Pennsylvania latest state to target aviation and aerospace careers for both economic and workforce development.
By Kathryn B. Creedy
A quiet revolution is underway across America, one that is developing K-Career pipelines for aspiring aviation and aerospace personnel. The revolution is driven by state and local government economic and workforce development officials partnering with local career and technical education (CTE), aviation education organizations and nonprofit STEM education programs to deliver curriculum to students. The goal is to leverage these burgeoning career-and-technical-education programs to ensure students are workforce ready when they graduate from high school.
Pennsylvania, like other states, wants to develop aviation hubs to serve the workforce needs of the growing uncrewed, airline and business aviation industries. The Pennsylvania program is driven by Aerium, a philanthropic 501(c)(3) organization established to be a catalyst for change in the aviation sector, focusing on education, workforce development, and creating career opportunities for students in Pennsylvania.
Aerium began as an initiative in the Southern Alleghenies region, uniting aerospace businesses, postsecondary institutions, elected officials, and economic and workforce development leaders to develop an ecosystem of innovation and workforce advancement. During its first statewide summits in 2023 and 2024, feedback from hundreds of key stakeholder attendees – educators, students, parents, business, higher education, government, and military – made it clear that Aerium’s success in the Johnstown area needed to be replicated in regions statewide to help meet the unprecedented aviation job demand and grow Pennsylvania’s aerospace economic footprint. It also provided a model for future industry workforce development; one that starts when kids begin exploring careers, which, according to school counselors, starts in kindergarten, and guides them through to their careers.
What’s Happening in Johnstown and Lehigh Valley
As part of its mission to drive workforce development and prepare students for careers in aviation and drone technology, Aerium donated $50,000 to the Greater Johnstown Career and Technical Center (CTC) and provided its aviation program with new equipment, training and scholarship funds. The donation represents a significant investment in regional students and toward the larger statewide goal of transforming the aviation education pipeline in Pennsylvania. The official check presentation took place on January 23 at GJCTC, when state and local leaders, educators, and students gathered to celebrate the launch of this public-private partnership committed to ensuring student achievement in career and technical education and to leading students and graduates to high-skill, high-wage employment.
“Today’s investment is about much more than equipment—it’s about laying the groundwork for Pennsylvania’s future as a national leader in aviation and drone technology,” said Aerium Chair Dr. Larry J. Nulton, the guiding force behind the initiative. “By providing students with access to cutting-edge tools and industry-relevant training, we’re not just preparing them for careers—we’re fostering innovation and economic growth for our state.”
Also on hand was Aerium Executive Director Glenn Ponas, who joined the company from this post at the AOPA Foundation’s High School STEM Curriculum, perhaps the most successful aviation career-and-technical-education program in the country. Ponas cited the importance of providing resources such as drones, flight simulators and curriculum but also of fostering career pathways for the future and addressing critical workforce gaps in emerging industries.
“Pennsylvania is diverse in geographic location types, with large rural, urban, and suburban populations,” said Ponas. “So, it’s critically important that Pennsylvania develop a ‘hub-and- spoke’ approach to aviation education that can support diverse regional needs. In the hub model, career and technology centers act as regional ‘hubs’ for accelerated learning with access to advanced technologies and pathways to direct job entry and postsecondary education. Sending schools and districts act as local ‘spokes’ that implement programs that motivate and academically prepare students for success at the regional CTC hubs.”
Aligning with the regional hub-and-spoke model, Aerium’s investment in GJCTC pays dividends to the six school districts – Westmont Hilltop, Conemaugh Township Area, Ferndale, Forest Hills, Richland, and Windber – who can opt to create their own aviation pathway preparation programs to prepare students to attend GJCTC.
The launch concluded with a demonstration of the new equipment in GJCTC’s state-of-the-art simulation lab. Students and educators showcased how the tools will be used to accelerate career preparation, including drone operations, simulator-based flight hours and readiness for FAA knowledge exams.
The GJCTC event is the first of several Aerium donation events across the state. Aerium supports multiple high school aviation programs through its role as an Educational Improvement Organization in the state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) Program. And it continues to work closely with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Career and Technical Centers across the state to revolutionize aviation CTE education. Recent successes include the statewide adoption of aviation Classification of Instructional Program Codes, Standard Occupation Classification Codes, High Priority Occupation Designation, and reasonable and rigorous teacher CTE certification standards for aviation programs.
In the Lehigh Valley, economic and workforce development offices, airports and educators created an aviation maintenance education hub by partnering with Aviation Institute of Maintenance.
“Just introducing teachers and students to the airport and the opportunities available for aviation careers was eye opening,” said Velocity R CEO Mark Cronin who headed up the development. “They had no idea these opportunities existed. They had no idea what training was needed to work at an airport, an airline or a maintenance repair and overhaul facility. The introduction to aviation we provided created an entirely new vision for the future of the workforce.”
The program teamed with Commonwealth Airways CEO Jon Potter, which is underwriting the airframe and powerplant instruction as well as planning to hire graduates.
Nationwide Trend
Aerium’s program leverages two national trends – the shift to career and technical education instead of college and state officials identifying aviation and aerospace as growth industries already experiencing workforce shortages.
I first noticed this trend in 2021 when I saw West Virginia developing pilot and aviation maintenance programs with Marshall University and local airports incorporating both pilot and aviation maintenance training. Recently, it expanded its program with satellite pilot training at Greenbrier Airport. Prior to these initiatives, the headlines for the state were about the economic misery as we shifted away from coal and the brain drain as students went out of state for college and never returned. West Virginia was an early adopter of aviation and aerospace development as a gateway to economic development.
Since then, teams in Colorado, Oklahoma, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Washington and Texas have gathered to create regional networks to provide the educational opportunities the industry needs. The Florida Atlantic Workforce Alliance (FAWA) gathered public schools, community colleges and the state’s CareerSource branches in the counties to expand the impact to include such resources as nonprofit STEM education organizations as well as space programs such as the DOD’s Spacebase Academy, a nationwide STEM education program for fifth graders.
One of the greatest needs is determining what workforce needs are as companies from every industry complain about the readiness of the workforce they hire. That was exactly the FAWA focus – aligning efforts to ensure the workforce pipeline meets talent demands in aviation/aerospace, Advanced Manufacturing and IT/Cybersecurity across the region. It invited employers/CEOs, educators, economic development professionals, and community stakeholders to develop the new workforce development initiative.
The lynchpin for changing education was to determine the training businesses along the Atlantic Coast needed so educators could develop the programs for the ultimate workforce readiness. The initiative developed a website for parents and students to explore careers in the focus areas including the pathways and education or training needed to join the workforce. It created a clear line of site from first interest to career.
Through the program Vero Beach-based Piper Aircraft developed a workforce training program in advanced manufacturing for unskilled workers, expanding the pipeline for its aviation manufacturing. Training and Development Manager Al Guzman discussed the benefits of hiring unskilled workers and paying them while they train, saying it delivers employee loyalty and dedication.
One of the problems identified by many of these initiatives is the lack of participation by aviation and aerospace companies. The Greater Johnstown initiative has aerospace companies and airports on board as does the Lehigh Valley initiative.
While Boeing developed its own curriculum – CorePlus – in Washington State and RTX works with the Boys and Girls Clubs of North America, they are the exception not the rule. When asked why the national aviation associations don’t create pipeline partnerships, the groups say they are working on their own pipelines. But when they do combine to support educational efforts, they are powerful as exemplified by the doubling of FAA’s Workforce Development Grants in the latest FAA reauthorization legislation.
At the launch of FAWA’s website, both Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin said their solutions to workforce included upskilling and reskilling. But the vast majority of hiring, observers say, is poaching each other’s employees. This does nothing to develop a new pipeline for future employees which is what these state-wide initiatives are designed to do.
There is also a general recognition that the industry is failing to promote its careers as evidenced by how far behind it is from other industries who have longed tapped the CTE route. I covered this in an article of the American School Counselor’s Association conference. The latest Aviation Technician Education Council’s pipeline report showed we are not filling and the seats available for Airframe & Powerplant training reflecting this failure.
State and local economic and workforce development efforts are changing the game for aviation and aerospace companies. We just need those companies to help expand the K-Career pipeline to solve the industry’s workforce shortages once and for all.
futureaviationaerospaceworkforce.com 