for future careers in maritime.
In Tacoma, I’m Lauren Gallup.